Absolute Beginners...

The novel describes the rise of a bohemian, style-conscious youth culture, a culture that would become the Mod movement, as seen through the eyes of a nineteen year-old scooter riding teenager who freelances as a photographer. It also describes the fomenting racial tensions of the time in Notting Hill and the methods of commercial developers in the gentrification process that later swept large areas of London.

Originally the term mods was used to describe fans of modern jazz music, as opposed to the trads, fans of traditional jazz. After a while, the meaning was expanded beyond the musical tastes, eventually including other fashion and lifestyle elements associated with the original mods, such as continental clothes, scooters and to a lesser degree a taste for pop art, French Nouvelle Vague films and existentialist philosophy.