Britain in the 1960s History Coursework Assignment 1) Popular culture in the early 1960s was greatly influenced by the changing standards of the decade before. The 1950s was an era which saw Depression, wartime, make-do and sacrifice; but on the lighter and more innovative side there was the invention of cars, television, and rock and roll; as well as changes in fashion. Indeed, many aspects of the 1950s had formed the foundation of what is now known as 'the Swinging Sixties'. There was also the impact of America transforming popular culture in music. Rock and Roll had emerged from the USA and Elvis Presley was the famous singer idolised by teenagers who wanted their own type of music. The British version of Elvis was Cliff Richards who at first, trying to impersonate Elvis, had a rough image. But this did not appeal so he tried out a clean cut image. He starred in movies such as 'Summer Holiday' and one of his songs was 'Living Doll'. Because many people, especially parents, thought that the music was distasteful, pop music was only given limited time to be played on the BBC. Therefore, the music had to be played on 'pirate' radio stations devoted entirely to pop music. The most well known was 'Radio Caroline'. Of course, Cliff Richards was not the only famous singer in Britain. New bands with their own sounds, though still undoubtedly influenced by the USA, came in the form of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other bands. The Beatles acknowledged their own debt to American music, and especially to Chuck Berry. Whereas the other bands would not have come about if there wasn't rock and roll. The youths took their rebellion further by rejecting their parents' morals and standards. They showed this by growing their hair long and wearing clothes of psychedelic colours in order to look as different from their parents as possible. Flares and mini-skirts for girls were seen as very fashionable. Trends were mainly pioneered and popularized by pop stars and famous models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton, encouraging new designers to blend teenage trends with pop records. Foremost was designer Mary Quant who opened her first shop - Bazaar - in Kings Road, Chelsea. She created clothes which appealed to the younger generation by producing the first skirts to go above the knee in 1958 and reputing knickerboxers, gold chains,shoulder-strap bags and high 'kinky' leather boots. By 1962, she was in charge of a milllions-pounds-a year business. Television also played an important part in people's lives during the beginning of the 1960s. In the decade before it was an expensive novelty to have one and there were barely 100,000 sets in the land. But there was to be an colossal rise in the number of ownership. Television viewing was by then more entertaining with more stations and soap operas (so called because it was sponsored by soap powders). One of the earliest was
'Cornation Street' and its appeal was so huge that it provided a massive boost to the TV industry. Quiz shows such as 'Criss-Cross' and 'Double Your Money' also became increasingly popular. However, some of the best shows were American imports, like 'Pleyton Place' and 'Dr. Kildare'. Even sitting in front of the TV during dinner was an American idea. With the number of people watching TV, the number of cinemas was halved in the course of twenty years, as cinema attendances fell drastically. The movie industry would have to fight back. It did this by offering what the small screen ...
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'Cornation Street' and its appeal was so huge that it provided a massive boost to the TV industry. Quiz shows such as 'Criss-Cross' and 'Double Your Money' also became increasingly popular. However, some of the best shows were American imports, like 'Pleyton Place' and 'Dr. Kildare'. Even sitting in front of the TV during dinner was an American idea. With the number of people watching TV, the number of cinemas was halved in the course of twenty years, as cinema attendances fell drastically. The movie industry would have to fight back. It did this by offering what the small screen could not - sheer scale. British movies ranged from 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Oh! What a Lovely War' to James Bond adventures, Hammer horror films and 'Carry On' comedies produced by Ealing Studios. Yet sadly, Ealing Studios was in decline by that time and dominating the movie industry was Hollywood, USA. American-made 'epics' ranged from historical dramas such as 'Ben Hur', 'Spartacus', 'El Cid', 'Cleopatra', 'Dr. Zhivago' and 'Zulu', to war films like 'The Guns of Navarone', 'The Great Escape' and 'The Dirty Dozen', to lavishly-costumed musicals like 'My Fair Lady', 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Sound of Music'. The 1960s was a time which many laws were reformed. Whilst supporters of these reforms saw them as rightful extentions of liberty, opponents saw them as a disastrous "lowering of standards". One of the many reforms included the passing of a Betting and Gaming Act in 1960 which legalised bingo. This lead to enormous growth in the popularity of the only pastime to cater directly for the least "emancipated" section of the British society - middle-aged, working-class women. Many of the cinemas which were being closed, under the impact of television, found a new lease of life in bingo halls. The Act also legalised betting shops and by 1965 there were 15,000 of them. In 1963, casino gambling as legalised, encouraging more people to gamble as well as a boon to British growing international tourist trade. 2) Before the 1960s, it was Americans who had a predominant influence in the music industry. The stars like Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, the Comets, Little Richard, Chubby Checker simply confirmed a conquest long before even Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra became household names. But come 1960s, a new and distinctive band was formed in Liverpool, taking the music industry by storm and moving the focus of pop to Britain. And with the skilful backing of their young manager, Brian Epstein, they rose to become superstars before anyone had invented the word. They were the Beatles. Within their wake came other Liverpool bands such as 'the Searchers' and 'Gerry and the Pacemakers'. What really draw youths even in remote Suffolk villages was the loud and compelling beat and the exuberant presentation, although the lyrics were undistinguished - just a noisier form of traditional love songs. It was the Beatles who stood out though, and their success in the 1960s was overwhelming. Their records stormed the charts with a string of hits such as 'From Me To You' (which spent seven weeks at no.1), 'Love Me Do', 'Please Please Me', 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and many more. Rapidly, they won the ultimate prize of conventional showbusiness success, appearing at the London Palladium in October 1963. During November in the same year their single 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' sold more than one million copies in only three days. Not only that but they appeared before the royal family in Royal Variety Performance. A year later, they were voted Variety Club 'Show Business Personalities of the Year'. That year, their first film 'A Hard Day's Night' was given a royal premiere and in 1965 they were awarded the MBE in the Queen's Honours List. This gesture provoked rapture and outrage at the same time. Yet it was not just their songs which caught people's attention: their clothes, haircuts and irreverant behaviour shocked older generations, but this just made it more exciting for teenagers. Their lifestyles and attitudes were also different to other established entertainers such as Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard. Instead of taking to the pantomine and TV spectaculars, they followed their own path. In 1966 John Lennon fely obliged to apologise for his offhand remark that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. But the following year he did something which seemed almost sacrilegious to the conventionally-minded when he brought a Rolls-Royce, the ultimate status-symbol of the day, and had it painted in psychedelic, swirling patterns of brilliant colour. Shortly after that, the Beatles came under the influence of the Maharishi Mahesh Yoga, a self-styled "guru", who introduced them to transcental meditation. Many people then followed this cult. Parents who initially warmed to the "Liverpool lads" perphaps began to think that they had "gone all weird", but their 1967 LP, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, proved to be not only their most successful to date, but also a lasting influence on the direction and style of pop music generally. It also inspired a 1968 full-length cartoon film, Yellow Submarine. Youths those days had wanted to be different from their parents as possible, because they felt the lives of the older people dreadfully dull and restricted. While their parents wanted safe, quiet lives after the trauma of World War Two, teenagers began to want to be more shocking. They also blamed their parents for the outcome of the war and all the troubles in the society they were living in. The song lyrics below greatly sum up their dissatisfaction... I can't get no satisfaction I can't get no satisfaction 'Cause I've tried and I tried and I tried and I tried And I can't get no satisfaction When I'm driving in my car And a man comes on the radio And he's telling me more and more About some useless information That don't fire my imagination I can't get no satisfaction 'Satisfaction' was recorded by an up and coming group called The Rolling Stones and its lead singer, Mick Jagger, became a symbol of stylish rebelliousness. The Rolling Stones were different to The Beatles in many ways. Whilst the Beatles had a much more tamed and respectable image, The Rolling Stones preferred to shocked and this was part of their appeal to youths. In 1969 half a million people gathered in Hyde Park to hear the Stones play, in tribute to Brian Jones, their own guitarist, who had drown in a swimming pool. Another band which was produced in London was 'The Dave Clark Five'. There was a lot more which contributed to the success of these bands though. In fact, lots of it has to do with the relative affluence of teenagers at the time. After thirty years of rationing, war and depression, Britain had by the 1960s doubled its standards of living. To prove this was the great consumer boom. It was inevitable perphaps with the sudden access of unaccustomed wealth, youths would want to spend their money. This they did so by buying more music records amongst other things, creating a new market which was exploited by the entertainment industry, encouraging more and more teenagers to buy pop bands' records. The 1960s was also a time of comparative freedom of expression. Performers had new identities and their songs reflected the mood of youths who felt they must change the society. They also pioneered and popularized new clothes and hair-styles. More poigantly is the arrival of what an American writer called "youthquake". Although the word 'teenager' was invented in the 1950s in America, it had not passed into ordinary English until the 1960s and its significance has changed the society. What happened was before the war, youth was something that they wanted to get over with, so that they may be accepted as grown-ups as quickly as possible. But by the 1960s this had all changed. Youth was now a time to be enjoyed and prolonged as long as possible. People in their twenties and even thirties began to listen to pop music made by the Beatles and other bands, as well as follow teenage fashions - the two trends which showed most clearly that "youth" had arrived. In the words of a song by the Who: I hope I die before I get old. 3) It is true to say that in many ways, the 1960s was a decade of contradictions. This was due to the huge amount of change and reforms Britain was going through, leaving many unsure about the overall direction the changes were taking them. Yet many others thought it is for the better. Even before the decade was over people had called it the 'Swinging Sixties', though many thought that it had swrung too far. As the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said at the beginning of the '60s, there was a 'wind of change' blowing through Britain. Some acclaimed that it was an 'age of affluence' and it was in many respects. There was a widespread rise in the standard of living which continued from the 1950s as more people television sets, washing machines and motor cars.
