The British “pop star”, Cliff Richard, was the “guy next door” type and many parents and adults had no problem with there daughters/ sons going to see him live. However music copied styles that were popular in the USA, in the forties and fifties using typical “boy meets girl” lyrics. Also the British film industry was dominated by the USA. Therefore though some changes, popular culture had not yet developed into an original and dynamic force.
- Groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had such a great impact during the 1960’s as they were just what the teenagers of the generation wanted, the Beatles were just what the Mods were looking for in a band, as Mods were also keen followers of fashions. Another reason was that teenagers were fed up of get recycled American bands and the Beatles had there own style and weren’t copying American artists like “pop stars” of the 1950’s did such as Cliff Richard. And some people believed that in a couple of there songs they encourage drug taking, in songs like “ Lucy in the sky with diamonds ” which the press took as meaning LSD was a good thing. However to this day John Lennon still insists that the song is about a picture his son drew in school.
For Rockers there were the Rolling Stones as Rockers also wanted to break away from society and so did the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones wrote songs about “sexual freedom” and “drugs” this is shown in their songs “satisfaction” and “brown sugar”. Also the Beatles changed with the teenagers of the era they changed from the clean-cut boys of 1963 and became the weird and wonderful followers of Maharishi, an Indian guru. The Rolling Stones also changed through the 1960’s they started as Beatles look-alikes, but soon changed and became a completely different style. Their lyrics, such as “Satisfaction” and “Brown Sugar”, were far more suggestive of the five members of the bands behaviour, especially the lead singer Mick Jagger, attracted a great deal of attention. This made them famous in a way the Beatles never could, which made them more popular in the eyes of their fans and much less popular in the eyes of there critics. Their private lives became much more public when Sunday newspapers began to publish colour supplements in 1964, Mick Jagger and his girlfriend Marianne Faithful were often featured.
The Rolling Stones and the Beatles were also popular in drug cultures. As they were the first celebrities to be in the press for taking drugs. In Britain there was now a big drug culture down to the openly spread availability of LSD as in 1965 and 1966 when it was easily accessible, as it was not illegal. The Government realised the importance of making it illegal in 1967 when many people were already addicted to it.
Also, television shows like “Ready, Steady, Go!” and “Top of the Pops” plus the radio made it much easier to British bands to become famous. Teenagers before that were always listening to late American arrivals.
3. Many people believed that the 1960’s were the best of times, alternatively many people believed it was when many things in society went wrong. I think there is such as difference in opinion as people who believed the 1960’s were the best of time were actually children during the 1960’s, the people who believe it is were many things in society went wrong were the parents in 1960’s. This because if you ask any parent what the best era was they would say the one when they were teenagers, however on the other hand if you asked a parent were many things in society went wrong they would say the era when there children were teenagers its just something that teenagers are oblivious to they don’t realise what is going on in the world until they go into to it for themselves this when they realise that things have gone wrong. If you asked my parents what the best decade was they would say the 1960’s as this is when they were teenagers. And if you asked them were it all went wrong they would say now. Alternatively if you asked any teenager would they like to go back to when there parents were younger they would say “no” as they have know got used to the technology of there generation and now the 1960’s to them is prehistoric.
