History the 1960s

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1. Describe popular culture in Britain at the beginning of the 1960s.

Popular culture is literally culture that is popular. Whether it is music, fashion, films or the mainstream attitude of society. It appeals mostly to the working class, as they are the largest of all social classes and are the ones who generally follow this social popular trend.

In the media, popular culture is mostly found in filmmaking and television as well as music.

In the early 1960s,culture was not dominated by the values of early to mid-‘50s. In fact, one could claim that the so-called ‘swinging sixties’ (the values and culture of the 1960s decade) really began in the late 1950s. For example, in the early 1950s children were expected to dress and act as their parents did. In the late ‘50s this changed drastically. In fact, teenagers still hold the rebellious attitude that teenagers in the ‘60s held.

In 1960 American artists and groups mostly dominated British pop music - though, later, Britain began to produce its own ‘copies’. Elvis ‘The King’ Presley was the most famous and most influential of all artists in the 1950s. The American wowed teenagers from the mid-1950s. By 1960, Elvis was a mainstream singer.

Another artist - Perry Como – was a singer of sentimental song and was very popular amongst the older generation.

Other British singers such as Billy Fury and Tommy Steele also copied Britain’s more successful copy of Elvis, Cliff Richard. Richard copied Elvis in both style and appearance.

By this time, (1950s) music had stagnated and dulled.

By 1960, teenagers wanted a radical change to the sound of the music. They were tired of the generic ‘boy meets girl’, maudlin sounds of the 1950s. Thus came about the new group, ‘the Quarrymen’. The group, later known as the Beatles, had a unique sound. Teenagers loved it. This was the music revolution. The great change in music culture began.

Television. Though a fairly new invention, in the 1950s its broadcasts were very conservative, in that it was more educational and informative. In the 1950s the BBC was the only channel. The BBC was a government-run corporation whose purpose was wholly to inform and educate. John Reith, the director general of the BBC, insisted that television should not be used to entertain. Pre-1955 T.V. programs were mostly of serious nature. The presenters were male, Oxbridge graduates. Their accents were posh London, not regional (e.g. Liverpool accents). ITV, the second television channel, changed media culture in the 1960s. Most programs focused on entertainment rather than education. ITV broadcasted shows such as ‘I love Lucy’, which were comedy shows. ‘Coronation Street’ – another new entertaining program – began broadcasting in 1960. One could say that it was revolutionary. For the first time in British television history northern, regional accents were heard. Another program, ‘Z-Cars’, gave a realistic perspective of a British policeman’s job. The program concentrated on the popular, romanticised view of the job and crime.

In the 1950s, three types of film dominated British cinema, none of which were based on real-life British stories. There were Hollywood blockbusters from the USA (Ben Hur and Cleopatra). Ealing Comedies – funny but quaint. Also, there were films that glorified British history (The Bridge over the River Kwai). Ealing Studios, a British film company based in Ealing, shot, what were known as, ‘Ealing Comedies’. These comedies were funny but picturesque. The films were not very successful and mainly appealed to the middle-class citizens as most of the films were based on middle-class life. In the 1950s, in general, the film industry was pretty weak in Britain.

In 1961, British directors began producing a new type of film. This was a revolution in films. The films being produced were more disturbing than any other films made before, in Britain. They commented on problems with society and working class, sometimes satirical of both of these. The films were more realistic than the Hollywood blockbusters and reflected the lives of the working class in contemporary UK. This was far more appealing to British people, as they could easily relate to it. A popular film from the 1960s was ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’. Films such as ‘Poor Cow’ addressed acute social problems. Films similar to ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ also revealed the many social problems and attitudes of the decade.

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Conclusively, it is clear that up until the end of the 1950s, the USA and the British ‘elite’ dominated popular culture. In the 1960s, Britain was beginning to have a more radical culture, targeting young people and the working class. This was done through T.V., cinema and music. For the first time the working class were shown on television and the cinema. The seeds of change had been sown and the old elitist (public-schooled) domination of popular culture was diminishing.

        

2. Why did groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have such an impact during the 1960s?

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