Also because more teenagers owned radios, a few radio stations were starting to appear aimed at the youth. In the beginning of the 60's there was only one radio station that young people wanted to listen to, Radio Luxembourg. It was not very good, the sound faded every minute or so but it was one of the first stations to play music which appealed to young people. There were very few television programmes that played the “new” music, the only shows that did were ones like "six. five special and "juke box.
jury" but these tended to appeal to older people. In 1964 Radio
Caroline came along, it was a pirate radio station that played
nothing but non-stop pop music. Young People loved Radio Caroline not only because it played pop music but because it seemed to be aimed specifically at them and not their parents, everything about it was different. Also it had a better broadcasting facility than Radio Luxembourg so for the very first time young people could listen to their music with a good quality of sound.
Television started to recognise the need for a music show appealing to younger people, ITV introduced "Ready, Steady ,Go" and the BBC started "Top of The Pops".Both were a success. However, most young people were watching Ready Steady Go. Young people loved to watch and listen to these programmes and stations because it gave them something to talk about with their friends. These stations and programmes helped the success of bands like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones because it played their music keeping them fresh in peoples heads which meant they were becoming increasingly known. Because of the increasing wealth, more people had televisions and radios so the more times they were played the more times the people heard the songs and this meant people wanted to buy them. This gave them a greater impact because more people heard there songs and could buy them if they liked them enough.
It wasn't just the stations that made the bands popular, it was also their appeal to young people. In the beginning of the 60's everything was changing and the market realised the potential of selling their products to young people. One reason the bands appealed to young people was because they were also young themselves and were growing up with the audience they were trying to attract, when many teenagers were rebelling it seemed as if the bands were with there songs and lyrics. Teenagers were rebelling and were finding more to rebel about. There was also a youth culture and for the first time youths were being listened to. Everything had changed, teenagers were given more freedom and had a better say. Tastes were changing -clothes weren't long and elegant anymore they were beginning to get shorter and brighter this was a form of teenage rebellion, but because there were so many people doing it adults couldn't do anything about it. This was a form of youth culture as well as the changes in music and dancing and teenagers attitudes. Bands had a major impact on the youth culture. Young people wanted to be them, they worshipped the bands, dressed like them even tried to be them. For instance boys all started to buy salmon pink guitars so that they looked like the Beatles, they got their hair cut and wore different clothes. Of course, there were people who choose to follow the Rolling Stones and wore more rock and roll type clothes. Because people wanted to be like the Beatles or The Rolling Stones this meant they had a huge impact in the world. This was when Beatle mania started.
Youth culture soon led to more teenage rebellion and youth protest. Teenagers were starting to question authority and the way the world worked. They started to experiment with drugs as
a form of rebellion and as a result of this they split into groups
such as mods (the Beatles) and rockers (the Rolling Stones) each standing for different things and having different trends. However, one major change was teenage attitudes, they started to argue and disagree more ,some started taking drugs, smoking and drinking.
Music also started changing, The Beatles innocent songs started to change with the changing youth, to songs about drugs and sex. The Rolling Stones changed from the Beatle imitation group they started off as, to hard-core rock and roll songs. The bands were changing with their audiences and this appealed to young people, it seemed as if the bands really understood them and were growing up with them. For instance, the Beatles started to
experiment with drugs and write songs about them, this encouraged teenagers doing the same thing to feel closer to the band, making the band more influential. This made the bands more popular and is why we still talk about them today.