Theme 4 b 3 - Youth culture, 1955-79

Question 1

What was there at the end of WW2- as forces personnel returned home and family life re-established?

Answer 1

‘Baby boom’

Question 2

In Britain, how many births did the post- war period see per year compared to the early 1930s?

Answer 2

• Saw between 900,000- 1 million births per year!

COMPARED TO

• 700,000- 800,000 (early 1930s)

Question 3

What were there more of towards the end of the 1950s?

What were they called?

Answer 3

• More young people!
• ‘Baby boomers’

Question 4

Did many young people have jobs, what did they provide and what was it based on?

What had young people previously been influenced by before this new market emerged?

Answer 4

• Many had jobs and all provided a new market based on American influences in terms of films, music and clothing.
• Young people largely dresses like their parents, and listened to the same kind of music, often bland and non-threatening.

Question 5

What did the post-war period see the development of?

Answer 5

A distinct youth culture throughout the Western world, driven by distinctive clothing & music.

Question 6

Teenagers

When had previous generations tended to leave school, what did they do and why?

How did this change with the new generation of teenagers?

Answer 6

• Leave school at 14, go to work, often their income was needed to supplement that of their parents.
• School leaving age raised to 15 (1947), but many more stayed on to sit exams & from the 1960s onwards- go to university.

Question 7

Teenagers

When was the school leaving age raised to 15?

Answer 7

1947

Question 8

Teenagers

What had been introduced in 1948 & what did its peak take?

What happened in 1960 and what did this result in?

Answer 8

• 1948- National service/ conscription had been introduced- its peak took 160,000 boys every year for two years military service.
• 1960- As Britains military commitments lessened, this ended.

Question 9

Teenagers

What allowed teenagers to have time and money to spend of luxaries and waste as there parents might have called it?

Answer 9

Full employment & plentiful apprenticeships!

Question 10

Teenagers

What products were aimed at teenagers?

Answer 10

• The latest fashions/ gadgets such as transitor radios- effectively marketed to be seen as essential!
• Television shows aimed at teenagers, e.g. ‘Top of the Pops’ - beginning in January 1964, or at specific youth cultures such as ‘Ready Steady Go’- aimed at mods.

Question 11

Youth culture

As the baby boomers grew- they wanted a new identity from their parents.

• What were teenagers like in the 1950s?
• What was this replaced with?

Answer 11

• 1950s- teddy boy gangs, slicked back hair, Edwardian style suits, listened to rock ‘n’ roll.
• Replaced by rockers, leather jackets powerful motorbikes- listening tastes were largely white American based harder edged rock & rollers such as Eddie Cochran.

Question 12

Youth culture

What were the mods like?

What music did they listen to?

Answer 12

• Dressed in fashionable Italianate suits & riding sleek Vespa or Lambretta motor scooters from Italy.
• Listened to a new kind of musical import- largely black-inspired rhythm & blues from the USA.

Question 13

Youth culture

In the 1960s- what bands came u with their own black- inspired rhythm & blues?

Answer 13

• Beatles (based in Liverpool)
• Hollies (based in Manchester)

(Created the hugely successful British popular music which enveloped the world as the decade progressed!)

Question 14

Youth culture

As the 1960s progressed, what did the mods morphe into?

How did this further change in the 1970s?

Answer 14

• 1960s- skinheads- with short hair, braces and a working class arrogance, whos reggae and ska-inspired music often came from the Caribbean.
• 1970s- punks- torn clothing, chains and Mohican hairtyles.

Question 15

Youth culture

What did both cultures of the 1960s & 1970s see?

Answer 15

Involved a sort of minimalism- based on simplicity of style.

Question 16

Youth culture

What did skin heads often wear?

Answer 16

Abercrombie overcoats, Ben Sherman shirts & Doc Martin bovver boots.

Question 17

During the post-war period- what were many people afraid of?

What were Teddy Boys accused of?

Answer 17

• Afraid that young people- and particularly the cults which they belonged to, were associated with violence.
• They were accused of wrecking cinemas when films featuring rock ‘n’ roll hits such as Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ were shown.

Question 18

Young people & violence

What happened after May 1964?

Answer 18

• Gangs of mods & rockers desended on seaside resorts to commit acts of vandalism & fighting.
• There were 51 arrests in Margate & 76 in Brighton.

Question 19

Youth culture

What outbreaks were there which lasted into the 1980s and beyond?

Answer 19

Widespread outbreaks of football violence, particularly amongst skinheads!

Question 20

Despite the violence which occured amongst some of the young people- what were most young people like & what did they do?

Answer 20

• Most young people= not violent & wanted to ‘hang out’.
• Listened to music, went to the cinema & attended dances as their parents had.
• Listened & danced to different music & wore different clothes.
• Still joined the Scouting movement, attended youth clubs and did charity work.

Question 21

In 1945- what were the various scouting movements and how many members did they claim?

How did this change by 1970?

Answer 21

• 1945- Girl Guides, Cubs & Brownies- claimed around 470,000 members.
• 1970- after baby boom, risen to around 540,000.

Question 22

What two things did youth cults have in common?

Answer 22

• Their proponents wanted to be noticed, perhaps to shock their elders.
• They were explotited by successful business people who often created their styles & then marketed them very successfully.

Question 23

What did other teenagers become and what did they reject?

Answer 23

Became hippies or supported an alternative culture, often rejecting societal values of materialism.

Question 24

What did many commentators notice ?

What was this noted in?

Answer 24

• Generation gap & how different the younger generation seemed to be from their parents.
• Noted in songs such as Cat Stevens’ ‘Father and Son’ -which takes the form of dialogue beteern father & son.