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8 Cards in this Set
- Front
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What were young people like growing up between 1945 and 1955? |
In the years 1945 - 1955, young people were growing up in a country still recovering from six years of war. Rationing was not lifted until 1954. Young people: -Often dressed in a similar way to their parents. -Mostly had the same set of pre-war values as their parents and grandparents. -Only had access to one TV channel (if their family had a TV which was still quite rare) -Listened to the same type of music as their parents. |
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What changes happened to teenagers in 1950s? |
From the mid-1950s onwards, changes began. Many people in Britain benefited from an improving standard of living. Unemployment was very low and wages were increasing faster than prices. This increasing prosperity meant that many young people had more money and more leisure time. They were able to buy fashionable goods and a new teenage culture began to develop. Teenagers began to: -Wear different clothes from to their parents. -Spend more time with their friends, meeting in coffee bars and listening to music, particularly 'rock and roll' from American stars such as Elvis Presley or Bill Haley. -Go to the cinema to watch new Hollywood films. -As a result, record sales and cinema attendance boomed. Some young men became known as teddy boys because of their distinctive way of dressing. Some teddy boys joined gangs and gained a reputation for trouble and violence. These groups, however, did not represent the majority of young men in 1950s Britain. |
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What changes in the lives of teenagers happened in the 1960s? (teenage products and TV/radio programmes) |
The 1960s was a controversial decade for teenagers. Change became more rapid, involved millions more young people, and was affect by several key factors. By the 1960s teenagers had more money and were able to spend more than their predecessors in the 1950s. Teenagers became consumers, and record labels, fashion houses and technology companies responded to the new teenage market with new products and advertising. -Radios became portable because of developments such as the transistor and better, more lightweight batteries. This meant that teenagers could listen to their favorite music with their friends rather than the rest of the family. -Similarly, record players became much cheaper in the 1960s meaning many teenagers could have one of their own. Consequently, the number of 'singles' sold by record companies jumped from 5 million in 1855 to 50 million in 1960. TV and radio producers began to produce programmes specifically for teenagers. Probably the most significant of these was "Ready, Steady Go!" and in many ways it summed up the new 'swinging sixties'. -The audience was made up of fashionable, good-looking teenagers. -The main presenter was an attractive teenager. -Popular bands played on the show, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. -The studio sets were changed each week and cameras were placed at unusual angles, unlike traditional programmes. |
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What changes in the lives of teenagers happened in the 1960s? (transport, music and fashion) |
In the early 1960s, teenagers were able to take advantage of improvements in public transport, particularly in cities, and scooters and bikes became much more affordable. As a consequence, many teenagers were able to travel more widely and meet up with their friends at fashionable places. The most significant development was the explosion of the music industry. In the 1940s and 1950s, music was dominated by big bands of musicians and geared around family listening. The 1960s changed all that. -Small bands of young men wrote songs for people their own age. -Groups such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones became instant superstars with millions of fans worldwide. -The lyrics and music were often rebellious and challenged traditional values - for example, The Rolling Stones sang about sex and drugs. -Huge concerts became fashionable and millions of teenagers watched their favorite groups on shows such as Juke Box Jury and Top of the Pops. -Pirate radio stations began broadcasting popular music in contrast to the traditional music still played by the BBC. The hugely popular Radio Caroline, for example, broadcast the latest records from a ship in the North Sea. When it was eventually closed down, the BBC revised their entire radio programming and, in 1967, launched Radio 1 to appeal to teenagers. As with music, the fashion industry of the 1960s broke with the past. -New young designers, such as Mary Quant, made informal, stylish and lightweight clothes for young people. Quant used young models such as Twiggy to show off her designs, and most notably introduced the 'mini' skirt. -The Kings Road and Carnaby Street became the capital of youth fashion for London and the rest of the world. -Photographers, such as David Bailey, and hairdressers, such as Vidal Sassoon, became celebrities who appealed to 1960s youth culture. |
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How did teenagers rebel in the 1960s? |
The 1960s break with the past brought new attitudes to sex and traditional figures of authority. TV shows such as "That Was The Week That Was" challenged traditional institutions, such as government and church, with satirical comedy in a way never seen before. New publications, such as "Private Eye" which was launched in 1962, poked fun at authority figures. The 1961 stage production of "West Side Story" seemed to challenge traditional views about what was good behaviour, despite the fact that it was based on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Pop stars were regularly criticised for challenging traditional values. In 1966, John Lennon unintentionally upset many people in the USA when we was quoted in an interview as saying that The Beatles were now 'more popular than Jesus'. However upsetting for some, his point was the 1960s popular music was more influential than a declining Church. The 1960s is widely seen as a period of sexual revolution. However, evidence from researchers of the period, such as Michael Schofield, shows that teenagers were not as sexually active as is suggested. Rebellion for most teenagers in the 1960s was little more than staying out a little longer than they should or listening to music their parents didn't like. Occasionally rebellion turned into violence, as in 1964 when teenage groups of 'Mods' and 'Rockers' clashed in some British seaside resorts. The press printed hysterical headlines at the time, but recent evidence suggests that there was very little actual violence and generally a lot of chasing around on scooters! |
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What changes were made to education during the 1960s? |
In the 1960s secondary schools were either grammar schools or secondary modern schools. To get a place in grammar school, children had to pass a test called the 11-plus. Once at a grammar school, most pupils went on to university and well paid jobs. Those who failed the 11-plus went to a secondary modern school, left school at fourteen or fifteen, and entered a lower paid job. Supporters of grammar schools claimed that they helped open up opportunities for the brightest children, whatever their social background. Critics of the system claimed that virtually all children at grammar schools were from the middle classes since their parents could afford coaching to help their children to pass the 11-plus. They argued that the system increased the class divide rather than narrowed it. In 1965, the Labour Government published a document called 10/65 that forced local authorities to produce plans to abolish grammar and secondary modern schools and create new comprehensive schools that would admit all children from the local area, whatever their ability or background. Although there was plenty of resistance to the plans, particularly from Conservative-controlled local authorities, 1145 comprehensive schools had been opened by 1970. There is still much debate about the success of comprehensive schools, but by the end of the 1960s more children were staying on longer in education. |
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What changed were made to further education during the 1960s and 1970s? |
In 1939, only 50,000 young people studied beyond school. By 1970 there were nearly 400,000 young people in higher education. Both Labour and Conservative governments saw the need to create a better educated workforce and therefore created new universities and colleges.
-Thirteen new universities were built during the 1950s and 1960s. -32 new polytechnics were built for students wishing to study more vocational course in science and technology. -Art colleges were established to attract students from poorer middle-class and working-class backgrounds. -Grants (loans that did not need paying back) were introduced to pay living expenses for students from poor backgrounds. The Government also paid tuition fees. |
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How did students protests in the 1960s? |
In the 1960s there was a wave of protest in many countries, fueled by the civil rights and anti-war movements in the USA. Young people challenged traditional values and in different ways. Some simply opted out of society and became 'hippies'. Their culture centered on peace, love, communes and usually drugs. Others joined political campaigns, protest, marches, or took direct action. However, student protest in Britain was much less radical than that seen in France or the USA. Many teenagers also supported the peace movement, which dated back to the late 1950s, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Some students began to demonstrate against their own university: -In 1967, students at the London School of Economics (LSE) demonstrated about the appointment of a new director because he had worked in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and therefore was judged to be a supporter of white-only rule there. -There were sit-ins at Leicester and Essex universities and students at Hull occupied the university administrative centre in the protest at the 'crude qualification that led to money and materialism and poverty'. -There were anti-Vietnam War demonstrations outside the American Embassy in London in 1968. -However the majority of British students were not committed revolutionaries. According to a Leeds University poll, 86 percent of students found student politics boring. A nationwide poll found that 80 percent of students were happy with their conditions and treatment. |
