1. The Cultural Revolution
1950’s - 1960’s
LO:
To be able to explain the origins of youth
culture
To be able to explain the impact this had on
the youth of today

2. The Cultural Revolution
• What had just happened before the 1950’s?
• Britain was entering a period of increased freedom and
affluence
• Many of the old social cultural structures began to be
challenged, especially by the young
• What do you think changed and how might this have
changed the way in which the British lived?

3. The Cultural Revolution
▫ Rationing was coming to an end (officially ending in 1954)
▫ The American way of life had started to become key to the aspirations of
the British public (both culture and material goods) (deregulation of
broadcasting in 1954= introduction of Commercial TV)
▫ Increased availability of cheap colour magazines brought a proliferation
of advertising for luxury commodities, much of it originating in America
▫ A world wide economic boom (post-war regeneration schemes)
▫ After WWII Labour took over from the Conservatives introducing several
post war reforms.
▫ In 1951 Labour was defeated by the Conservatives. This change in
government marked a shift from state control to increased individual
freedom the Conservative election slogan promised to ’Set the People
Free’.
▫ Youth given more freedom through the deregulation and
commercialisation of society

4. America’s Influence
• Whether you lived in London, Glasgow, Cardiff or even
Wolverhampton, to be young in the mid-1950's usually meant that you
consumed almost anything that had 'made in America'
• American culture was viewed by some, as a symptom of cultural
degeneration
• However Hollywood movies, commercial T.V, glossy magazines and
consumer goods proved an instant hit with British consumers
• To the average Briton it offered a rich and desirable future.
• Cultural imperialism – Cultural imperialism is the practice of
promoting, distinguishing, separating, or artificially injecting
the culture of one society into another (America influence on
Britain post-war) -

5. The Cultural Revolution
• Massive increases in the production and availability of consumer
goods stimulated mass consumption.
• People expected to have goods such as televisions, refrigerators,
music systems and cars as a basic requirement. Before the war these
had been luxury items available only to the most privileged sections
of society.
• Car ownership rose by 250% between 1951 and 1961, and between
1955 and 1960 average weekly earnings rose by 34%, while the cost
of most technological consumer items fell in real terms. In the 1950s
consumers had more money to spend on goods, and more goods
from which to choose.

6. The Cultural Revolution
• By the 1960s consumption had become less connected with
utilitarian needs, and more to do with status and comfort (Maslows
Hierarchy of Needs)
• The era of the ‘lifestyle’ had begun, and specialist retailers began to
spring up, providing outlets where people could buy into a new
identity based around design or fashion.
• Teenagers became a recognised social group, and as they in turn
became more affluent, they demanded goods that could differentiate
them from the adult world and express their group identity.

7. The Cultural Revolution
• Manufacturers were only too happy to meet this
demand, products reflecting an increasing interest in
fashion and pop music, began to be developed and sold.
• As youth culture became more dominant, these attitudes
rapidly spread among other social groups, and for many
people their consumption choices began to underpin
their personal identity.

8. Social Mobility
• As a result of the state-funded education system, many children
from working class families had gone on to study at college and
university.
• Higher education, together with increased affluence, helped to
create an increase in social mobility, and with it a blurring of the old
class-based distinctions between High Culture and Mass Culture.
• Establishment values began to be questioned, and sometimes even
ridiculed, in television and radio shows, satirical magazines and
films.

9. Social Mobility
• Many of the cultural conventions that had seemed so enduring only
twenty years earlier began to crumble, and new cultural forms such as
cinema and pop music began to be treated with the same degree of
seriousness as High Culture.
• Pop design embraced the kitsch and throwaway in attempts to throw-off
the worthy restrictions of ‘good design’ and its modernist ideology. Pop
Art took mass media and everyday life as its subject matter, while
simultaneously fuelling advertising and fashion with its imagery
• Affluence, social mobility and the advent of the mass media, combined
with a government that placed individual freedom at the heart of its
agenda, had transformed British society.
• There was general feeling of optimism, but also a sense of uncertainty.
New freedoms and liberties had been gained, but as a result society had
become more fragmented and less predictable.

10. Hollywood Movies
• Rebel Without a Cause (1955 starring James Dean) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrmDwvIjE0
• The Wild One (1953 starring Marlon Brando) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUPh7XWoq7Q
• The Happy Days -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NxGO2lx-
A0

11. Quadrophenia
• Next lesson you will be watching Quadrophenia.
• In order to fully understand it you should find
the answers to the following questions:
• When was it made?
• What sub-cultures are represented in the film?
• What is the title of the film based on?