The Sixties

Swinging sixties – hoogsad kuuekümnendad

There was nothing quite like before and nothing was ever the same again

The first generation without the memory of war, able to choose their own path (the path of protest and personal freedom)

The birth of youth culture teenagers during the 60ies youth fashion was created until the 60ies you had to look like your mother

Class structure started to crumble (huge political scandals in 1963 involving sex and spies), especially after Churchill’s death in 1965 the first time the public found out about immoral behaviour of an upper class person (an affair of the war minister and a call girl)

Music broke down class barriers  the Beatles were enjoyed by both working class people and upper society.  1964 there was a private underground radio station from a ship because BBC refused to play pop music all day  This was the first time when pop musicians made jokes about upper classes and after that BBC and newspapers started to do it too.  The Prime Minister Harold Wilson wanted to increase his popularity by giving The Beatles the MBE’s

New freedom: you can say what you want  riots and mass protest actions against racism, sexism, war)  a new generation of peace protesters:  against nuclear war  The Cold War (political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western and Eastern Bloc, arms race, space race)  Che Guevara’s face becomes a symbol

Black Civil Rights Rosa Parks – the mother of civil rights movement ( )

The First Age of Mass Media  Taking advantage of TV to promote oneself (J.F.Kennedy)  people were rated based on the image they created

Optimism - living standard drastically improved new materials and designs (plastic, nylon for colours), symbol: a plastic chair – new, cheap, fashionable consumer boom, the days of food rations were gone, hedonism – very untypical for the Brits ‘buy now, pay later’ vs ‘save up and buy later’ new household appliances gave people more free time, The Beatles had an effect on economy: the scales of merchancise, records; tourism boost: people came to Britain to see Liverpool Brits started to travel (spaghetti joke)

Sex revolution – introduction of baby pills

Art… … became hotshot – new ideas and creativity were encouraged, culture to the masses … mad creativity became mainstream, snobbism (fine art deco) was out

mixing up high and low culture Pop icons: Oh, Jeff...I Love You, Too...' (1964) by Roy Lichtenstein and 'Campbell's Soup I: Black Bean' (1968) by Andy Warhol

Hippies  hippies – the most influential youth movement of the 60ies (hip= "sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date")  a.k.a. „Flower Children“ ’San Francisco’ by Scott McKenzie: "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair" (written for a 1967 pop festival)

 the highest ideals peace and love  their style became more and more mainstream  interested in mysticism, sometimes chemically induced, they practised astrology and free love  dropped out of the society and dreamed about peace and love only which led to protests and the end of the decade, especially against the Vietnam War  ’make love not war’

THE DECADE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

Sources: Portfolio/Gallery/Drawings/Sixties-Forever/413672/ htm