1. In all cases, arrests were made.
Until 1950s the term ‘teenager’ was not used. There wasn’t the gap between being a child and an adult that we find now. People were often moved out and married by the time they were 21 and had a job from the age of 14/15.
Teddy Boys were one of the first youth subcultures to develop. They dressed in what were known as ‘Edwardian’ clothing, hung around in gangs and listened to American rock and roll. Famously involved in Notting Hill Race Riots 1958.
In the early 1960s it is estimated that the 5 million UK teenagers spent £800 million in the UK economy. Mainly on clothes, cosmetics and entertainment. The targeting of young people by businesses which began in the late 1950s, really got going in the 1960s.
In a survey conducted in 1965, 11% of478 boys asked aged and 6% of 475 girls aged asked said they had had sexual intercourse. Maybe the changes had been exaggerated by the media…
Fashion designers like Mary Quant(with her London shop Bazaar), pop stars like The Beatles and football stars like George Best became icons in the eyes of young people.
During the 50s youth culture began to develop as film, music, TV shows and magazines were aimed at young people.
Rockers were a youth subculture that developed in the 1950s from the Teddy Boy culture. They rode motorbikes, listened to rock and roll music and wore leathers. They were the traditional rival of the Mods.
The mini-skirt was a huge new fashion in the 60s and was a break from traditional modesty for young women.
In 1955 British people bought 4 million records and by 1963 they bought 61 million. Much of this music was bought by young people.
American musicians like Elvis, along with film stars like Marlon Brando and James Dean influenced young people in Britain in terms of how they dressed, spoke and spent their free time.
In 1964 came the ‘Battle of Brighton Beach’ when around 3000 Mods and Rockers travelled to Brighton on the May bank holiday. A number of fights broke out, often using deckchairs as weapons, and it was widely reported in the newspapers. People called for conscription to be reintroduced and newspapers claimed the young people were out of control. Some newspapers even went so far as to call mods and rockers ‘vermin’.
There were also riots between mods and rockers at other seafronts like Clacton, Margate and Bournemouth.
In all cases, arrests were made.
The parents of young people often judged them against what they were doing when they were young; fighting a war. Many thought young people were acting irresponsibly, whilst the young people were sick of being told ‘I didn’t fight Hitler so you could...’
The Mod youth culture (short for modernists) grew in the early 1960s. They listened to new music that was often associated with immigrants like Ska, R&B and soul. They also listened to some of the new rebellious bands like The Who or the Rolling Stones. Traditional rivals of Mods. Rode scooters like the Lambretta.
As the economy began to recover from the war in the 1950s and rationing began to end, more consumer goods became available to buy so that young people could develop their own styles. There was also a labour shortage so it was not diffiuclt for young people to get a job.
Only about 4% of all births were to mothers aged in However, by 1975 this had risen to 10%; this is clear evidence that attitudes to sex had changed.
The Hippie movement grew in the mid 60s and came from USA. It was linked to the peace movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement and the campaign for nuclear disarmament. The famous Vietnam War demo happened June 1966, teenagers were involved and there were a number of arrests.
Education changed. By 1944 education was free to all up to age 14. There were three types of school young people could go to (known as a Triparite System), grammar schools, technical schools and secondary modern. At the end of primary school students took an 11+ exam to see if they could get a good enough score to be able to go to grammar schools.
After the 1964 general election victory, Labour instructed that all local authorities must prepare for the creation of comprehensive schools and the removal of the Triparite System. The consequence was more children got access to higher education and it prevented children who failed their 11-plus from feeling like second-class citizens.
Young people of the 1960s rebelled due to many things such as;
Political authority because politicians were being exposed in the 60s as not as trustworthy as they might have been seen before
Parents trying to control them
Boredom but with disposable income
Rivalry with other subcultures.
Because young people had disposable income, without responsibility for mortgages and children, they became a dream consumer group for businesses and they were relentlessly targeted.
It must be kept in mind that although all of these changes for teenagers took place, it was only a tiny fraction of teenagers who fought on Brighton Beach and many of the political protests were very peaceful, especially when compared to the protests that took place in the USA and France. Perhaps, although the way young people changed, the biggest change came in the way the media reacted to teenagers. Teenagers were often headline news and were a controversial topic to read about.
The contraceptive pill, which became available from 1961 to married women and 1967 to single women, was seen as something that helped spur a sexual revolution with young people experimenting sexually in greater numbers. Attitudes to sex differed hugely between younger generations and older.
It has been calculated that in 1959 teenagers had collectively £830million to spend and the majority of this went on records and record-players.