The 1970s 80s

The 70s and eighties
Postmodern design
The Movie: ET
David Bowie - Style Icon

The 1970s

The 1970s: Godfather movie - Coppola
President Nixon
The Punk Movement in New York
Saigon: End of the Vietnam War

Pop Art

Pop Art: Litchenstein and Bellow Left: David Hockney

The 60s

The 1960s: Vietnam, The Space race,
pop music - The Cream and Beatles Sgt. Pepper

The 1950s

The 1950s: The bomb and the Cold War
Sex goddesses like Marlyn Munroe
Icons like James Dean and film heroes
like John Wayne

The Eighties

Popular Culture: The Eighties

By Alex Brown

Contact:archinode@Yahoo.com

 
1.0                    INTRODUCTION

The decade opened up with a series of bitter regional wars: the Soviet Union fighting in Afghanistan, the Israelis invading Lebanon, the Iran-Iraq War, the British against the Argentinians in Falklands War, several guerrilla wars in Latin America (Nicaragua and El Salvador), and civil wars in Africa (Angola and Mozambique). Directly or indirectly several of these conflicts were the result of the continuing COLD WAR hostility between the Capitalist West and the Communist Soviet Bloc with each side supporting and financing one or the other of the warring sides in the conflicts.

This hostility between the Superpowers (Soviet Union and the USA) was increased when in 1979 Britain elected the radically conservative Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister and the USA elected Ronald Reagan as an equally conservative President. Both saw themselves as 'super‑patriots' whose main task was to defend the so‑called 'free world' against the Soviet Union. During this period arms spending on nuclear and conventional weapons increased dramatically in both East and West. This continued spending would have a considerable negative effect on the economies of both blocs later in the decade.

2.0             ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL EVENTS

Some of the economic and political characteristics of the Eighties as a decade can be summed up under the following headings:

1. Superpower rivalry across the world. Massive arms spending.

2. American display of power in Latin America as it helps suppress popular revolts against dictatorships.

3. Rise of the Asian 'dragons': Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore & South Korea as major economic forces.

4. Famine and civil war create human disasters in Africa. (Ethiopia in particular).

5. Economic inefficiency of the Communist systems leads to:

a)   China under Deng Xiaoping begins to open up its state‑controlled economy but retains complete political power.

b)  Soviet Union, under its new leader Gorbachev opens up its economy and loosens state control over all sectors including the mass media.

6. Islamic fundamentalism takes over Iran under the Ayatolla Khomeini in 1979 and takes up a hostile position against the West, particularly the USA.

7. By 1989 the Berlin Wall had been torn down and this signals the end of Communism in Europe and re‑unification of Germany.

8. Economic crises due to inefficiency and the cost of the arms race with the Americans causes the Soviet Union to break up into several different countries (ea. Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Tajikstan, Latvia, and so on) with Russia as still the major military power in Eastern Europe.

9. This period marks the END OF THE COLD WAR that had lasted for over 40 years.

10. World economic recession further affects poor Western economic & industrial performance in the face of competition from Asian countries.

11. In 1989 pro‑democracy student demonstrators in China are repressed by violent army action in Tianamen Square Beijing. Many are killed.

Generally one can describe the major economic changes during the Eighties in the following way:

i.) The West (USA and Western Europe): increasing economic difficulties, rising unemployment loss of their heavy industry sectors to foreign competition and reduced state spending leads to social tensions, riots in some cities and a more obvious split between social and economic classes.

ii.) Eastern Europe (including the Soviet Union): economic collapse at the end of the Cold War period leads to massive unemployment and increasing crime rate.

iii.) Asia: The standard of living of populations in the SE & East Asian countries rose as a result of their continued economic success. China, with its one billion population and open policy is seen as the major force in the future.


3.0 SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CHANGES IN THE EIGHTIES

Conservative policies and commercialism of the Seventies continue and expand into the Eighties. Any sense of idealism, social reform or the creation of a 'new society' had completely disappeared by the 1980s. In The West continued economic problems, loss of industries and unemployment take place in a new harsh atmosphere of commercial pressure and individualism which affects the social and cultural environments. The reality of the Eighties was the coexistence of two very different lifestyles and their media images:

a) Unemployed youngsters in ruined industrial cities. Urban riots, football hooliganism, alcohol and drugs, vandalised housing estates and high crime rates. The human desperation in cities were whole industrial had disappeared was treated as an unfortunate fact of economic life.

b) The executive lifestyle of the Yuppie stockbroker making money on the stock exchange. In the Sixties, Media attention had been directed at the Hippies.

In the Seventies it was the Punks. In the Eighties the key group for the media were the 'YUPPIES. ('Yuppies' = 'Young upwardly‑ mobile professionals").

For commercial reasons the teenage market was no longer seen as the most financially rewarding for producers of consumer goods and fashionable products.

These companies and the media in general concentrate on the growing number of young professional people in their mid‑twenties who have become financially successful and who now define the style of the Eighties.


4.0 MEDIA IMAGES OF THE DECADE

STATUS, STYLE and FASHION become the key media issues of the Eighties. The professions which are now seen to have social status are those concerned with the financial sector. E.g. banking, stock market and commodities. In some cases the Law is represented as another exiting Middle Class dramatic battlefield.

Television and the cinema now treated these areas as 'exciting' and dynamic and produce dramas out of the lives of those who work there. Making big money in the financial jungle was represented as 'thrilling' and especially if the main characters were 'ruthless'. (See Hollywood's film 'Wall Street' starring Michael Douglas).

The High Life was now regarded as an essential environment for any drama on TV or Cinema and if the ethical rules were bent slightly by the characters this made the drama more exciting. For the same reasons, TV in the Eighties produced such series as 'Dynasty', 'Dallas' and others of the same kind where MONEY and POWER were the main issues and where none of the characters had any real moral sense. The plots of these TV series can be simply stated:
 

Ruthless, beautiful, rich, unhappy people living in big houses with swimming pools and driving very expensive cars.

(The Porche sports car was the car of the Eighties and represented the essential Yuppie, executive lifestyle of Gucci shoes and Giorgio Armani suits).
 

Generally, the brutal reality of life in the devastated inner cities was represented only in police drama series were crime offered another source of excitement. The fact was that crime and urban riots of the new poor threatened the security of the Yuppie middle class and received a lot of media attention for that reason.

5.0 FASHION IN THE EIGHTIES

In the Eighties, Teenagers who had defined many of the styles of the previous two decades were a reduced percentage of the population as widespread birth control measures and the tendency to marry at a later age began to take effect. These factors plus the Yuppie image of expressing success through clothes and style began to show up in fashion design. Unlike the casual Sixties, or the mixed styles of the Seventies, the tendency in the Eighties was split between:

a) The more formal styles suitable for the 'RISING, YOUNG, WELL EDUCATED (RICH) EXECUTIVE'.

b) The tough, inexpensive, street level clothes suitable for 'ANGRY, YOUNG, UNDER‑EDUCATED, (POOR) UNEMPLOYED.

5.1 The Designer Label

The Eighties was the decade of the 'designer label'. If you were successful and you had to show it, then the thing to do was to wear obviously expensive designer branded goods: Armani, Gucci, Rolex, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, St Laurent, and, if you were really lucky ‑ the Porche car, and so on.

Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren targeted their clothes and accessories at this newly emerging group and became very successful in doing so. They spearheaded a 'Total Look' style of shopping was everything the Yuppie would need from underwear to overcoats came under one designer label.

5.2 The Designer Boutique:

Large department stores reorganised themselves to cater for this new way of fashion shopping splitting the store into specialised boutiques for each designer label. If you wanted a skirt or a shirt you did not search the whole store ‑ you went straight to the designer boutique of your choice. This meant that your wardrobe was fully co-ordinated in colour and style.

 
5.3 Sportswear:

The 'healthy lifestyle' required by the young executive meant that even sports goods had designer status. It was not enough to stay in shape ‑you had to look good while doing so. Reebok and Nike were the brands and in the Eighties trainer shoes became fashionable.

5.4 Power Dressing:

For women, the Eighties were the decade of 'power dressing' and for expressing their individuality and equality with men. FEMINISM became very influential across all sectors of Western society and this showed up in fashion as masculine‑styled business suits for women (with padded shoulders) and a much tougher semi‑Punk look for female rockstars (or partygoers). For Men, the decade demanded a much more 'caring and even 'beautiful' look. In the Eighties, male Sensitivity was IN ‑ Macho was OUT.

6.0 MUSIC IN THE EIGHTIES

On the 8th of December 1980 in New York, John Lennon is shot dead on the street outside his apartment building.

"What marked the early years of the decade was speed. Faces, styles and trends came and went at a bewildering rate." 'All this energy, this frivolity and this sheer, giddy fun set against a backdrop of recession and ever‑mounting youth unemployment"


The splitting up of musical styles which took place in the Seventies was even more noticeable in the Eighties. Bands, styles and performers of all different musical tastes came and went at great speed. No particular musical style within the Pop ‑ Rock area dominated the music scene. Some idea of this diversity is suggested below:


1. The New Romantics: In the early years of the Eighties the key element in the success of any group or performer was STYLE plus a really good music video. Some of these groups may not have been great but they gave the decade music to suit its superficial Yuppie style. For Instance: Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Depeche Mode, Boy George & Culture Club, Style Council, Spandau Ballet and (more sophisticated) ‑ Roxy Music with Brian Ferry. The term the 'NEW ROMANTICS' was used to define this smooth, light and stylish Pop music which threatened no one and went well with gin and tonic down at the wine bar.


2. The Supergroups: Yet amongst the bubblegum music there were several super groups active in the Eighties producing serious music such as Police (Dons Stand so Close to Me), Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody), U2 Joshua Tree), Dire Straits (Brothers in Arms), Genesis.


3. The Superstars: Without question the most successful performer of the 1980s as MICHAEL JACKSON whose brilliant 'Thriller' album sold a huge number of copies. His musical and visual talent dominated the decade. With his album 'Born in the USA', BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN celebrated the working class Rock music (with all its pain and desperation) that lay as a subculture under the smooth 'romantic' media image that dominated the decade.


4. Disco, Heavy Metal and Rap: If anything defines the general musical character of the Eighties it is Disco which became incredibly popular (different tunes are made to sound almost exactly the same). The Hard Rock of the Seventies was exaggerated to become Heavy Metal with such groups as Guns & Roses, Metallica & Iron Maiden. The really original sound of the Eighties was Black American Rap music out of the Inner City streets and Black ghettos. Note: Grandmaster Flash, Ice‑T, MC Hammer, PM Dawn.


5. MTV: By the Eighties it was almost impossible for a group to get a hit without backing it up with a promotional video. This became a Pop sub‑culture on its own to the point where Music Television (MTV) could broadcast 24 hours a day every day in some countries.


7.0 REALISM AND NOSTALGIA

All good things must come to an end and the Yuppie era really ended with the New York stock market crash of 1987. A lot of people had made a lot of money in the flashy Eighties and now some of them had lost it and gone bankrupt. At the same time the trivial and superficial quality of much of Eighties culture gave way to new and tragic realities taking place outside the Yuppie environments of stockbrokers office, the wine bar or the upmarket disco. Tragedies which could not be ignored:

1. The deprivation and poverty of the homeless poor who now took to the streets either to live in cardboard boxes.

2. Urban riots in depressed areas of Western cities.

3. Major increases in crime and its direct relationship to poverty and the inequalities of Eighties society.

4. The war and famine in Ethiopia and the news images coming through the media of that tragedy.


5. The growing Aids epidemic throughout the world.


8.0 MORE MAJOR EVENTS

The superficial response of the Eighties towards a not‑so‑nice‑world was RETRO. That is nostalgia or longing for a previous era. This presented itself as a return to the fashions of the Fifties and Sixties and as reissuing of the music of that period.

The Live Aid Concert: More thoughtful responses to tragic events were organized by Bob Geldorf of the group Boomtown Rats who put together the massive LIVE AID concert for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1985 and raised over 100 million dollars. The groups who gave their services free to the concert were the biggest and the best of the last two decades: Led Zepplin, Queen, The Who, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and many others.

The Chernobyl Disaster: in 1986 a massive nuclear explosion ripped open Soviet atomic power station spreading large amounts of radioactivity across Eastern Europe. The whole issue of environmental and ecological problems was emphasised by his event including the depletion of the ozone layer and the destruction of tropical forests.

The destruction of the American Challenger space shuttle with its seven crew members was amongst the other public disasters that ended the great Eighties Party. A sense of sober reality began to dominate the public mind as the Nineties started.

End

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The Seventies

Popular Culture: The Seventies

By Alex Brown

Contact:archinode@Yahoo.com

1.0 INTRODUCTION

There was no real cultural dividing line between the events of the late Sixties and those of the early 1970s. The same political and social forces were at work and provoked the same kind of responses in terms of street action, politics, music and other cultural activities. As the decade wore on, it became noticeable that a new conservative backlash began to emerge against the radical political and moral attitudes which had dominated the previous decade.

In the Sixties it had been the students and intellectuals who had held centre stage on the news media by challenging the war, outdated social conventions and conventional politics. IN THE SEVENTIES, however, the key issues became those which were important to the middle and working classes such as UNEMPLOYMENT AND CRIME IN THE CITIES. The political character of the 1970s in the USA and the West in general can be summed up in the following way:

1. CIVIL RIGHTS: Politically, in the United States the Sixties had seen a massive extension of Civil Rights and liberal political policies under President Kennedy and President Johnson.

2. THE CONSERVATIVE BACKLASH: The social upheavals of the Sixties in the USA and Europe plus the continuing war in Vietnam inevitably brought a demand from the majority of the population for a more controlled and conservative climate.

3. POLITICS: The conservative Richard Nixon was elected President of the United States in 1968. He was seen as the political voice of the 'working classes' (the so‑called 'silent majority') who had grown tired of continuing demonstrations, university riots, street crises, political shocks, assassinations and the war itself. The same political atmosphere now prevailed in Europe. By 1979 the UK had elected its most conservative government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A few months later the USA elected an equally conservative President ‑ Ronald Reagan.

4. THE VIETNAM WAR: In the USA it was the sons of the conservative working classes who were being killed in Vietnam with still no victory in sight. Nixon, in part, was elected on a promise to end this most unpopular of wars.

5. ECONOMIC CRISES: After the post‑war economic boom, Western countries began to suffer major economic problems which lead to a dramatic increase in unemployment.

These issues provide a background to the growing pessimism and disappointment which characterises the 1970s. The economic boom of the Sixties, its optimism and the possibility of creating a new and better world had finally disappeared. This sudden change of atmosphere was also reflected in the cultural world of films, music and theatre: the utopian (ideal) and romantic dreams of the Sixties gave way to the sober realism of the Seventies. It is necessary to look at some of these events in detail:

2.0 THE VIETNAM WAR CONTINUES……..

The Vietnam war remained the central political issue of the first three years of the decade:

1. President Nixon uses extreme military measures get America out with some degree of dignity and an acceptable political settlement. This includes massive bombing of North Vietnam and Laos and the bombing and invasion of Cambodia.

2. Anti‑war reaction at home becomes more extreme as the fighting spread into the adjacent countries of Cambodia and Laos. (Four students are shot dead in an anti‑war demonstration. Hundreds of colleges are closed down after student riots).

3. Nixon reduces the numbers of American troops in troops in Vietnam and meets the North Vietnamese at the conference table. Although fighting continues both sides recognise that the war is over and the US will withdraw.

4. In 1973 the last American troops leave Vietnam. In 1975 North Vietnamese troops take over the whole country.

The Vietnam War‑ focus of a decade of protest ‑ is finally over.

58,000 American servicemen had been killed during the war. Two million Vietnamese people had been killed and the country devastated.

3.0 NIXON FORCED TO RESIGN

One year after pulling America out of Vietnam, President Nixon is forced to resign in disgrace as President of the United States. He had been found guilty of using illegal means to spy on and harass his political opponents.

4.0 WESTERN ECONOMIES GO INTO RECESSION

Almost by surprise the booming Western economies of the 1950s & 1960s suddenly faced economic crises in the Seventies. The reasons for this and for the dramatic rise in unemployment can be outlined as follows:

1. Loss of world markets to Japan: By the 1970s Japan's industry had developed from a producer of cheap copies of Western products to being a world leader in high quality, well-priced consumer goods. The West now faced industrial competition for the first time and the basic problems of its industries began to show up.

2. Management‑union conflicts: Continuing strikes and labour disputes throughout the Sixties and Seventies pointed to a fundamental and long­ running conflict between management and labour in Western industries. This disrupted production and gave Western industries a reputation for unreliability. Japanese management techniques plus the Asian tendency towards consensus rather than conflict prevented these problems from arising in Japan.

3. Low investment in machinery & equipment: Apart from Germany, Western nations had not re‑invested in the machinery and tools needed for efficient production. Much of their plant was out of date compared to Japanese and German standards. Profits from industry had not been used to keep industries competitive.

4. A 500% increase in the price of oil by the oil‑producing countries in 1973. The Arab oil‑producing countries halted oil supplies to those countries which had supported Israel in the Arab‑Israeli War of 1973. They also raised the price of oil generally. Since many Western industries were based on cheap oil energy, this caused a major industrial‑economic crisis sending many Western countries into recession and leading to an increase in unemployment for the first time since the 1930s.

With rising unemployment, the focus of debate in the West changed from social policy, civil rights and the creation of a new ideal society to one of basic economic policy which would create jobs and get people back to work.

5.0 CULTURAL CHANGE IN THE SEVENTIES

The introduction and general availability of the contraceptive pill and the entrance of many more women into higher education in the Sixties and Seventies produced a definite change in the intellectual and social climate of the period. Part of this was the continuing development of the FEMINIST MOVEMENT. This analysed the character of Western society in terms of oppression of women (and minorities) as an effect of male political and psychological aggression.

The Seventies are not considered to be the most radical or creative decade of the Modern period. If one word sums up the feeling of the decade it is probably 'exhaustion'. The explosive energies of the Sixties, when almost every social convention or fashion was call into question and which produced a revolutionary musical environment had simply burned itself out.

In the Seventies the new styles in art, music and fashion which had caused shock in the Sixties became generally acceptable and commercially marketed. In this sense the Seventies did not really have its own unique style but merely exploited and commercialised the styles of the previous decade. We can outline the cultural character of the Seventies under the following headings:

5.1 Post‑Sixties Fashion

The fashions which had arisen in the Sixties amongst the students and popularised by the rock groups of the period became 'standard dress' in the Seventies.

a) For Men:

The early Sixties had still meant suits and ties. By the early Seventies this had become unfashionable and two trends had emerged: the super casual tee‑shirt and jeans (from the student radicals) OR wildly flared trousers and colourful shirts (from the Hippies and Black culture).

The Afro hairstyle of the Black radicals of the Sixties became fashionable amongst Caucasians of both sexes in the Seventies. So too did the long hair of the Hippies.

b) For Women:

The Sixties miniskirt remained fashionable but a more important development (influenced by the Feminist Movement) was ‑(surprise, surprise) ‑ tee shirt and jeans. By this time many women no longer felt the need to portray themselves as 'pretty dolls' but as equally effective members of society.

c) The Punk Style:

Later in the decade however, these styles were overtaken by the much TOUGHER leather and chains style of the British and New York PUNKS.

This was the only original fashion and musical style to emerge out of the Seventies and started in the UK as a reaction to the increasingly soft and 'glamorous' look of Rock fashion (and some of the music too). It also suited a decade where unemployment, poverty and disappointment had become general conditions amongst youth in the UK and the USA.

The torn jeans, dog collars, leather jackets and chains of the Punks and their spiky, 'mohawk' or short and coloured hairstyles were meant to provoke rage and shock amongst those who still believed in work & progress in the face of a deteriorating economic and social situation of empty factories, rusting machinery and unemployment queues.

This TOUGH, STREET‑SMART LOOK was particularly popular with an increasingly powerful and articulate group of feminist‑inclined women and was a style which finally allowed women to discard their pretty, soft and mindless 'dolly­bird' image. However, by the late Seventies any general dress code had disappeared and 'pick‑and‑mix' became the standard approach at street level.

5.2 Music

The music of plate Sixties ‑ filled with social comment and dreams of a 'new age' dissolved into disillusionment and the drug‑induced deaths of rock stars Jimmy Hendrix & Janis Joplin, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones), Rock no longer had a meaning beyond that of mere entertainment. Apart from the brief Punk period, the Rock 'MUSIC INDUSTRY' saw its primary purpose as making money not social or political comment. Music began to split into several different markets and also saw the rise of individual superstars such as Rod Stewart, Elton John & David Bowie and 'supergroups' such as Police, Kiss & ABBA. Some of the styles are outlined below with examples:

Soft Rock (Pop or Clam Rock): 'Easy listening' and appealing to all generations. Especially the new teeny‑loop (12‑14 year old market). Groups: AREA, the Osmonds, the Jackson Five, Bay City Rollers, Diana Ross, David Essex, etc.

Heavy Rock (Precedes Heavy Metal): Very loud, heavy, high profile lead guitar, very strong bass/drum outfit, Rhythm & Blues‑based music. Group: the one and only ‑LED ZEPPLIN.

Punk Violent musical reaction to glam /soft /sentimental styles in music/ politics and lifestyles. The sound is violent thrashing and almost tuneless plus driving energy. More than just a musical revolt ‑ one of lifestyle. Groups: The Sex Pistols, The Clash.

New Wave American Punk:‑cool & cynical: Groups: Blondie, Boomtown Rats.

Soul A very much smoothed out, slower & softer version of Black Rhythm & Blues. Performers: Stevie Wonder, the Stylistics. Synthesizers plus Pop beat ‑ essentially background music for discotheques. Same dance‑beat for entirely different songs. Performer: Donna Summer and others.

Disco By the end of the decade the scene had been set for synthesised Techno‑ pop and increasingly theatrical Heavy Metal groups.

5.3 Modern Art

Like the acceptance of radical social conventions and the new music of the Sixties, the Seventies saw the public acceptance of Modern Art (E.g. Abstract and Pop Art) to the point where any new and 'controversial' work of art had some significance no matter how trivial or 'SHOCKING' it was. It became clear that Art (like music) could not change society and that it was a commodity like any other product. The 'ART MARKET' (like the Music Industry) became subject to massive commercial pressures. Two art movements however did appear in the Seventies: Conceptual Art and Minimalism. In both cases the artist attempts to eliminate 'High Art' and give direct experience of a simple and familiar object. Yet even these 'anti‑art' experiments became absorbed by commercialism. That is, by MONEY AND ART AS AN INVESTMENT.

5.4 Post Modern Design

The Seventies saw a final rejection of the serious and idealistic views of design put forward in the Sixties. In the Sixties, design was seen to have a social purpose and the accepted design style for that purpose was MODERN DESIGN created in the 1920s as the so‑called Modern Movement.. This style saw design in terms of rational analysis of problems and the solution usually turned out to be a simple, geometric and smooth form. References to previous familiar, popular or historical styles were 'forbidden' in the name of a clear visual ORDER.

The Seventies rejected this approach of the Modern Movement as boring, inhumane and LACKING IN JOY and produced the Post‑Modern Design Movement which (like the 'pick‑and‑mix' street fashion styles) allowed the use of any and all possible forms in the solution of design problems. This could include previous historical styles and usually involved some SENSE OF HUMOUR in the design of objects or shocking colour schemes.

6.0 Technology

Four more moon landings by the Americans saw the end of the lunar landing programme in favour of a more commercial rather than scientific or political use of Space Technology. The Space Shuttle was designed at this time to put commercial satellites into orbit. As in all other areas of Seventies society, economics, money and commercial interest dominated the development of the Space Programme.

End

The Sixties

Popular Culture: The Sixties

By Alex Brown

Contact:archinode@Yahoo.com

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Without doubt, the 1960s can be seen as one of the most eventful decades of this century in political, social and cultural terms. During that decade there were major social, political and military crises together with radical changes in the cultural scene in Western Europe and the United States.

2.0 THE DECADE OF PROTEST

Several factors came together during that period to force cultural and political crisis on Western Countries:

1. The link between many of these crises was the Vietnam War (1961­1975) where the United States fought a savage and increasingly unpopular war against Communist forces in both North And South Vietnam.

2. The rise of a strong Black Civil Rights Movement Led by Martin Luther King against racial discrimination in America.

3. By the 1960s the standard of living of the American people had risen dramatically, but the conservative social attitudes and conventions had not changed very much from the 1940s/50s. Protest against the war and conservative politics became associated with a more self‑confident, radical and educated youth culture centred usually in the big universities. In Europe too the universities became the focal points for the protest movements.

4. A whole range of new and radical forms in art music, fashion, film and social conventions appeared in the early 1960s which clearly distinguishes that period from any other.

5. These new cultural styles were seen as a COMMENTARY ON, ALTERNATIVE TO ‑ AND A FORM OF PROTEST against the materialistic, conservative and outdated values of Western society in the early 1960s. Radical culture was seen as a way of exploding these values and bringing them into line with the new social and economic realities: consumer society and youth culture.

6. An important new analysis of society was that of FEMINISM which developed out of the anti‑war, civil rights protests of the Sixties which identified male aggression and dominance as central causes of social and military conflict.

3.0 POLITICAL AND MILITARY CRISES

Many of the military crises of the period were part of the Cold War hostility between the Capitalist and Communist worlds. While the USA and the Soviet Union could not fight each other directly with nuclear weapons, they provoked each other by using small third countries as their proxies (substitutes). In the USA, street demonstrations and political assassinations made this the most critical political decade since the American civil war in 1861. Some examples of these crises are given below:

1. Building of the Berlin Wall (1961)

The East Germany government builds a wall across the whole city. Concrete, barbed wire and machine gun posts seal off East Germany. Tension increases between East and West Europe.

2. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

The world was taken very close to the brink of a nuclear war when President Kennedy ordered the Russians to take their missiles out of Cuba. After a tense few days, the Russians agreed to withdraw them.

3. Assassination of President Kennedy (1963)

President Kennedy was assassinated while visiting Dallas, Texas.

4. Assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy (1968)

American Black Civil Rights leader is shot in Memphis. A few months later, Robert Kennedy, President Kennedy's brother is shot in Los Angeles.

5. Major anti‑war/civil Rights demonstrations world wide

From Washington, USA to London, to Tokyo, anti‑Vietnam war street demonstrations take place between students and police. The students also demand democratic 'participation' in running their universities. In many cases police are called to clear students out of university buildings which they had occupied and considerable violence occurs.

6. Russian Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia, a country inside the Communist bloc tries to produce more liberal and democratic policies. The Russians and other Communist states invade the country and re‑impose a dictatorship.

7. Student Revolt in Paris

Student demonstrations in Paris against university conditions (and influenced by American anti‑war protests) widen out into a general protest against French conservative politics and values. Supported by young workers, the students take over central Paris and battle with police. A general strike is called and the government is forced into crisis and finally offers concessions.

4.0 CULTURE IN THE SIXTIES: POP ART

The economic expansion of Western economies had produced the first real Consumer Society. This brought with it a dynamic advertising and marketing apparatus which produced the most powerful graphic images in order to stimulate sales. Along with TV and cinema production, a whole popular visual world was being consumed AND ENJOYED by the population. Radical artists compared the popularity of these images with the lack of interest shown in 'high art' and KULTURE. They sought to produce a truly popular art called POP ART. This style had several obvious sources:

1. Surrealism

The clash of familiar images in strange relationships (like dreams) had been developed as an art movement in the 1920s. The relationship between the subconscious mind, desire, psychology and advertising techniques had been known for some time before.

2. Television and advertising

The continual stream of powerful, creative images and techniques appealing directly to the unconscious mind in the advertising and media world (outside Art) offered source material for artists themselves.

3. The influence of 'Pop culture' (fashion, music)

The explosion of Pop ('popular') culture in the 1960s: Rock and Roll, cinema heroes, teen idols, 'flower power', pop fashion, record cover graphics, blurred the edges between 'serious' art and popular culture and lifestyle.

4. The 'need' to 'get to the public' with familiar images

Artists were aware that ART was no longer important or meaningful to the great mass of the population. If art had anything important to say, it had to appeal to the people with images which were familiar, drawn from ordinary life and from popular culture.

Pop Art is short for 'popular art'. When Andy Warhol paints Coca Cola bottles, Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s Soup tins and so on, he is using familiar subject matter. BUT, he changes their colour or multiplies their number to make them slightly strange or different. He offers an unusual experience with familiar objects. He is an artist. There are major similarities here with Surrealism.

5.0 MUSIC : ROCK 'N ROLL BECOMES ROCK

By 1958 in the United States the raw Rock 'n Roll sounds of the early Fifties had given way in many cases to soft, teen pop sentimental ballads.

By 1962, in Britain, however that early Rock 'n Roll plus original Black Rhythm and Blues sounds had been imported from the States and remixed into a very original, much 'harder' and explosive new music which re‑took America by storm. British groups dominated the American music industry. In particular the BEATLES, followed by the Rolling Stones, The Who and (later) Led Zepplin.

(This creative competition in Rock music between the UK and the USA continues to this day and has been extremely good for the development of the music).

By 1967, music and alternative culture were being influenced by the American 'Flower Power' ideas, style, poetry and philosophies of the Hippie Movement which started in San Francisco and by the protest songs of the Anti War Movement. "Peace and Love" being the Hippie slogan.

Influenced by Eastern philosophies (and in many cases, drugs), the tragedy of the Vietnam War, and a growing confidence in its own possibilities, Rock music became more complex and serious in style and content. The best example of this change new direction is the production of the Beatles' 'Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band' album of 1967.

Compared to previous Beatles' albums or anybody else’s, the production was so complex and adventurous in lyrics, music and production techniques that it became a milestone in rock history.

Even that most American of groups in terms of image ‑ the Beach Boys ‑whose harmonic California SURFING sounds had made them a top group, became influenced by the changes taking place in Sixties music generally and the Sgt. Pepper album in particular. Brian Wilson, the group's writer admitted that he was forced to completely re‑think his music when he heard the Beatles' new album. His creative response was to produce the brilliant track 'Good Vibrations"

Groups like Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, Mothers of Invention, Country Joe and the Fish, Cream and most particularly The Jimmy Henrix Experience together with the brilliant lyrics and more Folk/country style of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Crosby Stills and Nash produced a very sophisticated range of music that dramatically extended the boundaries of what Rock music could express.

In 1967 at the great rock concerts of Monterey and Woodstock half a million people celebrated and all the symbols of the 1960s alternative lifestyle came together: rock music, peace & love, long hair, drugs, flower power, multicoloured Kaftans, beads, anti‑war badges and painted faces. For that brief moment it seemed as if society had really changed..

Black Music: Although in the Fifties American Blacks had owned and run their own radio stations and record companies, they had been limited in their appeal to the Black community. In 1960, however, Berry Gordy, Jr. a Black car factory worker set up the Tamla‑Motown label in Detroit, the main car production city ‑ thus 'MO‑tor‑TOWN). He produced such stars as the Supremes, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, The Temptations and so on. (Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson of today are the descendants of that original MOTOWN sound.)

For the first time, Black artists were topping the charts in the USA and the UK and, again Black music (apart from R & B) had become very influential across the record‑buying world. The Supremes, (with Diana Ross), for instance had three gold discs in 1964 alone: 'Where Did Our Love Go?', 'Baby Love' & 'Come and See About Me'

Discotheques began to appear for the first time in the 1960s and the Black Motown sound was perfect for dancing and helped in the success of the company. Technically superb and with excellent artists and writers, Gordy's Motown had carved out a unique and powerful Black musical culture by the late Sixties which still continues.

6.0 FASHION AND STYLE

The link between music and fashion had now been well established. Together with the Beatles, the UK exported its fashion styles to the USA and elsewhere.

The 'Swinging London' of the early Sixties produced the mini‑skirt, high-top boots, pointed shoes, collar-less jackets and flared trousers, bright graphics, Mary Quant fashion, jewellery and cosmetics, fashion boutiques ‑ all with a clear visual connection to the Consumer Society and mass market style of Pop Art: bright, gaudy, eye‑catching, sometimes plastic, FUN, throwaway items.

By 1967, however, the Americans were again influencing fashion across in Europe with the ALTERNATIVE Hippie, Flower‑Power styles of flowing kaftans, Afro hair styles, bright flowered shirts, beads and mixed image clothing styles. This supposedly 'eastern' influenced style was the opposite to the bright 'plastic', consumerist styles of the British.

7.0 MAN ON THE MOON

Committed by Kennedy in the early Sixties to being first in the space-race against the Russians, and after a huge investment in money and skill, in 1969 the Americans landed on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong was the first human to put a footprint on the Lunar surface. As he was coming down the ladder from the lunar landau, Armstrong said these words, "One small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind".

8.0 CONCLUSION

With half a million soldiers committed in Vietnam and for all the demonstrations and protests the Vietnam War continued. In 1968 the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive against American positions in South Vietnam (the TET Offensive). Although the Americans defeated it, the shock of the attack made many more Americans realise that they could not win this war. This plus the grim fact that thousands of American soldiers were being killed made the war increasingly unpopular and costly.

Culturally, Western society absorbed the new social conventions thrown up during the Sixties. What had seemed radical and shocking in the early sixties became highly marketable and acceptable by the late Sixties: Rock Music, dress styles and a new more relaxed set of social conventions became part of the mainstream culture buy the beginning of the Seventies.

End