Popular culture and entertainment Flashcards
Impact of the cinema 1920s
Most popular medium of entertainment.
Working-class music hall stars such as Charlie Chaplin transferred the acts that had made them popular onto the big screen.
1920s the British film industry came under pressure from the much larger American industry based in Hollywood (in 1914 one-quarter of all films shown in Britain were made by British film companies, but just over a decade later, in 1925, this had fallen to 5 per cent).
1927 Cinematograph Films Act – 7.5% of the films shown had to be British, rising to 20% in 1935.
Throughout the 1920s, cinemas became more gentrified, ‘respectable’ places to visit. In the 1920s and 1930s hundreds of elaborate ‘picture palaces’ were built and attracted affluent middle-class audiences.
Impact of Cinema 1930s
1930s, 18 to 19 million cinema tickets were sold every week.
Opportunity for escapism from the mundane realities of life - Romances, thrillers, crime dramas and history pictures dominated. Some had clear social commentary which reflected the experiences of everyday life. The Pleasure Garden (1925)
1931 study showed that unemployed people tended to watch films on average 2.6 times a week, normally daytime showings because of the cheaper tickets.
In 1938 there were 978 million admissions to the cinema.
Films reflecting life issues
The Firstborn (1928) Issues such as the shame of an ‘illegitimate’ child would have been clearly familiar to a 1920s audience
The Great Game (1930) explored working life, ambition and the day-to-day experience of the modern urban world were also popular.
Love on Wheels (1932) during the courtship, the protagonist finds himself with a dream job in advertising, a highly aspirational role in an era of consumerism.
Impact of the cinema during WW2
Short-lived attempt to close cinemas in case of bombing, but popular demand kept them open, and as had a value in taking people’s minds off their problems.
Produced 500+ films during the war years.
Films which encouraged patriotism were popular
In Which We Serve and Laurence Olivier’s cinematic version of Henry V.
1940 Let George Do – one of the highest morale-raising boosts of the entire war.
The Ministry of Information also found cinemas useful to promote ideas such as how not to waste food via short films.
Impact of the cinema 1945-79
Ealing Comedies
1949 Passport to Pimlico - satirised harsh economic conditions and reflected popular dissatisfaction with post-war rationing.
Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953) - TV set that seems to be cursed is passed from owner to owner, causing chaos – discussed anxieties about how TV might change society.
War Films 1950s and 60s
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - The tragic ending mirrored the feelings that many British people had about the war, that it had perhaps been a noble but ultimately fruitless endeavour.
More patriotic war films included The Dam Busters (1955) and Sink the Bismarck (1960).
Spy Films
James Bond (1962) – reflected improving living standards – expensive cars, clothes, drinks and international travel – relate to as exciting spy dramas and as aspirational fantasies.
The Ipcress File (1965) – hero is a working-class Londoner, and he does not lead an exciting lifestyle and resents his upper-class bosses – represented egalitarian ideas, with a working-class character responsible for the security of the nation, often criticising upper-class superiors.
Social realism
1950s and 1960s -‘new wave’ produced dramas based on the everyday experiences of Britain’s working classes.
Look Back in Anger (1956) and Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey (1961) - told stories of the passions, desires and ambitions of everyday people.
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (1960) - protagonist is a working-class man who is resentful of his class status, materialistic and enjoys spending his weekly wages on smart clothes and drinking in the city’s pubs - represented the experience of mass consumption for many newly affluent working-class people in Britain.
Darker visions
1970s, as economic problems grew, film reflected changing quality of life, presenting dark visions of British society and fears of rising crime and ‘permissive society’
Get Carter (1971) - much darker and more pessimistic in tone than many other crime dramas of the 1960s. A relaxation in film censorship meant it could include scenes of drug abuse and prostitution. The film’s bleak portrayal of Britain as a seedy and corrupted place reflected popular concerns over the quality of life in the early 1970s.
A Clockwork Orange (1971) - a vision of a future Britain where gangs of violent young men kill and rape for enjoyment. Many found the graphic scenes of violence shocking. Violent crime had gradually increased throughout the 1960s and the film mirrored many popular anxieties about ‘hooliganism’ and lawlessness. Withdrawn from cinemas after several violent crimes were blamed on the film.
These darker visions of society reflected fears of a decline in the quality of life, but the reality for most people in Britain was that standards of living continued to rise throughout the 1970s.
Cinema in Decline 1970s
1970s - cinema went into a temporary decline, with soft porn comedy films such as Confessions of a Window Cleaner and TV series spin-offs such as On the Buses among its most popular productions.
There were few successful blockbusters. As funding drained, the industry’s most talented personnel either moved to the USA or switched to working in TV.
Impact of music 1918-45
1920s - Ivor Novello ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’ during WW1 which was still popular in 1918 - appealed to families who had a loved one stationed overseas, reflecting the fears of separation and wartime hardship - paid £15,000 by his record company (just over £1.5 million in today’s money)
Demonstrated to many other entertainers after the war that music could be immensely lucrative.
Jazz and swing
1930s - first major introduction of American music into Britain with the success of jazz and swing music.
About 20,000 dance bands in Britain by 1930 - shows immense popularity of the dance hall.
British dance bands were influenced by American jazz band leaders like Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
American artists came to Britain during the Second World War, and the US Army and Air Force and American Forces Radio (AFN) broadcast jazz and swing music across the UK.
The BBC, which had previously broadcast little music, created the Light Programme in 1945 to broadcast light entertainment and music. This ran as a station until 1967 when it was replaced by Radio 2.
Impact of music 1945-79
ROCK’N’ROLL - 1950s and early 1960s American performers like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry reinvented black blues music and popularised it for a youth audience, and the market for American records grew.
Skiffle was extremely popular - Lonnie Donegan (biggest selling British performer throughout the 1950s) 31 top-30 singles and three number ones by 1962.
New groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who replaced these and, from 1963 onwards, ‘invaded’ America, making British pop music world famous.
MODS - 1960s - close relationship with consumerism and fashion
Bands like the Who, the Kinks and the Small Faces attracted mainly working-class fans who spent their wages on acquiring the Mod ‘look’.
In music subcultures of the 1960s and 1970s consumerism, through rising living standards, played an integral part. Being able to buy the right clothes or accessories became as important to fan subcultures as the music itself.
GLAM ROCK - 1970s - music became a way of expressing and challenging ideas of gender identity.
Marc Bolan and David Bowie appeared to be androgynous and made statements about their sexuality - shocking to older generations and fascinating to younger who saw them as radically different and subversive - increased wealth enabled some teenagers and young adults to assert their own identities in ways impossible before
PUNK – Late 1970s, it developed in Britain, originating in NYC.
Angry music of the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Buzzcocks captured the mood of the decade as punk fans tore their jeans, wore piercings and spiked their hair to appear shocking and offensive.
1976– 79 – music paper the New Musical Express linked punk’s appeal to declining living standards and growth in youth unemployment throughout the decade.
Showed anger and frustration they felt at their decline in living standards and job opportunities.
Audience for punk music in the 1970s was very small.
1970s – more people enjoyed the disco music of the Bee Gees than punk bands.
1960s – the top-selling UK album was the Sergeant Pepper album, closely followed by the family- friendly soundtrack to the film The Sound of Music
Elton John who had sixteen top-50 albums between 1970 and 1979, four of which were number ones – most popular recording artist of the 1970s
Queen sold 19 million records in Britain between 1975 and 1977.
The audiences for those artists like were much larger than punk or Ska audiences. The ‘feel-good’ pop music they produced had a wide appeal to different age groups.
Impact of Music - Reggae
REGGAE - Immigrants from the Caribbean in the 1950s brought with them the sounds of Trinidad and Jamaica. Traditional calypso music had developed into reggae
1969 - record labels, Island and Trojan, imported reggae records, selling them to both a black and white audience.
Desmond Dekker’s ‘The Israelites’ 1969 - first reggae song that reached the top of the charts shows that by the end of the 1960s, reggae crossed from small Black audiences into larger White ones.
ROOTS - Reflected the changing ethnic makeup and reflected the experiences of black immigrants dealing with racism, police violence and inequality. Associated with Rastafarianism.
Roots described the experience of black people living in Britain and called for resistance against racism.
Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Dread Beat an’ Blood of 1978 - ‘All Wi Doin’ Is Defendin’ - reflected widespread anger among Caribbean immigrants in Brixton and other parts of Britain against the National Front and allegations of police brutality.
Groups like the Black Panthers used pop present their political message and collaborated with writers who produced magazines which carried stories about campaigns for racial equality
SKA - Adapted by Black and White musicians into a harder, more aggressive sound than reggae called two tone, which drew much from punk. 1970s - The Specials - reflected the lack of opportunities for Black and White young people in the 1970s
Impact of radio 1918-39
Government was suspicious of the possibility of a public radio service that could transmit information to the public. Fears about the possibility of revolution or a general strike made ministers and civil servants apprehensive about the power of radio broadcasting.
British Broadcasting Company 1922 - licensed by the government and so the organisation had a close relationship with the state - often have an impact on the way news, music and entertainment was transmitted, first as radio then TV programmes.
Meant that radio programmes often reflected the values of the government and the BBC, not necessarily the interests of the listener - BBC broadcasts did not reflect the quality of life experienced by British people in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1927 the Corporation was given a royal charter and effectively became a publicly owned state broadcaster, though it retained its independence over its editorial content. John Reith became the first director general.
Impact of Radio 1945-79
After the war three channels, the Home Programme, the Light Programme and the Third Programme, broadcast programmes but by the 1950s and 1960s they began to lose ground to unlicensed and illegal broadcasters.
BBC had the only licence to broadcast in the UK but ‘pirate’ radio stations based on ships moored just outside British territorial waters broadcast immensely popular programmes.
Radio Caroline had an audience of 10 million people in Britain by 1964 - no effective way of stopping the broadcasts, which gained a huge teen audience because they were playing the latest music.
Due to a post-war baby boom and growth in affluence, the teenage market had more disposable income than ever before and were a sought-after demographic that the BBC did not want to lose.
Impact of pirate radio - forced the BBC to broadcast pop music as well.
1967 pirate radio led to the reorganisation of the Light, Third and Home Programmes into Radio 2, 3 and 4 respectively, and a new Radio 1 was launched that focussed exclusively on catering towards a youth market by broadcasting pop music. Many of the pirate radio DJs were hired by Radio 1 and became national celebrities.
COMMERCIAL RADIO- 1975 licences for commercial radio stations were granted and the BBC lost its monopoly
Commercial stations appealed to more niche audiences and was sustained through selling airtime to advertisers.
Impact of TV 1950s
BBC’s first broadcast was in 1936 - high cost of TV sets meant a small audience
1939 - 20,000 viewers were affected by the BBC signal being switched off to stop German bombers using it as a homing beacon
TV developed post war and especially after austerity in 1954
1953 - Queen’s Coronation - filmed live and got 8 million viewers - showing TV could be dominant - due to this the TV licence holder doubled to 3 million
Important part of the post war consumer boom - helped BBC growth
Impact of TV 1960s and 1970s
Carlton Greene (Director General) championed new shows like ‘That Was the Week That Was’ which challenged the establishment and snobbery
Programmes reflected changing class attitudes - ‘Steptoe and Son’
Programmes reflected social issues - Cathy Come Home (1966) and Up the Junction (1968)
Sci-fi - Doctor Who (1963) and Dalekmania in 1963-66 - increasingly popular with Tom Baker’s Doctor
Significance of the growth of teenagers
Teenagers developed as a new phenomenon in 1950s.
Previous generations had tended to leave school at fourteen and go to work; to help their parents.
The school-leaving age was raised to fifteen in 1947, but many more stayed on to sit exams and, from the 1960s onwards, to go to university
National service, or conscription, had been introduced in 1948 and at its peak took 160,000 boys every year for two years’ military service and in 1960, as Britain’s military commitments lessened, this ended.
With full employment and plentiful apprenticeships, teenagers had time and money to spend on what their parents might have considered luxuries and waste.
Goods aimed at teenagers, such as the latest fashions or gadgets such as transistor radios, were effectively marketed to be seen as essential. Television shows were developed aimed specifically at teenagers, either generally, such as Top of the Pops, which began in January 1964, or at specific youth cultures such as Ready Steady Go!, which was aimed at mods.
Forms of youth culture in the 1960s and 1970s
Mid-1950s – teddy boy gangs with slicked back hair and Edwardian-style suits who listened to rock ‘n’ roll
Replaced by rockers, with leather jackets and powerful motorbikes, whose listening tastes were largely white American- based harder-edged rock and rollers such as Eddie Cochran.
Mods, dressed in fashionable Italianate suits and riding sleek Vespa or Lambretta motor scooters from Italy. They listened to a new kind of musical import – Black-inspired rhythm and blues from the USA.
Early 1960s – British bands such as the Beatles based in Liverpoool and the Hollies in Manchester developed their own versions of this rhythm and blues to create the hugely successful British popular music which enveloped the world as the decade progressed.
1960s – mods morphed into skinheads with short hair, braces, and a working-class arrogance whose reggae and ska-inspired music often came from the Caribbean – Skinheads often wore expensive Abercrombie overcoats, Ben Sherman shirts and Doc Martin bovver boots. The styles may have been simple, but the prices weren’t.
Late 1970s – punks with torn clothing, chains and Mohican hairstyles – involved a sort of minimalism but they were just as commercially targeted as their predecessors had been.
Youth Culture - aims and people
Youth cults had two things in common:
Wanting to be noticed, to shock their elders.
Exploited by businesses who created their styles and then marketed them successfully.
Punks, while talking about desirability of anarchy, were influenced by Malcolm McLaren’s boutique SEX selling clothes by Vivienne Westwood then developed into a million-pound business.
Some became hippies or supported an alternative culture – rejecting values of materialism.
For the majority this was a transitional phase until the need to earn a living imposed itself.
Many noted the generation gap and how different young people seemed to be from their parents – noted in songs like Cat Stevens’ Father and Son, as a dialogue between father and son.
