Teenager Youth Culture (1951-1964)

Question 1

The End of National Service

Answer 1

• Males no longer had to do national serve
• This was a conscription of young men having to do 2 years of mandatory service in the military
• Introduced in 1947 and ended in 1960
• Led to men having more free time

Question 2

The Emergence of the Teenager

Answer 2

• Post-war baby boom swelled the number of teenagers
• 1959: estimated 10% of the population were teenagers
• Made the more visible and economically important
• ‘Age of affluence’: teens had money to spend on records and fashion, creating their own youth culture
• Late 1950s: magazines and TV shows aimed specifically at teens
• Development in technology such as radios spread the idea of teen culture

Question 3

The Teddy Boys

Answer 3

• Early 1950s: became the most obvious youth subculture
• Young men with the tendency to create violence when gathered in numbers
• Name came from their style of dress which recalled the fashions of King Edward VII
• Edwardian shoes, long coats, narrow trousers and winkle picker shoes
• Wanted to challenge their elders on social order
• Linked with juvenile delinquency and rising crime

Question 4

Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

Answer 4

• Rock ‘n’ Roll reached Britain in 1954 by Bill Haley shortly followed by Elvis Presley
• Haley was the American pioneer of rock and roll music, he began as a country singer
• He was in a band named the Comets
• Late 1950s: Haley and Presley were accompanied by home-grown British musicians like Tommy Steele, Cliff Richards and Marty Wilde who became equally important
• Older generation reacted with suspicion and hostility towards the genre as it associated with African Americans and sexual freedom
• 1960: genre became subsumed within a wide new range of musical traditions

Question 5

Mods & Rockers

Answer 5

• Late 1950s/early 1960s: Teddy Boys were replaced by Mods and Rockers
• Rockers: rode heavy motorcycles and listened to rock and roll music
• Mods: rode scooters, wore smart clothing and preferred ‘sophisticated’ pop music like R&B, American soul and British beat music

Question 6

The Battle of Brighton Beach
(1964)

Answer 6

• A clash between Mods and Rockers in May 1964
• Organised rioting in the south coast holiday resorts of Clayton, Margate and Brighton
• Fighting continued for 2 days, large contingents of police of struggling to restore order
• Public described it as moral panic, hysterical descriptions of knife-wielding hooligans undermining the foundations of society
• Actual levels of violence were heavily exaggerated by the media

Question 7

Youth Delinquency, Anti-Social Behaviour
and Hooliganism

Answer 7

Explanations For Anti-Social Behaviour
- Growing affluent society, rising wages, earning independently from parents, distancing traditional family roles
- Those in poverty didn’t share the general feeling of prosperity feeling embittered and alienated
- End of National Service was blamed for not making young men ‘disciplined’
- First generation in a long time to not have lived through wartimes
- Teens were specifically targeted advertisements which encouraged them to be regarded as special and different
- Scandals such as the Profumo Affair hardly set good examples of those coming from the Establishment
- ‘Satire Boom’: regular mocking of those of high status played a role of undermining the traditional notions of respect and deference