Post on 26-Dec-2015
Roads to FreedomPerformer - Culture & Literature
Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,Margaret Layton © 2013
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
1. Turbulent times in Britain
A New World OrderRoads to Freedom
The 1960s were characterised by:
•technological changes which influenced social organisation;
•social reforms which
increased the gap between
the old and the young.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
1. Turbulent times in Britain
A New World OrderRoads to Freedom
1967 was an annus mirabilis as regards sexual mores:
Abortion Act
National Health Service (Family Planning) Act
Sexual Offences Act
Divorce Act (1969)
Matrimonial Property Act (1970)
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
1. Turbulent times in Britain
A New World OrderRoads to Freedom
A student demonstration.
• The Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament (CND) and the
pacifist march in Trafalgar
Square led by the philosopher
Bertrand Russell (1961).
• A mood of rebellion
university occupations and
demonstrations.• Race a new source of open
social conflict.
The young were sensitive to the spiritual problemsof the age:
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
1. Turbulent times in Britain
A New World OrderRoads to Freedom
The 1970s were marked by
• a global economic slowdown and industrial strife
• episodes of violence, racial tension and terrorism
• an energy crisis and rising unemployment
• the UK’s joining the European Economic Community (1973) partly to share the new European wealth
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
2. Margaret ThatcherA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
• 4th May 1979: Margaret
Thatcher (right wing of the
Conservative Party)
became Prime Minister.
• She tried to solve the UK’s
economic decline and to
reduce the role of the state
in the economy.
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
3. Mid-century AmericaA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
A 1950s housewife.
After World War II
• American families had cars, phones, washing machines, refrigerators, their own houses.
• Education higher enrolment in universities and colleges which received government financial support.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
3. Mid-century AmericaA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
• American foreign policy was defined by the Cold War (1947-1991), started between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• The USA controlled the military affairs of Europe through NATO, while the Soviet Union did it through the Warsaw Pact.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
3. Mid-century AmericaA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s funeral in 1963.
In 1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the Democratic candidate, won the elections. He was the first Catholic and the youngest president ever elected.
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963; his death put an end to the social hopes his election had awakened.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
3. Mid-century AmericaA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
Neil Armstrong on the Moon’s surface, 20 July 1969.
• 1961: the Soviets launched the first manned spaceflight.
• 1962: President Kennedy faced a tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba.
• 1969: the USA succeeded in sending two astronauts onto the Moon.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
3. Mid-century AmericaA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
Martin Luther King, Jr.
• 1964: Civil Rights Act which
prohibited discrimination of all
kinds based on race, colour,
religion or national origin.
• The Civil Rights Movement, led by
the African American Martin
Luther King, Jr., fought against
segregation and discrimination
adopting Gandhi’s philosophy of
non-violent resistance.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
3. Mid-century AmericaA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
University students protested in the hundreds of thousands against the Vietnam War in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome.
• 1959-1975: The Vietnam War
• A widespread countercultural
movement grew, mixing
opposition to war, black
nationalism and feminism.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
3. Mid-century AmericaA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
The Watergate hotel in Washington.
• 1972-1974: The Watergate scandal
the FBI, Congress and the press
discovered a series of crimes and
abuses committed by the president’s
staff.
• Richard Nixon was forced to resign.
• 1970s: Carter’s administration,
marked by stagflation.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
4. The cultural revolutionA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
Poster for ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ (1955).
• Great interest in
music, fashion,
drinks and vehicles
• Working-class
adolescents spending
money on pleasure
and free time.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
4. The cultural revolutionA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
• Leisure activities
dancing and listening to
rock and roll.
• Negative mood of the
‘Angry Young Men’
moral independence,
sexual ethics, public
decency.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
4. The cultural revolutionA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
Mary Quant, fashion designer credited for inventing the miniskirt and the hot pants.
London became the new centre of fashion,
replacing Paris. Important fashion boutiques were
opened in Carnaby Street.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
4. The cultural revolutionA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
The cover of Led Zeppelin III
• The Swinging Sixties = the quest for
self-expression and liberation
drugs, discos, progressiveness in
education, pop music and poetry,
one-parent families, the
contraceptive pill, abortion and
homosexuality legalised.
• 1968 the birth of the Women’s
Liberation Movement.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
5. The decay of the 1970sA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
EconomyEconomy
SocietySociety
Unemployment spread in the heavy industrial areas
Drugs and juvenile violence
Race riots
The ‘Winter of Discontent’
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
A New World OrderRoads to Freedom
PollutionPollution
‘Me’ decade‘Me’ decade
Factories with waste material
Individualism, selfishness, punk culture, nihilism, political struggle, radicalism (no pacifism), racism
Oil tankers, chemical fertilizers, noisy aircraft, traffic
5. The decay of the 1970s
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
6. Street style in BritainA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
Teddy boys
• Reputation for violence, delinquency, racism
• Edwardian-style clothes
A 1962 photo of some Teddy boys.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
6. Street style in BritainA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
Typical rocker outfit: black leather and a white scarf.
The rockers
• Battered clothes
• Outsiders
• Aggression towards women
and immigrants
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
6. Street style in BritainA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
‘This is England’ (2006).
The skinheads
• Tattoos and shaved heads
• Welcome conflict and aggression
• Extreme-right political views =
racism
• No girls
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
6. Street style in BritainA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
A group of English punks.
The punks
• Nihilistic battle cry ‘no future’
• Nothingness
• Safety pins, coloured hair
• Outcast status
• A tourist attraction
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
6. Street style in BritainA New World OrderRoads to Freedom
Hippies at a concert.
The hippies
• Status and sex minimised
• No certainties drugs
• Escape from time and modern life
• Natural materials in the style of dress
• Love, not war
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
7. Anglo-American music from the 1950s to the 1980s
The Great DepressionRoads to Freedom
The Beatles: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon
1950s: Rock‘n’roll, soul.
1960s: Folk revival, rock music.
1970s: Progressive rock, punk rock, fusion, Ddisco music, reggae, funk, electronic.
1980s: Metal, electro-pop, new wave, hip hop.
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
8. Rock musicThe Great DepressionRoads to Freedom
Elvis Presley.
The Rolling Stones.
Rock as an opportunity of unifying art, music, design, fashion and youth in a single experienceRock as energy for the motor of social changeRock as a necessity to take a social positionRock as an experience of community and togetherness
(Peter Wicke, ‘Rock music’)
The birth of the Nation
Performer - Culture & Literature
9. BeatlemaniaThe Great DepressionRoads to Freedom
Policemen’s struggle to restrain young Beatles fans outside Buckingham Palace as The Beatles receive their MBEs (Member of the British Empire) in 1965.
• The phenomenon originated in the UK in 1963.• ‘Beatles’ + ‘mania’.
• Linked to the intense level of
hysteria demonstrated by
fans both at the concerts
played by the band and
during the band’s arrivals
and journeys to and from
different places.