After the Second World War, a new youth culture occurred in Britain. Youth culture is members of a group, like teenagers between the ages fourteen and twenty-five, who have a different style, behaviour, beliefs, clothes, music taste, vocabulary, including also expressing their identities. More specifically, youth culture is based on the different behaviours and values from the culture of older generations in society. According to researcher Mark Abrams, this new culture helped the rise of living standards. For example, teenagers had their own money to spend and they were no more under their strict parent’s control.
Baron Butler or else knows as Rab Butler, was the Minister of Education, in the party government that was created by Winston Churchill. Britain was still at war, as a result, the education in schools was restricted in 1938. In that year, only one to five children have been able to get a proper education after the age of 14. In 1943, Butler was trying to convince Churchill to agree to a primal change of schooling. After a lot of arguments, Butler finally achieved and in 1944, the act was known as the Butler Act. The act has created the tripartite system of schools, such as grammar, technical and secondary modern schools, but only a few technical schools were built. In the 1960s, the act succeeds the expansion of education in schools, such as specialist schools and academies. However, later on, a problem occurred. Butler wanted the churches to stand with his plans. They were in charge of a lot of schools and if they disapproved Butler, they knew that Churchill would not want any encounter with them and the act would have failed. Fortunately, Butler came to an agreement with them, that the state will pay for schools and any building damages.
A tribe with a flag is one example of a nation. If the tribe wanted to battle for its flag, it will engage its young men, with the military as a natural part of nation-building. Conscription in Britain did not have a long history until Richard Vinen gave Britain the National Service. Eventually, National Service was essential for all males over 18 in the UK, but not in Northern Ireland. When the Second World War was going on, there was a covenant to succeed in the National Service Act in one day. This was agreed on the 3rd of September, 1939. But this was only for an emergency. In 1948, Britain’s first peacetime system of conscription was found by a new National Service Act, with a duration of service of two years. The peacetime national service was to conscript more soldiers when needed in Britain’s founder empire and even in the cold war.
Employment back in the 50s was different. People were working for long hours under hard circumstances and with no time for them to go on holidays. A lot of jobs were assumed to be ‘jobs for life’. Furthermore, women back in the days were staying at home and did not work. In 1952, the salary was 7.50 pounds every week and the hours were from 40 to 48 hours a week and only a few people were lucky enough to get sixteen days off from work to go on holidays. However, in the early 60s, the conditions were a lot better. Unemployment was low and the goods and services that Britain had, were requested a lot. People’s income was higher and were financially more advantageous, as a result, to have a better life.
As the Second World War ended, a new generation came. This generation was called the ‘Baby Boomers’. Baby boomers were the babies that were born from 1946 until the early 1960s. Moreover, in the late 40s, the number of babies that were born was big and each year the number of babies being born increased. However, the difference between baby boomers and their parents and grandparents, is that they were not forced to follow the traditional values and beliefs, in fact, they believed that they could do anything to change the world. A change that baby boomers brought, is that governments had to build more schools, due to the population that was increasing every year. Fortunately, the harshness started to dissolve and the oldest baby boomers started to take control of their lives with more stability. They managed to earn a lot of money and were able to follow on with the trends and music and most importantly, they acknowledged the term ‘teenagers’ between childhood and adulthood. The baby boomers really made a difference for the world. They tried to spread a message to the world by following the trend of hippies. They wanted the world to have peace and love and to live a happy life. They also wanted people to accept gay rights.
In 1953 a new trend came, ‘the Edwardian’ or as known as the ‘Teddy Boys’. The Teddy Boys fashion was velvet blazers and down shirts with jeans or trousers. But Teddy Boys was not just a fashion trend, it was also a British group culture. This fashion that they adapted was based on dancing and music. However, their culture was based on jazz and a type of street jazz music, but when rock music occurred in America, the Teddy Boys found their true sound. Furthermore, when some films with revolutionary youth and rock soundtracks were launched, the Teddy Boys shoed their wild side. For example, they would throw chairs and dance in avenues and also tear apart theatre seats, toss bottles and light flaming pyrotechnics. But that did not last long. In 1959 the Teddy Boys started to fade away, as new fashion and music trends started to take over in Britain.
Although rock music was introduced in the 1950s, it was in the 1960s that it became more popular. More specific it was the band ‘The Beatles’ that succeed to do that. The Beatles are an English rock band from Liverpool, England that was shaped in the 1960s. There is no doubt of the success of this band. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, they achieved to take over the music industry and influenced it. The character of each band member individually made the group special. By exploring different genres and havening their own style in how to make music, they made it to the top in the music industry. One of their songs, ‘’Love Me Do’’, gave them the start to begin their tours widely until the year 1966. Except for being an influence in the music industry, they also influenced the younger generation on how to dress and live their lives. Sadly the band broke up in the 1970s, but they still remain one of the most significant Rock and Roll bands in history.
Televisions were not owned by many people in Britain after post-war, only twenty-five thousand households had television. This, however, changed by 1961. The number of people owning television increased to 75% and in 1971 it went to 91%. In 1960, Britain had only two channels, the BBC and ITV. In 1964, BBC introduced their second channel, BBC2. But people were not very interested in the programmes that BBC2 had. By the end of 1967, BBC2 presented the first colour broadcast and only on the BBC2 channel, colour could be seen and some years later, in 1969, BBC1 and ITV showed colour for the first time. Except of the development of the television, the microwaved was invented. This led women to spend less time in the kitchen and have more time for themselves. Technology also helped develop radios. In America, 1954, they invented the pocket transistor radio, but in Britain, things were slower, so the pocket transistor radio came in 1956. When it came first in Britain, all teenagers had one and it allowed them to listen to music while they were outside of their houses.
In the 1960s, fashion became more casual for all genders and ages. Although womenswear and men’s wear were changing every decade, children’s wear did not change a lot, but it became more casual and bright in colour and pattern. However, this decade was the most significant for fashion, for the reason that clothes were supplied at the youth market and expand numerous trends. Women wore suits in pastel colours, with short jackets which were shaped like a box and oversized buttons. They also wore simplistic geometric dresses. Furthermore, they wore full-skirted gowns with a low-cut neckline and had close-fitting waists. This style was considered to be worn in the evenings. This was mirrored from the first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. On the other hand, menswear suits went from pale tones to bright colours. The fashion for them then, was frills with extensive ties, trouser straps leather boots and jackets with no collar. It was then in fashion to wear their ties five inches apart, with prints, stripes and patterns. Shirt skirts were not worn a lot by women in Britain in 1966 and in 1967 women all over the world started to wear short skirts.
However, feminism started to be more significant as a belief, as a result, young women had more job opportunities in the 1960s. This change let them be away from home and be more independent. Furthermore, the contraceptive pill became authorised in 1967 and women had the chance to dream and have hopes for something else than being married or becoming a mother. In 1968 the Women’s Liberty movement occurred, for the particular reason that a factory where 850 women worked there, wanted their payment to be equal as their male colleague. In 1970, that movement succeed and was called the Equal Pay Act of 1970. Another change was that women could participate in politics. A good example is Barbara Castle, who became the first women secretary of state in 1968. This event gave women a voice in society.
Despite the new trends and life living changes that happened after World War Two ended, anxiety was occurring. For example, the Teddy Boy trend in the 1950s made people anxious. The media presented them as the young criminals in the streets. On the other hand, the scare tales people were telling, were most of the time exaggerated. However, statics tended to confirm theories of crimes rising, by a rising trend ‘juvenile crime revolution’, which was created by modern enforcement methods and improvements in the crimes data. Moreover, crimes were not the only cause of anxiety, styles were also the source of creating anxiety. The current fashion back then was described as a national downturn.
In light of the above, British history and the changes that happened was affected by the Second World War. Britain in the 1950s was still facing some challenge’s and still was healing from war. However, the 1950s was also the decade that Britain started to rise and going into a period of greater wealth and freedom. Furthermore, it was the decade that started a new youth culture that could make the people and the country a happy environment, with the help of new styles, the growth of technology, with music trying new genres and the new schools that were built and the education expanding. Even though these changes created anxiety, Britain managed to overcome that and successfully rebuilt their lives after World War Two.
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