The Affluent Society: Economic and Social Developments (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Youth culture
The emergence of youth as a distinct social force
Arthur Marwick argued that the 1960s witnessed young people gaining positions of unprecedented influence, with youth culture exerting a steadily increasing impact on British society. This trend, rooted in the previous decade, has been characterised as having a revolutionary effect on the British way of life. However, this interpretation requires careful examination.
The literary and theatrical output of the so-called "angry young men" certainly contributed to a culture increasingly shaped by younger voices. Angry young men was a phrase coined by The Times to describe a disparate group of young novelists and dramatists such as Colin Wilson, John Osborne and Kingsley Amis, whose writings gave voice to an alienated generation challenging accepted norms and social conventions.
Several of these "angry young men" were, in reality, approaching middle age rather than being truly young. Their works reflected generational frustration, but did not necessarily represent a wholesale transformation of British society.
The notion of youth as inherently problematic predated the 1950s considerably. Teenager was a term invented in 1930s America that entered common usage in Britain but often carried disapproving connotations. The word "hooligan" had been invented at the end of Queen Victoria's reign. The association of youth with declining national standards characterised older people's attitudes across different historical periods, not merely the post-war era.
Economic factors and consumption patterns
Young people benefited substantially from the improving national economy during the 1950s. They enjoyed greater opportunities and affluence than their pre-war predecessors. By 1960 there were approximately five million teenagers in Britain (defined as those aged 15-25), accounting for 10% of the population's personal income.
Their consumption patterns differed markedly from older generations. They prioritised luxuries, entertainment, and manufacturers quickly targeted this expanding market. This development provoked hostility from those who had experienced more austere times. Young people were perceived as having excessive leisure time and disposable income, especially after the ending of National Service in 1960.
National Service was a peacetime continuation of conscription into the armed forces. The National Service Act (1948) originally mandated 18 months of service, extended to two years in 1950. Its abolition removed an institutional constraint over young men's time and behaviour, contributing to perceptions that youth had too much freedom.
Popular music and generational identity
Music helped define the generations during this period. Rock and roll first reached Britain in 1954, led by Americans Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. By the late 1950s, home-grown musicians including Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde and Cliff Richard had become important figures in the fast-growing pop music market.
Affluent teenagers purchased records, but the poorest could only afford a gramophone. The 'singles' market grew twelve-fold between 1955 and 1960. The older generation generally reacted with suspicion and hostility to a musical genre associated with black America and sexual freedom. There was understandable alarm when Haley's film The Blackboard Jungle was accompanied by violence and vandalism in British cinemas.
By 1960, rock and roll itself, challenged first by 'skiffle', was being absorbed within a wider range of musical traditions. No straight line connected the stars of the 1950s to the 'Beatlemania' that swept Britain in the summer of 1963. Many rock stars were turning to more traditional ballads.
The early Cliff Richard had been condemned by the New Musical Express: 'His violent hip-swinging was revolting, hardly the performance any parent could wish her children to see.' By the new decade, however, his image had softened considerably as he moved towards 'national treasure' status in his later career. This transformation illustrates how youth culture figures could become mainstream and acceptable over time.
Teenagers dominated the record-buying public, but numerous works appearing in the 'charts' remained popular with older generations, demonstrating that musical taste was not entirely divided along generational lines.
Key figure: Bill Haley (1925-81)
Bill Haley was an American pioneer of rock and roll music who began his career as a country music singer. He and his band, the Comets, achieved fame with 'Rock Around the Clock', which featured in the subsequent film The Blackboard Jungle. Other hits included 'Shake, Rattle and Roll' and 'See You Later Alligator'.
Youth and crime
Young people became a convenient scapegoat for Britain's rising crime rate. The 'teddy boys' of the early 1950s, identifiable by their velvet collars, drainpipe trousers and pointed black shoes, caused widespread alarm, even without the flick-knives many were thought to carry.
Dominic Sandbrook observed that the 'juvenile delinquent became a metaphor for the supposed collapse of standards'. Admittedly, crime figures approximately doubled between 1955 and 1960, but crime itself had increased as soon as the War ended. This rise was probably attributable to the removal of the sense of interdependent community fostered during wartime.
The main problem, as often in social analysis, lies with careful generalisation. The activities of a small minority may have dominated headlines, but they were not necessarily representative of the younger age group as a whole. This pattern of moral panic based on unrepresentative examples remains relevant to understanding social commentary about youth in any era.
Evidence suggests that the majority of 1950s teenagers were, like their parents, essentially conservative in their attitudes and behaviour rather than the advance guard of imminent cultural revolution. Like their elders, they were divided by class and never acted as a homogenous whole. Dominic Sandbrook makes the pertinent observation: 'Young people were... never much of a threat to the conventions of British life. They were neither as radical nor as violent as many observers feared.'
Key Points to Remember:
- Youth culture's "revolutionary" impact in the 1960s is often overstated; its origins lay in the 1950s but most teenagers remained conservative in outlook and divided by class
- By 1960, five million teenagers (aged 15-25) controlled 10% of Britain's personal income, creating a distinct consumer market with different spending patterns from their elders
- Rock and roll arrived in Britain in 1954 through American artists like Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, provoking generational conflict before being absorbed into wider musical traditions by 1960
- The ending of National Service in 1960 gave young men greater freedom and contributed to perceptions of youth having excessive time and money
- Moral panics about 'teddy boys' and juvenile delinquency (which doubled 1955-1960) reflected broader anxieties about social change, but most young people were not involved in crime and remained socially conventional