Young People as Agent of Change

During the '50s, everyone was still recovering  from the horrors of World War II. People from around the world idolized the Americans, who definitely prospered during this era. During the 1950s, youth became more self-aware, and they were determined to create their own styles, which the designers followed. Throughout the decade, the teenagers became a distinct group of society, which had never been done before. Young people gained much freedom, which was attributed by some to the lack of discipline after the war and the invention of Rock'n'Roll.

 Rock’n’Roll roots lay principally in Rhythm and Blues (R &B).  Blues, and rhythm and blues, were too adult, sexual, angry, and solely identified with black culture to be acceptable either emotionally or commercially without adaptation. Major record companies had for years been producing records for black audiences called "race records." The emergence of rock 'n' roll signified a slight weakening in resistance to black culture.  Rock 'n' roll was for and about adolescents. Its lyrics articulated teenage problems: school, cars, summer vacation, parents, and, most important, young love. Though rock has used a wide variety of instruments, its basic elements are one or several vocalists, heavily amplified electric guitars, bass and drums. Its melody, the lyrics and the harmony were simple. The greatest exponents were Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Billy Haley and the Comets, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Saturday nights were spent at local dances where teens jived to their favourite music. Adolescents gathered at coffee bars or diners and listen to jukeboxes while they smoked cigarettes. In America, that concern was conveyed even in youth cultural artifacts like comic books.

At the turn of the decade Detroit (where General Motors is settled) became an important centre for black singers, and a certain type of sound known as “Motown” (motor town), was named Motown Records. One of the most popular exponents of this style was Diana Ross and the Supremes.

In the 1960s music mirrored the tensions of the Vietnam War era and played an important role in American culture. The verbal content of rock songs turned toward rebellion, social protest, sex, and, increasingly, drugs. From this decade it was simply called "rock music", and it was no longer just for dancing.

Rock music surged to popularity in 1962 with the emergence of the Beatles, a group of four long-haired lads from Liverpool, England. They were initially acclaimed for their energy and appealing individual personalities rather than for any innovations in their music, which was derived from Berry and Presley. They produced a boom which was called “British invasion”. Their popularity inevitably produced other groups with unusual names. One of the most important of these was the Rolling Stones , whose music derived from the black blues tradition.  An important transformation of rock occurred in 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival when Bob Dylan, noted as a composer and writer of poetic folk songs and songs of social protest appeared on stage, playing electric guitar and backed by an electrified rock band. In 1967 the Beatles again made history with their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which included drug-oriented songs. And from that year onward, the rock festival was regarded as the ideal context in which to hear rock music, and thousands of fans attended. The most successful and peaceful rock festival, Woodstock, was held near New York, in August, 1969. Some other performers of this decade were Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page.

The '60s marked an era of teenagers, as they truly became a distinct part of North American culture, the baby-boomers. A baby-boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World-War II baby boom (a peak in birth rate in U.S.) and who grew up during the `60s and `70s. They were widely associated with privilege, and as a group they were the healthiest, and wealthiest generation to that time, and amongst the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time. As these teens received more money, they had an easy time finding jobs. One important feature of Boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation and, furthermore, to define the world in terms of generations, which was a relatively new phenomenon.

 The '70s proved to be a drastic change in thoughts and beliefs of teenagers from the '60s. Many young people held pessimistic views of the world, and they felt very uncertain about what the future would hold. A turning point in rock music occurred in the mid-1970s in the form of punk rock, which was a response to the stagnation of the genre and a nihilistic political statement.  In Great Britain, Punk music was performed by the Sex Pistols and the Clash; punk also quickly became popular in the Unites States, played by the Ramones among other groups. Movies and television shows also had a great impact on the styles of young people in the 70’s. On the other hand, Saturday Night Fever made disco very popular and many teens copied the costume worn by John Travolta in the famous movie. The Bee Gees were part of this style.

Work done by Muratore and Funes