This document discusses changes in teenage life in Britain between 1945-1975. It focuses on the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1950s, teenagers did not have a distinct culture and lifestyle that separated them from their parents. However, in the late 1950s the economy improved and teenagers had more leisure time and disposable income. This led to the emergence of teenage culture in the 1960s, as teenagers developed their own interests in music, fashion, and spending trends. Popular culture like music programs on TV helped spread teenage culture nationwide. While most rebellion was small, some teenagers turned to street violence, most notably clashes between Mods and Rockers in the 1960s.

1. How far did the lives of young
people change 1945 -75?
What is a teenager?
What separates teenagers from their parents?
(think about all the things that make you different to your parents –
taste, hobbies, opinions, communication, appearance etc)
Do you think that young children/teenagers have and will always be different to their
parents?
What do you think you will be like when your parents and what will your children be
like?

2. Did Teenagers exist in the early 50s?
• Of course people of the ages 13-19 in the 1950s existed
but the term teenager is much more than that. It refers
to all the things we have been talking about –
teenagers have a culture of their own.
• Look at source 1 on page 482
• What does this suggest?
• Then look at source 3
• Does this suggest something different?

3. Young people in the early 1950s
• 1950s Britain was quite a boring place to live
– Lots of destroyed buildings
– Lots of building sites – new council housing
– Rationing still in force until 1954
– National service until 1960 (army for 18 months
for men 17-21 years)
– Pubs hours controlled

4. There were no teenagers either!
• Most young people seemed like small versions of
their parents
– They wore similar clothes
– Went to same school as their parents did
– Followed same routines – church on Sunday, visiting
relatives, listening to same music and dances. After
school they worked in same place as parents.
– There was only 1 TV channel! Whole family sat round
the TV together. Listen to same radio programmes
together

5. However things start to change…..
• In the second half of the 1950s Britain’s economy stared to recover .
This led to:
– Low unemployment – young people leaving school could get a job
– Wages increase faster than prices – more money to spend. Most
• At the same time birth control meant smaller families – easier to feed
and clothe
• Young people had more leisure time – now working 5 day weeks
instead of 6.
• All this meant young people could keep most of their wages – they
wuld used to have to give it to parents to look after the family
• ‘The teenager was a creation of Affluence’ Dominic Sandbrook

6. Enter the Teenager!
• You need to add to the image of a 1950s teenager
information under the headings provided on the
sheet – use page 484-5
• What types of:
• Music would they like
• Films would they like
• Fashion would they wear
• Things would they do with their spare time?
If there are differences for
boys and girls than put
both down – make sure
you distinguish between
the two – I don’t want you
putting than boys wore
skirts!

7. What happened in the 1960s?
• There was about 5 million teenagers in the 1960s
and they earned 1/10th of the countries income
• They spent about £800 million on themselves a
year! Mainly on clothes and entertainment.
• They brought 1/3 of all bikes, motorcycles,
cosmetics, and film tickets
• Most cinemas, record shops, dance halls and
magazine stores depended on teenager
customers.

8. Does this source tell us more about
teenagers spending trends In the
1960s than source 9 on 486?
‘Every week I’d buy at least two or three singles.
I had so much money to spend. Its unbelievable
looking back. There were so many well paid jobs
for teenagers connected to the car industry. I
would spend £10 every week on myself, on
clothes, on going out and most of all on music.’
A Coventry man in in 2005 who was a teenager
in the 1960s

9. Ready, Steady, GO!
• Every Friday at 7pm almost all teenagers would
watch this new show!
• In many ways this new show summed up the
Swinging Sixties
• Why was this show so popular?
• Draw a tv in you books with Ready Steady Go! On
the screen. Then annotate it with what was
distinctive about the show.

10. • Radios became portable – could now listen to music while ‘hanging
out’ with their friends. Now there was teenager specific stations.
• Record players now made from plastic – now cheap enough for
teenagers to have them in their bedrooms. Listening to music was
no longer a family occasion!
• New fabrics made clothes cheaper to buy – or girls could make
their own clothes to stay with the designer clothes
• Transport – better public transport and teenagers could afford
scooters or motorcycles – made it easier for teenagers to visit each
other, have freedom, go to town, or music events.

11. What is the message of this source
• Cartoon source on June 2011 paper

12. Music
• Name 4 popular bands of the 1960s
• What were the key differences between musicians in
the 50s and musicians in the 60s?
• How many records did the Beatles sell in 1964?
• How many singles did Satisfaction, by the Rolling
Stones sell?
• What was Juke Box Jury?
• When did Top of the Pops start?
• How did Radio Caroline lead to Radio one being
created?

13. How was the music craze viewed by
adults??
• Look at source 12 and 13 on page 488
• How does the writer of source 12 view
teenagers? What kind of words does he use to
describe them or the time?
• Why does the writer of source 14 like the
Beatles?

14. Fashion
• Pop stars tried to outdo each other by wearing
outrageous clothes.
• Designs were all about being ‘with it’ – some
models were photographed wearing space age
dresses and fabrics.
• Teenagers were not as extreme but did like new
designers like Mary Quant
– Mary set up a boutique called Bazaar on Kings
Road in London in 1955 – Kings Road became
the capital of youth fashion for London and the
rest of the world.
– By 1966 she was making $6 million a year
– She invented the Mini Skirt - used many
different fabrics and bold colours
– She realised the importance of models – Models
became big stars – biggest of all was Lesley
Hornby (Twiggy)
– David Bailey – photographer becomes a celeb,
celeb hairdressers like Vidal Sassoon.

15. What do you think Mary
means when she uses the
term ‘something was in the
I wanted to design clothes that women could put on
in the morning and still feel right at midnight;
clothes that go happily to the office and go equally
happily out to dinner. I just happened to start when
that something was in the air, was coming to the
boil. The clothes I made happened to fit in exactly
with the teenage trend, with the pop records and
expresso bars and music clubs.
Marry Quant

16. Cartoons page 489
• I will split the class up and you need to work
out what your cartoon’s message is
• You will compete against others in the class
who have your cartoon
• Who can figure them out the best?

17. Rebellion
• We keep saying that teenagers in the 1960s
were trying to be different to their parents.
This had always been the case but now in the
60s they had the time, money and confidence
to express themselves differently and to rebel.
• In what ways did they start to rebel?

18. Satirical TV programmes and
magazines made fun of
respectable authority figures

19. John Lennon: “the Beatles are bigger
than Jesus.”
• Very controversial
comment made in 1966
• He meant that
traditional institutions
like the church were
declining in importance
ot young people

20. Were the Sixties ‘Sex-mad?’
• Use the information on page 490 and the
sources on 491 to see if you can give an
answer to this question.

21. Teenage Violence
• For most teenagers rebellion was small –
listening to music, watching films, or staying
out late.
• However some turned to street violence.
• Most famous incident was the violence in
1964 between Mods and Rockers in a number
of seaside towns such as Margate and
Brighton.

22. Mods Vs Rockers

23. Draw a diagram of both mods and
Rockers

24. Can you write what you think caused
the changes and explain how they did
this?
Why did life for
teenagers change during
the 1960s?