Essay on the 1960's

 Art history essay

research into my chosen era (1960)

As the 1960s and Britain emerged from a period of plain and formality, Britain seemed to be overwhelmed by colour and optimism and new ideas and the meeting of tow eras. What appeared to be a period of prosperity was accompanied by new consumer products, and advances in advertising and a sense of freedom and change. A new youth culture brought new forms of music and fashion ideas and protest against social norms.
Television took hold of people's imaginations, attitudes to class and sex were liberalised, and the appearance of Britain literally changed as its cities were rebuilt and became more modern and industrial Centuries of discrimination  were beginning to be challenged and questioned as the 1960s ushered in a new way of life and thinking
.The economic boom turned out to be a dream and the government and businesses reacted against what they saw as a decline in standards and war in Vietnam and gay rights movement, along with the civil rights movement this lead led to increasingly passionate protests. It turned out to be a decade of optimism, but also of protest causing an era not soon forgotten.

1960's

The 1960's more commonly know as the sixties was a decade known for politics ,hippies and free spirits, this era also showed a rise in 'Rock 'n' Roll' with bands like the Beatles this also spurned on the rise of counterculture , and the revolution or rise in social norms about clothing, music, drugs, sexuality, and schooling; and in others causing the decade as one of irresponsibility and the excessive, flamboyance, and decay of social order. The decade was also known as the 'Swinging Sixties' because of the relaxation of the social taboos of the last century especially relating to racism and sexism that occurred throughout. Beginning in the mid-1950's and continuing into the late 1960's, African-Americans in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against black Americans and restoring voting rights to them.

politics and war 

The 1960's was an era full of political and social change across the world including Martin Luther-King Jr and the civil right movement. And the Vietnam war were the US sent half a million troops to fight and  this resulted in 58,500 American deaths alone, this sparked an anti war movement in America at the end on 1965 few people protested the war but as it dragged on  and the body count continued to climb students became a force that was powerful.
Unfortunately, the War on Poverty was expensive–too expensive, especially as the war in Vietnam became the government’s top priority. There was simply not enough money to pay for the War on Poverty and the war in Vietnam.
  In 1964, Congress authorized the president to take “all necessary measures” to protect American soldiers and their allies from the communist Viet Cong. Within days, the draft began recruiting millions of American men and protests broke out into full scale riots.
The war dragged on, and it divided the nation. Some young people took to the streets in protests which dragged on till the war ended while others fled to Canada to avoid the draft completely. Meanwhile, many of their parents and peers formed a majority  in support of the war.

Young people and social norms

Throughout the second half of the decade the young people began to rise up against the conservative 'norms' of the time, as well as remove themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high level of materialism which was so common during the era. This then sparked the counterculture that sparking social revolution throughout most of the western world. The counterculture movement also dominated the second half of the 1960's, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were mostly used medicinally, but were spiritual and recreational throughout the late 1960's. Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses, this sparked a greater interest in western  religion and culture inspiring a 'summer of free love'.

The struggle for civil rights had defined the ‘60s ever since four black students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in February 1960 and refused to leave. Their movement spread: Hundreds of demonstrators went back to that lunch counter every day, and tens of thousands clogged segregated restaurants, shops and toilets across the upper South. The protesters drew the nation’s attention to the injustice, brutality and general lack of dignity that segregated races were subjected to up and down the states and other countries. The counterculture  seemed to grow more outlandish and outrageous as the decade wore on. Some young people “dropped out” and almost disappeared out of political life altogether. These “hippies” grew their hair long and practiced “free love.” Some moved to communes, away from the turbulence that had come to define everyday life in the 1960s such as the political rallies and protests the were rife during the era.
 

Music and fashion 

Popular music entered an era of numerous artists released recordings, beginning in the 1950's and radio stations tended to play only the most popular of the wide variety of records being made. So bands only tended to record their best songs as a chance of them becoming a hit record. This also sparked 'the British invasion' led by the Beatles in 1964. Due to the Beatles fame you saw them influence the way young men dressed (the Beatle boots) and cut their hair and the Nehuru jacket ,The hippie movement late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including the bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints, or anything flowery and bright.
The 1960s were an age for fashion innovation for women. The early 1960s gave birth to the drainpipe jeans and capri pants, worn by Audrey Hepburn. Casual dress became more unisex, and outfits were mostly made up  of plaid button down shirts worn with slim blue jeans, comfortable slacks, or plain skirts for the girls. Traditionally, trousers had been viewed by western society as masculine and women were frowned upon for wearing them , but in the early years of the decade it had become acceptable for women to wear them everyday bringing women on a more equal level to men. These included Levi Strauss jeans, which had previously been considered blue collar wear. The women’s trousers came in a variety of styles: narrow, wide, below the knee, above the ankle, and eventually mid thigh this gave women more confidence and allowed more opportunities to arise for them . These mid-thigh cut trousers evolved around 1969, and became the modern shorts. By adapting men’s style and wearing trousers, women voiced their equality to men.
 

Art  

The ’60's cemented New York as the epicentre for the wests avant-garde movement, even though that road had been paved in the 1950's by Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko.
But by the mid-1960's, to the perspectives of Greenberg, Pollock they began to feel institutionalised and removed from the fringe of society much to their concern, which continued to push the concerns of art, in both its practices and its critical impacts on the modern society.
However pop art was huge in the 1960's through artists like Andy Warhol who perfected pop art that dominated the contemporary art stage, leaving behind what we now define as "fine art,” Pop art actually originated in England with Richard Hamilton But now, Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans and Marilyn Monroe are deeply ingrained in the popular imagination of all those when you say pop art. This is also when film and cinema hit heights with films like psycho, Mary Poppins and bonny and Clyde.

Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s in America and Britain, drawing inspiration from sources in popular and commercial culture such as advertising, Hollywood movies and pop music. Key pop artists include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake and David Hockney. Andy Warhol being the most famous and well known of all the pop art artists and who's work is still gaining normality, today and being taught in art rooms up and down the country.
Appearing  in the mid 1950s in Britain and late 1950s in America, pop art reached its peak in notability
in the 1960s. It began as a revolt against the dominant approaches to art  and traditional views on what art should be. Young artists felt that what they were taught at art school and what they saw in museums did not have anything to do with their lives or the things they saw around them. Instead they turned to sources such as Hollywood movies, advertising,  pop music and comic books for their imagery. which is why in a lot of pop art it looks like it got pulled right off the pages of you favourite beano annual.
Although they were inspired by similar subject matter, British pop is often seen as distinctive from American pop.
Early pop art in Britain was fuelled by American popular culture viewed from a distance, while the American artists were inspired by what they saw and experienced living within that culture.

What else?

This decade was also time of great change and widespread drug use. A social revolution that swept all across the world. In America,  the  civil rights movement and the rise of feminism and gay rights which continued throughout and into the next  decade and beyond. Homosexual acts in private were legalized in England, Wales and in Canada in 1967.  and this meant that the 60's has become synonymous with all the new, exciting way of looking areas and social aspects through-out history and the way we treat people of different race and orientation , which continued to develop in the 1970s, 1980s and beyond through to present day. In Africa saw a dramatic change as the 60's was a period of radical change as countries gained independence from their former controlling states in Europe , only for this control to be replaced in many cases by civil war or corrupt dictatorships that are still challenging the definition of a free state, that is separate and still needs guidance from Europe to free them from said control . 
In the Sixties some events  did not actually occur during this time period. For example,  some of the most dramatic events of the American civil rights movement  did actually occurred in the early-1960s, however that movement had already begun  during the 1950s. On the other hand, the rise of feminism and gay rights began in the 1960s and continued into the next few decades.
the 1960 was also an era where People started to spend more money on holidays. Many people no longer wanted holidays in Britain. Package holidays became popular - people arranged holidays through a travel agent. this meant people were going further afield and spent money outside of the uk and built up inter-country relations.

Also By the end of the decade, television had gone from a novelty to the staple in  everyone home by the end of the age and one of the most profound communications tools ever with programmes like music to the news being broadcast bringing families in one room together for the first time.

 

Subcultures

 The rude boy culture originated in the ghettos of Jamaica, coinciding with the popular rise of rock steady music, dancehall celebrations and sound system dances. Rude boys dressed in the latest fashions, and many were involved with gangs and violence. This subculture then spread to the United Kingdom and other countries.
 The mod subculture began with a few cliques of trendy teenage boys in London, in the late 1950s, but was most popular during the early 1960s. Mods were obsessed with new fashions such as slim-cut suits;  Many of them rode scooters which can been scene emulated in todays modern culture with so called 'hipsters'.
The mod and rude boy cultures both influenced the skinhead subculture of the late 1960s. The skinheads were a harder, more working class version of mods who wore basic clean-cut clothing styles and favoured and different kind of music scene more common with the rude boy culture, influencing their dress and attitude style.
The disco scene originated in the 1960s, with clubs such as the whiskey Go Go and studio 54 wear young people would go out and socialize much to older generations disgust.
Subculture was often based on socializing and wild behaviour, but some of them were centred around politics. for example a couple of groups of subcultures ion America took part in activist movements during the gay rights movement early on in the 1960s.
The Hacker culture was began to form in the 1960s, as the usage of computer technologies revolutionised the way subjects were taught In schools, colleges and universities. Students who were fascinated by the possible uses of computers and other technologies began figuring out ways to make technology more freely accessible, to people who would otherwise not be able to access such things.
The international anti-art movement Fluxus also had its beginnings in the 1960s, evolving out of the Beat subculture.

America

 

The decade began with a recession from 1960–61, at that time unemployment was considered high at around 7%. In his campaign, John F. Kennedy promised to "get America moving again." His goal was economic growth of 4-6% per year and unemployment below 4%, to do this he instituted a 7% tax credit for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment. By the end of the decade, median family income had risen from $8,540 in 1963 to $10,770 by 1969. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960s 

 

At the beginning of the 1960s, many Americans believed they were standing at the dawn of a golden age a new era for America and a change to improve family life.

 On January 20, 1961, the handsome and charismatic John F. Kennedy became president of the United States. His confidence that, as one historian put it, “the government possessed big answers to big problems” seemed to set the tone for the rest of the decade but after the assassination  that golden age never materialized. On the contrary, by the end of the 1960s it seemed that the nation was falling apart. With the social norms being challenged by the new ethic people had come to understand and the 'hippie revolution'

the 1960s  was a decade of extremes, of transformational change and bizarre contrasts:  rebellion and backlash protest and suppression. For many in the massive post-World War II baby boom generation, it was both the best of times and the worst of times. and the extremes of the internal and external wars with forever shape the 1960s as a decade to remember and was a turning point in  the course of history.