British Youth Culture

The rise of the youth market

In the 1920s and 1930s, the earning power of youth began to grow. Although there was still some youth unemployment in some areas during the interwar period, young workers were in high demand because they were relatively cheap. This meant that youth now had an income and could spend more money than before.

Changes we see in the 1920s and 1930s:

• The flappers: women, especially single women, were employed in factories during World War I, earning a wage and gaining independence. Women showed their newfound confidence and independence with a new fashion style: the flapper, a style that shocked society, with short haircuts and short skirts.
• More emphasis was placed on appearance, physique, and hygiene for both boys and girls.
• Hollywood in Britain: films from early Hollywood were shown in British cinemas, influencing the language and behaviour of youth. The films also led young people to take up smoking.
• Dance halls provided perfect opportunities to meet the opposite sex and dance in a wild, animalistic way imported from the US.

The (increased) wages of the youth made the above changes possible.

Fig. 1 - A young woman dressed in the Flapper style of 1929.

Post-war changes

As mentioned before, there has been a change after the First World War, and after the First World War, there have been even more changes II. These changes are:

• Economic change: a decline in heavy industry and an increase in assembly-line technologies meant that workers no longer had to be skilled labourers. Young people were thus well suited for this type of work and cheaper to employ, resulting in a high employment rate among young people. Consequently, their purchasing power and consumer spending increased.
• Changes in education: the 1944 Education Act expanded secondary education and raised the school-leaving age to 15 in 1947. This, along with an increase in youth employment, paved the way for the emergence of youth tribes in postwar Britain.
• Windrush migrants: entire communities from the British Empire and the Caribbean came to Britain to help rebuild the country after World War II. These people brought new cultures, music, and fashions that would help shape the youth cultures that began to develop in Britain.
• ‘The wild ones’: during this time, youth were referred to as ‘the wild ones’. The immature teenagers rebelled and often disobeyed their parents.
• The mass media also played its part in creating a separate teenage culture. They focused more on their friends than their family.

Americanisation

America, particularly its music scene and Hollywood, had a major influence on British youth culture. While the influence on youth was small in the first half of the 20th century, it grew in the following decades, with movies, movie stars, and music showing the continuing influence on British youth ages 14 to 25.

The 1950s teen revolution

In this decade, the UK imports the term ‘teenager’ from the US. Youth are becoming more affluent, mass media and consumerism are rising, and American music influences Britain. Adults panic about juvenile delinquency, and the so-called ‘generation gap’ emerges.

Social changes

Traditions still influenced Britain. Classes were still visible, and it was relatively easy to identify people’s origins and social class by their accent or clothing style, as people rarely left the place where they had grown up. Class stereotypes were also clearly visible in films and television, which began to change in the 1950s.In this period, teenagers, supported by the mass media, got a bad reputation, mainly due to juvenile delinquency, which was quite exaggerated.

Economic change

World War II still had a major economic impact on many people in Britain, both because the war itself and the reconstruction of Britain were expensive and because of austerity measures. Among teenagers, on the other hand, we see an increase in leisure-oriented consumerism. Teenagers who had an income spent a lot of money on clothes, records, concerts, makeup, and magazines.

External influences

Due to labour shortages in the UK, people from other parts of the British Empire were encouraged to come to Britain to work. As mentioned earlier, these people brought their own culture, fashion, and music with them, influencing teenagers and even forming their subcultures later on.Also, we see that the US pop culture brought an exotic and exciting style to the teenagers, which was welcome since Britain was a dark and dreary place at that time. Rock ‘n’ roll was the new musical sound. Another example of ‘Americanisation’ is the jukebox. In 1945, there were fewer than 100 jukeboxes in Britain, but by 1958 there were over 13,000. At the same time, more young people were hanging out in casual venues like cafes, listening to American jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.The influences from the US offered teenagers an individual identity and self-confidence that allowed subcultures to flourish in the following decades.

The British youth cultures of the 1950s

Let's look at some cultures from the 1950s.

The Swinging Sixties

A sharp clothing style inspired by the Italian dress style now replaced the Teddy Boy drape jacket. This style was associated with the modernists or ‘mods’. With the mods came the rockers, the mods’ rivals, the skinheads, and the beginning of the hippie culture. Britain finally left behind the dark days after World War II and moved into a world of freedom and hope.

Social changes

One of the biggest social changes in the 1960s was the end of conscription. Young men were no longer required to serve their time in the army and could now do as they pleased. The parents of these teenagers had fought in World War II and wanted their children to have more fun and freedom, which led to a significant change in the teenagers’ social behaviour.The other major formative change was music. British groups like the Beatles led to revolutionary changes and influenced and changed the lives of young people in Britain. Their influence made young people stand up for their own beliefs and individuality.It is also the decade that saw an increase in recreational drugs, especially marijuana and LSD.In this decade, the older adult generation panicked about youth culture.

Economic changes

This decade saw an increase in youth employment, which led to a rise in youth spending. Young people spend their money on clothes, nightclubs, and drugs.With the mods and rockers, many youths also spent their money on scooters and motorcycles.Rockers wore leather, which was expensive to import from the US. This prompted British manufacturers to start production in Britain. This not only led to more employment opportunities but also made leather goods cheaper.

Counterculture

The counterculture was an anti-establishment cultural movement that first emerged in the US but quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. There were widespread social tensions around issues such as human sexuality and women’s rights that were addressed in the counterculture.The UK Underground was a counterculture movement that emerged in the UK in the mid-1960s and was linked to the hippie subculture in the US. It was centred on Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill and spawned its own magazines, newspapers, bands, clubs, and alternative lifestyles. It was a socio-political revolution in creating an alternative society.The beatnik ‘beat’ generation influenced the counterculture in Britain.

Beatlemania

The Beatles, formed in 1960, were instrumental in the development of the counterculture and were also considered leaders of the youth and socio-cultural movements of the time. Their musical genres were rock, pop, beat, and psychedelia, and their popularity grew throughout the 1960s.They were especially popular with female teenagers who spent money on their music and concerts. They also publicly displayed sexual desire, defying their parents’ moral codes. Their constant screaming at concerts and other events led to the Beatle era being referred to as Beatlemania. The popularity of the band can be seen as a symbol of the socio-cultural movements of the decade. It showed activism in various social and political fields and strengthened movements such as women’s liberation and environmentalism.

Fig. 4 - The media gathering en masse when the Beatles arrived at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands on 5 June 1964.

The British youth cultures of the 1960s

Let's look at the subcultures of the 1960s.

British anarchy in the 1970s

British parents became increasingly concerned with the hippie morality of freedom, love, and drugs. Things were not to get any better with the rise of the skins, the punks and the glam rockers.

Social changes

In the 1970s, we see the arrival of ‘teeny-bop’ bands like The Osmonds and the Bay City Rollers. Pop bands paved the way for young women and men to form a pop fan base that provided friendship and communal solidarity opportunities.In addition, bands such as the Sex Pistols created controversy and helped raise the profile of punk as a youth culture. Punks, however, were perceived as politicised youth culture, with political signifiers such as swastikas and anarchy symbols. Bands like The Clash referred to racial tensions, unemployment, and the socioeconomic environment.This decade also had a dark side. Rising unemployment combined with urban unrest and strained labour relations led to violence that spiralled out of control.Nonetheless, the clubbing scene was still one of the good times and good vibes. The late 1970s saw a huge disco boom.

Economic changes

The 1970s was a time that saw an economic downturn that led to a recession. While there was great youth employment in the 1950s and 1960s, the exact opposite was true in the 1970s. Youth unemployment increased significantly, with nearly one-third of all unemployed being youth. Youth either lost their jobs or were funnelled into low-paying or part-time jobs.

The British youth cultures of the 1970s

Romance style of the 1980s

The 1970s was a bleak decade when the punks discredited the British youth culture. There was a great recession, followed by the ‘winter of discontent’, during which young people had little to no job prospects. In the 1980s, however, a new, optimistic movement called ‘New Romantics’ emerged, based on a London club called the Blitz.In 1981, punk rock with bands like Blondie and Duran Duran gave way to the ‘New Wave’ and the ‘New Romantic Movement’.

Social changes

The ‘swinging teenager’ made way for the yuppy, the young urban professional who embodied the ‘good times’ of the 1980s.The downside of the social scale was high unemployment and inner-city deprivation. Black British youth were hit hard, and the heavy policing and racism did not help matters, leading to several riots.Other youth groups rejected materialism, and while the counterculture declined in the 1970s, some elements remained that eventually led to a distinct cultural group known as the ‘New Age Travellers’. This group participated in protests against road building and the stationing of American nuclear weapons in the UK. Their lifestyle and political activism led to vilification in the media and condemnation by the authorities.Public concern about the youth increased over the decades and did not disappear in the 1980s.While life was difficult for young people due to high unemployment, there were significant changes in gender norms, radical sexual politics, rapid technological changes, a thriving youth culture, and a growing club scene.We also note that the last baby boomers were not just about music. They expressed talents such as leadership, adaptability, and focus. They were a new class, becoming more confident and ready to enjoy the personal freedom and social mobility hinted at by their parents in the 1960s.

The British youth cultures of the 1980s

Let's look at the subcultures of the 1980s.

Generation Y & Z

Rap and hip-hop, combined with graffiti, dance and fashion, had a great impact on youth. It influenced the club cultures and dance music genres that became the centre of British youth culture in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Social changes

The 1990s became a decade of new forms of dance music such as house and techno spreading across UK dance floors. We see music and dance being mixed with the drug MDMA. Another name for MDMA is ecstasy, or ‘E’, which sometimes earned this generation the nickname Generation’ E’.This generation often met at so-called ‘acid houses,’ which were unlicensed, often illegal warehouse parties or raves. Although illegal, they were often huge open-air events with large sound systems, light shows, smoke machines, and sometimes even amusement rides. These raves provided a relaxed environment for the youth and even featured childish symbols everywhere like the big yellow smiley face.The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 changed things. Licenced events and venues replaced the unlicensed acid houses.In addition, there were changes in the job market, which became more flexible: careers became less secure, the risk of unemployment increased, neighbourhoods became less of a tight-knit, and communities and families became less stable. All of these factors affected the youth of the decade.

Cool Britannia

Cool Britania was a period in the late 1990s that saw a renaissance or rebirth of British art, fashion, design and music. In 1997, newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to create a ‘New Britain’ and he sought to tap into the energy and enthusiasm of contemporary youth culture. He connected with the inspirations of youth by, for example, having his picture taken with the Spice Girls, the ‘Girl Power’ movement of the time, and by inviting Noel Gallagher, the frontman of the band Oasis, to a prestigious reception in Downing Street.While this initially proved to be a good move as British youth culture became big business, by the late 1990s it had collapsed again. The big names of British pop culture had expressed disappointment with the government’s promises to help the young and the poor. The government’s ‘Cool Britannia’ movement was short-lived, and in its wake the government adopted a more authoritarian stance when there was an apparent rise in gang culture and gun crime, attributed to the influence of rap bands.

The British youth cultures of the 1990s

In the 1990s, acid became rave and proper shoes replaced the trainers. We also see the so-called ‘Girl Power’ movement, started by the popular British all-girl band, Spice Girls. Apart from that, however, not many youth cultures are as distinct as they were in the decades before. Some groups, such as the goths, live on, but no new subcultures have emerged.The exception is the so-called ‘lad culture’, which emerged in the early 1990s and created an image of the ‘lad’ or ‘new lad’. In this lad culture, middle-class boys adopted working-class attitudes. These attitudes included masculine pastimes such as drinking and watching football. Young men felt the need to show their masculinity after seeing the androgynous style of the New Romantics.Youth cultures were still there but in a different way. Where before it was about creating an identity or finding ‘your people’, in the 1990s subcultures were more about leisure. For example, these young people would attend a death metal concert on the weekend looking the part, but only for that particular event. It was more an act rather than them expressing their true selves, and they would not dress in death metal style in everyday life.

British youth culture in the early 21st century

In the 1990s and 2000s, the media and politicians criticised British youth culture, who received a bad reputation. This was the decade of the ‘hoodie’, becoming synonymous with youth crime in the eyes of the public. The fact that the hoodie was an item the violent youth wore did not help the perception of both the hoodie and the youth. But that was not all.

Social changes

A significant shift in ‘youth thinking’ occurred. Many Millennials share the same values, beliefs and norms as their parents. Although youth are trying to be individuals, they do not feel the need to join groups.Most young people are now looking for a meaningful job or quality education, reducing student debt, finding a decent place to live, and starting a family, just like their parents.The downside was that violent crime seemed to rise, and the term ‘gang’ was used frequently. Gang crime did seem to be on the rise, but it was mainly concentrated in the most deprived areas of Britain. The decay and disorganisation of certain areas seemed to fuel violence, resulting in a chaotic and unstable lifestyle for the youth living there. The media disseminated this image of more gang-related crime and violence in a way that made it look like a plague was ravaging the entire country, not just these disadvantaged areas. They also blamed much of the gang-related deaths on so-called grime and drill music.

Millennials rising

The baby boom and economic prosperity of the time may have laid the groundwork for the teen revolution, but now times were tougher and more unpredictable. The 2007/2008 international financial crisis hit hard the youth around the world, and youth unemployment grew exponentially. Although it seemed that the impact on Britain was less severe than on other countries, young people were burdened with student loans but zero-hour contracts, which meant they had no financial security to both pay student loans and save money for their future.Although the outlook was bleak, there were some positive changes for Millennials. These young people were more media savvy and embraced digital technology. This digital technology significantly impacted youth culture, music, and style. Through the internet, youth cultures became more global and spread much faster than before when there were ‘only’ televisions and radios. Young people became acquainted with other influences than just those of the (mass) media, influences they might not have come into contact with before.

British youth cultures of the early 2000s

Similar to the 1990s, we do not really see the emergence of new youth cultures, but rather a continuation of cultures like the mod, punk, and rave that were still very influential. The biggest change we see is that the boundaries of youth cultures began to disappear as subcultures transitioned into adulthood. The subcultures seem to be less age-specific but were either picked up or adopted into adult lives. It took longer to become an ‘adult’ as educational careers lengthened, which meant that entry into full-time employment was delayed and the average age for starting a family increased. The term ‘youth’ was now part of people’s lives for much longer than the original age of 14 to 25.One exception is the ‘chavs’, also known as ‘neds’, which were an anti-social subculture. The term chav is a derogatory term for lower-class young people who behave brashly and uncouthly. They often wore real or imitation designer clothes. We can consider this as the last subculture of the early 2000s.

Summary

• As you can see, there have been many youth cultures in Britain over the decades, and it is a topic with a massive amount of information. All youth cultures have something unique about them, while at the same time, in many cases, drawing inspiration from another contemporary or earlier youth culture. Youth cultures represent different ways for youth to express themselves, to break away from mainstream society and find their own way and individuality.

• Many youth cultures have emerged as a result of societal changes that have been supported by fashion and music. Americanisation, especially as (mass) media became big, greatly influenced British youth culture, with most youth cultures originating in the US.

• Not all youth cultures were welcomed, and some gained a bad reputation. In the latter part of the 20th century, we see politicians and (mass) media alike blaming crime and (gun) violence on youth and especially on influences like rap music. However, this is a gross vilification of youth in general. Youth have been stereotyped, while within various subcultures there were only a few groups of people who were prone to violence.

• Nevertheless, all the different youth cultures over the decades gave people their own identity. This identity was evident in their clothing, hairstyle, accessories, language, and musical tastes, many with international influences. In the last part of the 20th century, we find many British youth no longer forming full-time youth cultures, but more leisurely youth cultures.

• At the beginning of the 21st century, we find that gang violence does occur, but it is not placed in the proper context. We also see that young people are starting to have the same values as their parents.

• We see the rise of Millennials and their tech-savvy talents.

• Also, longer education meant getting a job and starting a family later in life. Youth became adults later in life.