Youth Cultures in Britain in the 1960's

The term to define consists of two words with different meanings. Whereas the term “Youth” is clear to everybody, we firstly have to define what aspects the word “Culture” deals with. „Die ‚Kultur’ einer Gruppe oder Klasse umfaßt die besondere und distinkte Lebensweise dieser Gruppe oder Klasse, die Bedeutungen, Werte und Ideen, wie sie in den Institutionen, in den gesellschaftlichen Beziehungen, in Glaubenssystemen, in Sitten und Bräuchen, im Gebrauch der Objekte und im materiellen Leben verkörpert sind.“(1)

That means culture is the way people act and behave after experiencing the way of living in their specific social class. We can consider that during their childhood working-class youths especially get to know all ideologies and values of working-class culture. That is very important in terms of forming groups and gangs where members have the same behaviour and values.

Furthermore A. Cohen utters “Menschliche Handlungsweisen hängen von der Art der Probleme ab, die jeder bewältigen muß”.(2) These problems differ from one class to the other, which means a person who lives in the working class has to deal with other problems than an upper class person.

Every society is built up of a variety of cult

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The result was that youths could form new groups with people who thought and behaved similarly to themselves. But they never reached the end of the line were complete satisfaction was achieved. Most jackets were decorated with iron rivets and buttons to make them look more dangerous. That had been completely different during World War II and before when most teenagers had been educated in all-age elementary schools. ”(7)People who needed drugs to have enough courage to beat up someone or to get a tattoo were also declared as cowards.

And last but not least there was the mainstream Mod. The future had no importance in these teenagers’ lives; the “heat of the moment” while riding a motorbike was the real thing they tried to achieve. Having fun and parties were the top priorities of their life. Firstly there is to mention the sexual revolution that on the on hand was made possible through the invention of a contraceptive pill. In this context, a Rocker utters: “Wenn ich was nich könnt ohne Drogen im Bauch, ich würds erst gar nich machen wollen. Therefore the citizens want to “put them down” and make them live humiliate. The reasons for this lie in the inventions their parents fought for. Most Rockers were badly educated and therefore often worked as craftsmen or unskilled workers where payment was very bad. Brake defines four different styles of Mods(11).

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