Jack the Ripper

1960`s Question 5

The 1960`s was a period of extreme change and is referred to as the decade of sex, drugs and rock and roll. In this essay, I will be investigating whether popular culture did more harm than good using sources and my own knowledge. I will focus on music, television, radio and sexual revolution of popular culture. There are many positive aspects as well as many negative ones too.

Firstly, positives, source A shows the good affect the Beatles on young people "The nation held its breath because that evening the four Beatles, all the Fab Four, were appearing live on Ð''Juke Box Jury'", source C shows fans would like to have a chat with stars but some stars got the wrong idea and would run off. Source E tells us how teenagers were thrilled about the new radio station "Luxembourg" and how they could "hear all the pop songs they'd ever desired". This was the first time young people had their own music to listen to and proved to be an encouraging experience.

Source D demonstrates how teenagers had TV programmes aimed at them for the first time, "Ready Steady Go", which featured their favourite bands, Source E shows how the BBC were failing to provide radio shows for the younger generation which required them to tune into pirate stations such as "Radio Caroline and Luxembourg". In 1967, the pirate stations forced the BBC to start Radio 1 that targeted young people and had a positive impact. ITV produced many pop music programmes for the younger ages, and so did BBC, "Top of the Pops" which stayed popular for many years. During the 60s a new style of programmes that showed real social issues of the working class, "Coronation Street" which is still going strong today.

Now the negative points about popular culture in the 1960s, source B reveals how the "Rolling Stones" made their fans turn into a "heaving, maniacal, screaming mob", source G explains about the bad affect Janis Joplin had as she experimented with drugs and died of a drugs overdose. As the 1960s advanced bands such as "the Beatles and the Rolling Stones" changed the style of their songs and went from singing love songs to singing about having sex and about the affects of drugs, which influenced people to take drugs as these bands were idolised by many. Mick Jagger (lead singer