theme 4 - the changing quality of life 4B: pop culture and entertainment

In the 1920’s British film cane under pressure from the larger more powerful American industry

In 1914 ¼ of all films shown in Britain were made by British film companies, just over a decade later this fell to 5%

1957 Cinematograph Films Act

Ensuring that 7.5% of the films shown had to be British - rising to 20% on 1935

Picture palaces

In the 1910’s cinemas were seen as ‘seedy’ and dirty places

Throughout the 1920’s they became gentrified - picture palaces were built and attracted affluent MC audiences

By the 1930’s 18-19 million cinema tickets were sold every week

Cinema tickets sales grew during the post was economic slump and again during the Great Depression

Escapism for the unemployed (cinema)

1931 study showed that unemployed people watched films 2.6 times a week - daytime showings for cheaper tickets

In Glasgow 80% of the city’s unemployed saw a film once a week during GD

Miner’s institutes

Improvised denim as in South Wales - only charged what out-of-work miners could afford

Between 1937 & 1939 cinema provided more than —% of all tax revenue for entertainment

50%

In 1937 the tax on cinema yielded the govt

£5.6million

Films reflecting social values

Mostly escapism - romances, crime dramas, thrillers

Some class commentary - The Pleasure Garden by Alfred Hitchcock - two single young women follows their journey to find love, experience inferiority and jealousy - narrative reflects changes in the lives of young women

1928 the first born

Unhappy wife with an unfaithful husband longs for a child

Adopts her hairdressers baby - saving her from shame and stigma

‘Illegitimate’ child would have been recognisable to 1920’s’ audience

Cinemas remained open during the war

Important for morale - popular demand kept them open - took people’s minds off of their problems

Films which encouraged patriotism were popular during the war

Cinematic version of Henry V - coincided with invasion of Northern Europe

Let George Do It - 1940 - Actor George Formby slaps hitler - Mass Observation alleged to be the biggest morale boost

1947 Hue and Cry

Ealing comedy about a group of school boys that thwart a criminal gang - filmed amid ruins and bomb craters - villains based on wartime black marketeers

Passport To Pimlico (post war austerity theme)

Residents of Pimlico find they have legal right to declare the district independent of Britain - no longer faced ration restrictions and haven for black market

Satirised the harsh economic conditions

War films

Post war Britains global standing and economy declined

a positive sense of Britishness

James Bond

Britains most successful film franchise - Dr No 1962 - expensive cars, clothes, drinks, international travel.

The Ipcress File 1965

Hero, Harry Palmer, a working class Londoner, resents upper class MI6 bosses - represented popular egalitarian ideas of the 60’s

Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste Of Honey 1961

New waste social realism - drama based on the everyday experiences of WC. Story of passion, desires and ambition

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning 1960

WC man Arthur Seaton, resentful of class status - materialistic. Represented the experience of mass consumption for many newly affluent WC people

Get Carter 1971

Micheal Caine portrays a gangster seeking revenge for the death of his brother - darker and pessimistic than dramas of the 60’s. Scenes of drug abuse and prostitution

A Clockwork Orange 1971

Stanley Kubrick - dystopian 70’s Britain - a future Britain where violent young men rape and kill for fun - mirrored anxieties about hooliganism and lawlessness

1920’s music - Ivor Novello

Keep The Home Fires Burning

Paid £15k (1.5 million in today’s money)

Jazz and swing 1930’s

20,000 dance bands in Britain by 1930

British dance bands inspired by American jazz Duke Ellington and Count Basie

Rock and roll

American artists, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry

British artists the Kinks the Rolling Stones

Beatlemania

Formed 1957 - first major commercial success 1963 - She Loves You 1964 sold 750k copies in under a month - sold millions of records and Beatles wigs - stopped touring in 1966 - cheerleading, optimistic pop music

Mod music

The WHO, the Kinks - consumerism and fashion - being able to but the right clothes was important to the subculture

Glam Rock

1970’s Marc Bolan & Bowie - androgynous and sexuality - radically different and subversive - teenagers sough to distinguish themselves from their parents

David Bowie

Space Oddity 1969 - inspired by moon landings - alter ego ‘Ziggy Stardust’ - ‘camp mannerisms’ deliberate rejection of male heterosexuality

Island and Trojan

1969 Record labels that imported reggae music selling to black & white audiences

1st reggae song to number 1

Desmond Decker ‘The Isrealites’ 1969

Punk (late 70’s)

Angry music - Sex Pistols, the Clash the Buzzcocks - token jeans, piercings, spiked hair ‘music of the dole queue’

Was alternative music popular?

Tates throughout the 60s & 70s were white tame - more people listened to the Bee Gees

Top selling UK album of the 1960’s:

Sergeant Pepper - the Beatles

The Sound Of Music Soundtrack

Most popular recording artists of the 1970’s

Elton John - 16 top 50 albums in a decade

Queen sold 19 million records 1975-77

When was the BBC formed

1922 - licensed by the govt and had a close relationship to the state

John Reith 1889-1971

BBC director general.

‘Inform educate and entertain’ - BBCs mission - BBC broadcast lectures, concerts, programmes beneficial to ordinary people

Pirate radio

BBC had the only licence to broadcast in UK - Pirate radio stations based on ships moored outside British waters - Radio Caroline had a 10million people audience by 1964

In 1967 pirate radio resulted in the reorganisation of the Light, Third and Home programmes into:

BBC radio, 2,3, and 4 and a new radio 1 focussed on catering to youth market with pop music - many pirate DJs were hired by radio 1

Commercial radio

In 1975 licenses for commercial radio were granted and the BBC lost its monopoly - plaid niche music and sustained on add revenue

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on the BBC

1953 - broadcast to 8million viewers - the number of TV license holders doubled to 3 million - many had rented a TV to watch the coronation

Directo General Hugh Carlton Greene

Appointed 1960 - decided the BBC needed a more egalitarian face

Drams about social issues such as homelessness and illegal abortion

Cathy Come Home 1966 & Up Rhe Junction 1968

Dr Who

First aired 1963 - Dalekmania 1963-1966

The most successful programme on ITV

Coronation Street since 1960 - not the first British soap opera - The Archers had been on the Light Programme for a decade

The television Act 1954

Allowed for a commercial rival to establish itself - ITV financed through commercial advertising and not a license fee

In Britain the post war period saw 1 million — a year compared to —- in the early 1930’s

Births, 800,000

National service

Introduced 1948, At its peak took 160k boys every ear for 2 tears service

May 1964 mods vs rockers

Vandalism and fighting in seaside towns - 51 arrests in Moorgate and 76 in Brighton

In 1945 the Scouting movements (Girl Guides, Cubs and Brownies) had —— members after the baby boom this rose to ——

471,000. 540,00 members