Can you explain to me the youth culture of the 1960's?

Question

As asked before in a question about the 1980's, I am doing a paper about youth culture of back then compared to now. I wasn't born at this time and internet information does not give much first hand thoughts about it. So, if you were a 1960's teen, I want your answers!

Answer 1

We grew up in an affluent and orderly life in the 1950s, raised by the people who won WWII. After the privations of their childhoods during the Depression and the hardships of the War, they decided to lavish us with material goods and to go easier on the discipline than their parents did. They expected us to create a better world.
In the early sixties this orderly, affluent life was at its peak. People started thinking more about social justice, to change the world. The Civil Rights movement was popular.
Suddenly around 1966 the country seemed to be inundated with drugs! Pot! LSD! (LSD hadn't been made illegal yet.)The original hippies were kind and honest people who just wanted to expand their minds. They would work if needed, but they didn't need much, and they were willing to share. One thing that really upset a lot of parents was guys growing their hair longer than a military cut. If you look at an early picture of the Beatles, for instance, their hair was considered very long! This was very important to some parents, who wouldn't let their sons come home until they got a haircut. A lot of guys grew beards and long hair to look like Jesus. It was around this time too that it became acceptable for girls and women to wear pants to school or work or church. As a child I remember always wearing skirts except for very casual situations. The skirts started getting shorter, and longer. Before, they were usually just below or at the knee. Now skirts were way up the thigh and also to the ankle. In many ways we were trying to decrease the differences between male and female roles in society. Fortunately for me, my Mom enjoyed most of this, and my Dad wasn't worried about it. My parents knew what a marijuana plant looked like because it used to grow wild; but now it never had a chance to grow before people picked it. They were really anti-drug, but I didn't get too involved in them anyway. Just a little pot. They didn't like the Civil Rights movement (we're white), not because they were racist but they just didn't like the conflict and and disorder in the streets.
Compared to now, I would say we have more emphasis on discipline now, because discipline got lost over the years. Our parents had learned extreme discipline during the War, so they were ready to slack off a little. Our generation wanted to "do our own thing" but it was assumed this did not include hurting anybody. Our discipline was unconscious. During the seventies I was shocked to hear of the phenomenon of "latchkey children," children coming home from school to an empty house. When I was a kid this was unthinkable. There was no home structure. These children have their own children now, and they are tightening up the control. Their kids wear proper clothes, do hours of homework (in my day there was no homework until high school, and parents never helped with it). There's karate and other sports. Keep the kids busy. Even so, the kids seem less kindly and honest than in my day. Drugs are a real menace now, not just a charming youthful fling. On the criminal side of youth, there is also more structure, in the form of gangs. The youth are not "doing their own thing," they are joining! And many parents WISH their sons would wear long hair, and won't let them come home if they DO get a haircut. It seems that the current youth generation is getting ready to win the next war. They will become increasingly disciplined. And their kids will be the next hippies.

Answer 2

I was a child in the 60's, so I'm not your ideal demographic.

I wanted to point out that what others are describing, (and people generally think of as "the sixties") was really the late sixties -- 67 and on, in to the early seventies.

The freaks versus the straights.

It was both scary and exhilarating; couldn't tell if it was the beginning of the end, in some ways -- we could blow up the world world 1,000 times over any second now -- but it sometimes seemed like the beginning of greater tolerance and that better values (than materialism and hate and plastic and "control" and environmental destructiveness -- values such as peace, live and let live, judging people by who they are not what they looked like -- color or hair length) would soon prevail.

Rid yourself of all your hang-ups.

If you want more on that era, try to get your hands on the Broadway musical Hair -- it'll give you a good idea of the general sensibility of the time.

Never trust anyone over 30, man; they sold out.

In 1969 we moved to the Mendocino County coast (northern California), and in the three years I was there saw a lot of kids who dropped out of college to "return to the land" -- building little illegal dwellings, raising chickens and veggies, not using electricity, etc.

Seemed dang near everyone played guitar. (Acoustic.)

Mind, most young folk of that time did NOT do this, but it's considered the paradigm.

Back then, "shacking up" was considered shocking to many of their elders -- families split over this, and other issues.

But, make love not war.

Of course, you could focus your paper on the early sixties, and possibly be the only one in your class to do so. It was not unlike the late fifties.

;-)

Answer 3

well, if you were working class, you probably went to school, often had a small job afterwards, went to dances, listened to that rock and roll whenever your parents weren't around.
but, if your parents had enough money that you didn't have to take care of yourself, you probably decided that you were fed up with the "establishment," ran away from home, grew out your hair, did some acid, dodged a draft then spat on the soldiers sent to fight in your place (around '69, mostly this was an early 70's activity), staged some protests about issues you didn't understand because you were either a dropout or you listened blindly to your professor at Berkley who was using your culture to deal with his own messed up life. Then you either eventually dried out, wised up, and made something of yourself, or continued the tradition as a liberal arts professor at another university.

Answer 4

It was a great time to be a teen. Still a lot of moral values taught at that time. It was a time when air was clean and sex was dirty.LOL Depending on where you lived and how pleasant life was. There was a lot of black and white hate going on in some places. It was a good time to be in school because they didn't tolerate very much from the students. Respect was high on the priority list. I saw a lot of history made in the 60's. I really miss that era. It was a time a hand shake was as good as a written contract. So much to tell and so little space. I had a great time as a teen then.

Answer 5

Are you kidding? I applaud you for getting first hand accounts, but the 60s counterculture movement is perhaps one of the best documented eras from individuals' standpoints. Kennedy, Civil Rights (Selma, AL, MLK Jr., Montgomery, Mississippi burning, Black Panthers, etc). Then you have Kerouac ("On the Road", early sixties), Vietnam, Forrest Gump ;), Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, etc. I'm kind of throwing 1962 - 1972 into the 60s bucket, but dear god...

Answer 6

An age of inner-soul-seeking. The realization that the world didn't have enough love in it, and the desire to do something about it. The PEACE generation, long hair, bell-bottom loosness and tied-died teeshirts.
Emergence out of the pointed-toe shoe, leather jacket, James Dean-looking guys who seemed like rednecks predjudiced against anybody different than themselves.
Listen to Steppenwolf's song, "Monster".

Answer 7

The 60's was a time of War and Peace, a time of Long Hair and Pot, Music and Hippies, Free Love and Anti-Establishment. I loved the 60's, wish I could go back in time! Check out WikiPedia, they'll give you a lot more.

Answer 8

There was a distrust of older people. They would try to tell us how to live our lives, to work hard, go to certain colleges, always focused on earning money. As a teen I just wanted to have fun, and they were always in the way.

Answer 9

wel if you like to know youth culture about britain i can tel you that it was ful of skinheads,teddy boys,rockers,mods,and the odd hippy.

Answer 10

Well, for one thing, they had no video games.
I can't imagine the torturous boredom that they somehow survived!