Lesson video

- ♪ Help! I need somebody ♪ ♪ Help! Not just anybody ♪ ♪ Help! You know I need someone ♪ ♪ Help! When I was younger, so much younger than today ♪ ♪ I never needed anybody's help in any way ♪ ♪ But now these days are gone, and I'm not so self-assured ♪ ♪ And now I find ♪ ♪ Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors ♪ Hi, everyone.

Welcome to our lessons on the Swinging Sixties.

My name's Mr. Wallace, and thanks for joining us here with Oak National Academy.

Now for the next few lessons, we're going to be examining the Swinging Sixties, and the music you just heard is one of the most famous examples of what people think about when they think about the Sixties.

And each lesson's going to start with something like that.

You're going to hear a little bit of music, which is relevant to the lesson and which is famous from the Sixties to help us really understand the culture and what people were experiencing at the time because when people think about the Sixties, one of the most common, popular, famous things from this decade is the music because it's had such a massive impact.

And it's still popular today.

Now there will be time to go through that, but it's going to be a part of today's lesson.

But it's especially going to be a focus of our next lesson.

Today we're going to really focus on what the Swinging Sixties were.

Why were called that? What's the stereotype? Why do people think about the Sixties in this way? And then over the next few lessons, we'll add to that and really begin to examine about whether that's true.

This is one story of the Sixties, but we want to figure out is that an accurate story.

And what other stories can be told? If we think about the Sixties as one thing, are we ignoring other things? So our focus over the next few lessons is going to be on that.

Before we get started today, I just want to make sure that you've got everything you need.

So can you make sure you've got a pen, you've got something to write with or write on, and you have a hassle-free environment, that you've moved the mobile phone away, that you got somewhere you can work in peace for a little while at least? Once you're ready, we can get started, all right? Okay, let's go.

Okay everyone, I'm up here now.

So to begin with, look at this picture, okay? When people think about the Swinging Sixties, when people think about the Sixties in general, it's images like this one that they tend to think of.

So I want you to have a really careful, close look at the image that is on your screen, and it's probably useful if, for a few seconds at least, you pause the video and really try and examine what it is you can see.

So pause the video here, and try and write down, say, three things, three things that jump out to you, that stand out to you.

What can you see? We'll go into what it means and anything deeper than that afterwards, but just what can you see in this picture, okay? So pause the video here.

We'll come back in a few seconds.

Okay, so I'm assuming you've paused and you've made a couple of notes.

So what can you see? I mean it's obvious the first thing your eyes are drawn to, it's these really colourfully dressed people at the front.

They're all young.

They're wearing bright colours.

They're wearing clothes that don't entirely look, say, standard for this country.

They're wearing clothes that are maybe inspired by other countries.

And look how colourful they are compared to people in the background.

So this is one thing.

Secondly, you might notice this painting in the background, which appears to be above this shop.

You've got all of these, again, bright bold colours.

Again, the bright, bold, colorfulness of the decade is something we will get into, especially when we spend a little bit of time looking at art.

What might be a second thing you looked at? Well, I think the thing that's most interesting about this picture is actually this couple here.

I've got an arrow to them that you can see.

Now look at this older generation looking on at those bright, colourful, eccentric young people at the front.

These older people, you can't quite tell what they're thinking, but they are looking.

And they might be looking on admiringly.

They might not.

They might be looking on a little bit disapprovingly that these people seem to be dressed very strangely by their tastes.

You don't really know.

But this picture really gets to the heart of one of the main features of the Swinging Sixties when we think about the Sixties and what it actually means, and that is about being a break from the past, that a lot of the things that became popular in the Sixties, a lot of things that we still remember about this decade were all about breaking away from tradition, that it's less traditional.

And it's a focus on young people and young people's desires, their tastes, their influences.

What did young people want? Young people tended to shape this decade, and in this picture, you can see that being represented with these young people at the front wearing these really, really bold colours and clothes and this older couple wearing very traditional suit and tie and looking on.

And this break with tradition is a real feature of the stereotype of the Sixties.

When people think about what the Swinging Sixties are, one of the things is breaking away from the past to move in a new direction.

With that in mind, I want you to pause the video again.

Just move myself away there.

I want you to pause the video again, and I want you to fill in these two sentences just to express fully what your first impressions of the Sixties are.

So what does this picture tell us about the Sixties? In this picture I can see something.

So point out something.

You can see the young people in bold colours, or you can see the older couple or something like that.

And then what does that suggest? What does that tell us about the Sixties? What does that tell us about these people, okay? So pause the video here, and just finish off these two sentences to get a first star about what the Sixties actually are, okay? Second pause, let's go.

Okay, now let's have a look at what I've written, and you can compare yours against it.

Don't worry.

It doesn't have to be exactly the same.

You may have made a different point to me.

That's absolutely fine, but this will give you a sense of the type of thing that would be a good answer to this, okay? So in this picture, I can see an elderly couple here looking on at a group of young people who are dressed very differently.

This picture suggests that there was a gap between the fashions or ideas of younger people compared to their parents or older people.

So my point is, these people here are looking on, and that suggests there's a gap between those two, that what these people at the front like is different, their fashion, their ideas, their tastes, all of the things they enjoy are different compared to the people at the back.

And that's something we'll examine a little bit more today.

Okay, so just.

Let me just remove myself from here.

Just as an example of where we are, here's a timeline of British and world history since the end of World War II, okay? You can see end of World War II here, 1945, England winning the World Cup in 1966.

That's something that'll come up in these lessons.

Our first female prime minister in 1979, the September 11th attacks in 2001, and some of you may have some vague memories of this, the 2012 Olympics in London.

And the Sixties are really just a small part of this.

Of course, there's other decades that we could focus on as well, but none of those other decades really have the long-lasting impact that the Sixties had, that have affected our culture and our laws and all the different things that we take for granted.

The Sixties cast a long shadow over the rest of this timeline, and they're extremely influential.

And we think about them without even realising in all kind of different aspects of entertainment and culture, influences our society in a lot of ways.

So here's where it all started.

This is Time magazine, one of the most famous magazines in the world.

It's published in America, and in April 1966, they did a special issue all about Swinging London, what the called The Swinging City.

And to be swinging meant cool.

It meant exciting.

It meant young.

And it showed London as the centre of various things, art, fashion, music, culture in general.

London was really at the heart of everything, and on the front of this, there's various images that people at the time would certainly recognise.

For example, the prime minister at the time is here, but there's other things that we will focus on, which I want to point out to you.

So for example, you can see a figure at the front with these Union Jack sunglasses who is from a band called The Who, who we will look at next lesson.

And you can also see here a woman wearing a dress.

Now this black and white pattern dress, this particular style of fashion, is something that's going to come up as well, partially in today's lesson.

And these things are some of the most long-lasting memories of this time period.

People remember what they saw, what they heard, the fashions they wore, all of these things that were different to what came before.

The fashion was different.

The music was different, et cetera.

So people had felt this way, but Time put a name to it.

By calling London The Swinging City and with that following on, the decade became known as the Swinging Sixties, this put a name on a feeling that people already had.

People felt that London was cool, that London was different, and now it had a name, The Swinging City.

But if we think about that, what does that actually mean? We can tell a little bit from this picture, but what is the stereotype? When we think about the Sixties, what's the stereotype that people have in their head? So first of all, it's music.

Now The Beatles we heard at the start of the lesson.

The Who I will focus on a little bit more in the next lesson.

One of the most famous bands from this decade as well is the Rolling Stones, but there's many, many more.

I've just picked out three of the most famous, but the music is one of the most long-lasting ways that the Sixties affected us because it transformed the way we listen to music.

It influenced other bands and musicians that we still listen to today.

It has had an enormous cultural impact.

So it's not just music.

Another way is the stereotype of young people.

Now this is a photograph which was taken on Carnaby Street in London.

Nowadays it's very, very popular for shopping.

Back in the Sixties, that's when it became popular for shopping because shops appeared on the street, which served specifically young people and young people that were wearing stylish clothes that were a little bit different from their parents, a little bit more colourful, a little bit bolder, a little bit more interesting than what their parents had worn.

So you have this youth culture, that the Sixties were all about the tastes, such as the musical tastes or the fashion tastes of young people.

Now I'm going to develop this one a little bit more on fashion.

Okay so, I've brought myself back now.

I've got a little space in the corner.

So fashion is one of the most important changes to people's lives in the Sixties because they broke away from some of the traditional clothes and styles that people had been wearing in the '40s and '50s and began to push it in a much more youthful, much more interesting for the young people at the time, direction.

And again, that's had an impact on the sort of things that we've worn ever since, influenced the '70s, '80s and beyond.

Now probably the most famous person associated with all of this is this woman here.

Her name is Mary Quant, and she had a shop in London where she was selling clothes specifically designed for younger people.

She said she wanted clothes that young people could run in, and by that, she meant that they could feel free in, that they weren't restricted and, you know, felt like they were closed off by their clothes, that their clothes freed them up to enjoy themselves.

So Mary Quant is a name that you will read once or twice as we go through these lessons because she has such a major influence on the clothes that we wear.

And the most famous fashion model of the time is this woman on the right, a woman called Jean Shrimpton.

So a lot of the clothes that Mary Quant was making were modelled by Jean Shrimpton.

And an example of this is the miniskirt.

Now this isn't Jean Shrimpton in this particular picture, but this is probably the iconic, the most famous new piece of clothing made in the Sixties, the miniskirt.

And it was designed or it was popularised, it was made much more popular by Mary Quant as, again, clothes that people could feel free in, that young people, young women especially, could feel free in.

And again, this is breaking away with the traditions.

These are skirts that were a little bit higher up the leg than some of the traditional clothes that women had been wearing, and they also began to get brighter, bolder, new designs.

So if we go back to this picture here, you can see black and white design on the Time magazine.

This is a particular type of design that we'll look at later in our lessons, in the next lesson.

But the designs were less, you know, traditional, less patterned floral things or simple designs.

But they started to become more experimental and more bold, and this dress, in fact, is made out of paper.

This is a paper dress, which again, became popular as people began to experiment with new types of fashion.

So this would be cheaper and almost disposable, that you could be, you know, removed after a couple of wears, and you'd buy a new one because they're so cheap.

So the type of fashion that people had was different to what was coming before.

So music, young people, fashion.

One other thing that people specifically remember about the Sixties is the World Cup.

So we all, I say we all, if we are a football fan, which I am, we remember how we've won the World Cup once, and we've never got there again.

We got there close a couple of years ago, and every single time we enter a tournament, it's always brought up that England haven't won anything since 1966.

And here we can see Bobby Moore being presented with the World Cup by the queen.

And in this, we look back to the Sixties and remember the good times.

Just like we remember the positive changes to music and fashion and so on, we remember the good old days.

And that means that we can tend to look to the past with what you could call like rose-tinted glasses, that you look at the positives, and you maybe don't focus so much on the things that weren't so good.

Now when we want a pick-me-up, when we want to feel good about ourselves, you know, when England have lost another match, and we're out of the World Cup, we'll think back to the time that that didn't happen and that we were good.

And that tends to make us think positively of this time because that's when we weren't so bad, okay? So the World Cup win is one of the most famous examples of sporting success in our history and one of the most famous things from the 1966.

And of course, by our history, I do mean England's history because Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland haven't won the World Cup.

Now let's remove myself again.

At this point, I want you to pause the video, step forward, and answer these questions, okay? There's four straightforward questions and one which is slightly different, slightly more difficult.

I want you to read through the different bits and pieces on the worksheet and answer these questions.

And try and make sure you answer them in full sentences and in detail.

Don't just give me one or two word answers.

I know that your teachers will tell you that all the time.

We want to show a little bit of depth here.

Show us what you know, okay? So at this point, let's pause the video, move forward, and come back when you finish those questions, okay? Let's go.

Okay, if you're back, I'm going to assume you've gone and done that.

So let's go through the answers.

Okay, Question One.

Now in these answers, you can see what we would call an acceptable answer, you know, a correct answer, and then a good answer.

And we always want to try and make our answers close to the good answers.

So don't worry if you haven't got the same word for word, but try and make sure that you are adding detail, that you're doing it in full sentences.

This is obviously the right answer, but it's only one word.

We want to develop on that.

What magazine called London the Swinging City? Time.

But to put that in a full sentence, London was called the Swinging City by Time magazine in April, 1966.

Question Two.

What generation of people became teenagers and young adults in the Sixties? The acceptable answer, the correct answer: Baby Boomers.

A good answer: The generation of people who became teenagers and young adults in the Sixties were known as baby boomers and were born in the years after the Second World War.

So as was explained in the reading, these young people hadn't experienced all the hardship of war like their parents.

So the Britain that they were growing up into felt a bit different for them because they'd not had the suffering and the difficulties that the previous generations had.

Three, how did Mary Quant affect the fashion world? An acceptable answer: Her designs were more modern and exciting and less traditional.

But let's try and add some detail to that.

A good answer: Mary Quant transformed the fashion world by creating clothes that were modern, bright and bold and that were designed for young people.

These designs broke away from the traditions of the past and were meant to give young people their own identity.

Her most famous creation is the miniskirt.

So adding a little bit of detail, not just that her designs were modern, but who they're targeting, young people, and why.

This idea of identity to give them something that belonged to them, that wasn't their parents, but it was theirs alone.

Four, what sporting success encourages people to look back fondly at the Sixties? The acceptable answer: England's 1966 World Cup win.

A good answer, and this should really say encourages English people, I suppose, a good answer: England's victory in the 1966 World Cup encourages people to look back at the past fondly because it was the most successful they've ever been.

When England are less successful in modern tournaments, the 1966 win is regularly brought up and reminds people of better times.

And slightly more challenging question here, why were the attitudes of young people important in creating the Swinging Sixties, their attitude, their mindset, the way that they think? An acceptable answer is they had a forward-thinking attitude which welcomed modern things.

Let's try and add some detail to that.

A good answer would say something like, the attitudes of young people were important because they were seen as forward-thinking and optimistic, and they welcomed modern culture.

This included modern music or fashion, which broke away from the traditions of the past.

Their attitude helped form their own identity which was separate from their parents and helped shape the famous aspects of the Sixties.

So the way that they thought, the way that they embraced everything modern, and broke away from so much that was traditional helped create this image of the Sixties that we still think about today.

So this picture then really helps sum up what the stereotype of the Sixties is.

It's youthful.

It's colourful.

It's bold.

It's fashionable.

It's all about the attitudes and the desires of young people.

So this group of people here helps sum up what the Sixties is about, and fashion is one of the ways that we can view the Sixties.

I'm going to leave you here with a quote from Mary Quant, "Fashion reflects what is really in the air." So have a think about that for a second, what she's saying.

It's not that fashion changed people.

She didn't suddenly start making all these new clothes, and young people liked them.

But she started making these new clothes because it reflected what was in the air.

Young people were changing already.

People wanted something bold and bright and new.

And therefore, the fashion that she and others made reflected that.

And you can make the same argument for music and the same argument for art and other parts of culture.

And in our next lesson, that's where we're going to be going, music and art.

So my advice, before we start our next lesson, before you come back, is to go and listen to some Sixties music.

It's brilliant.

You'll find all sorts of musicians, bands, solo artists, et cetera, that you'll absolutely love.

It's just some of the best music you can possibly hear.

We'll focus on that in our next lesson, okay? Thank you very much for your focus today.

I really appreciate your hard work.

We're getting started on a bit of modern history here, and it's also worth thinking about what family members you may have that have experienced this, our grandparents, aunts, uncles.

They may have grown up in the Sixties, and it'd be useful to have a chat with them.

Is their experience of the Sixties the same as what we've just talked about today? What musicians, what art, what fashion, what culture, what memories do they have of the Sixties? Something to think about as we move forward into future lessons.

Can't wait to see you in our next lesson.

Have a great rest of the day.

Thanks.