Fashion

1922-1943 Italy was ruled by Fascism, it was a totalitarian State because it took part in almost every social life aspects: economy, conflicts between workers and trader, education and assistance, even freetime and leisure. Fascism wanted to establish unity between State, Party and Society, to avoid any opposition. To send messages to the population it used wonderful instruments: radio, cinema and newspapers. These became propaganda instruments for the regime and were useful to escape dissent.
The post –war period saw the emergence in Britain of a youth culture, which distinguished itself in behaviour, musical tastes and body symbolism which took the significance of group belonging

1950s -Teddy boys, bikers, hippies, skinheads and punks


Teddy boys: the Ted’s uniform consisted of a jacket, long pointed shoes with laces and they wore their hair very short at the back and raised in the front
They had a reputation for violence, they acted the part of hooligans, slashing (squarciare) cinema seats and taking part in riots. They became synonymous with juvenile delinquency and racism
One of their mottos was – we are not against the blacks, let’s just say we are not with them

The bikers: their mode of transport was the symbol of a lifestyle that set out to challenge (sfidare) the boring, cosy normality of the new post war society. They wore black leather jacket, buttered clothes which demonstrated their harsh experiences on the road
Ideology: they tended to regard women and coloured immigrants as inferior categories. Only aggressive masculinity, the ability to handle oneself on and off the bike, to accept the very high risk of killing oneself when riding, gave the right to belong to the group

The hippies of the 1960s didn’t give importance to material success: they wore clothes which were hand-made from natural materials often ethnic in origin and didn’t mark body contours rigidly.
They were detached from consumer society and their escape from the sadness of modern life, was the rejection of time: they threw away their watches and refused to be subjected to “normal time”
Ideology: first and foremost it was going to be a world of mutual respect, mutual acceptance. No more prejudice: you could worship who you wanted to worship, how you wanted to worship, wear the clothes you wanted to wear, have the sexual attitudes you wanted, eat what you wanted to eat, drink, smoke […] whatever you wanted to do- mutual acceptance. You were a human being and you had the right to do that

The hippies’ age was also the age of the Beatles, their message was “love not war”.
They made large use of drugs

By the middle of the 1960s a new subculture style took place: skinheads

They adopted an aggressively working class identity: heavy boots, donkey jackets, tatoos and shaved heads characterized their style. Also their attitudes were opposite to that of the hippies. Instead of LOVE AND PEACE they welcomed conflict and aggression. There were no girls in this group and one of their mottos was “I think all the girls are second rate” It soon became synonymous af racism. Politically they were linked to extreme right-wing groups.

In 1976 the PUNKS were the new youth revolution

This period is characterised by a general economic stagnation and the rising unimployement, so the punk’s battle cry was “no future!” They spat (sputavano) on everything, including themselves, their symbol was nothingnenn, a vacuum, a void.
Punk style was its cut ups and safety pins worn through the cheek, ear or lip. They turned into garments cheap fabrics such as plastic with vulgar design and nasty colours. Their hair was dyed yellow, black or orange with tufts of green.


Historical situation in the period before: music, no tv, no washing machines, no water in the houses, no education, no health care

Historical situation: Vietnam war. 1944 Education Act, tv, sports and leisures, music

English society from 1945 to 1979: TV programs were a mixture of information, education and entertainement. All people embracing all ages, all classes, all faiths could watch tv.
Recreational activities  became very popular since far more people could afford equipment and club subscriptions. Dancing and listening to “pop”  music were by far the most popular leisure activities among the young throughout the period. The mid-fifties saw the birth of rock and roll with rock around the clock and E. Priestly’s songs. In the 1960s arrived the Beatles.


The role of rock music within the contemporary society

Rock music offered the opportunity of developing creativity and with its immediacy of rhythm and sound, came nearest to the desired ideal of communication and was a sourse of cultural ideas.
On the basis of modern mass comunication, rock offered an opportunity of unifying music,  fashion and youth in a single great experience.
Now music was under the sign of vibration, the harmonious total sound of body, feeling consciousness and music.
Sound was considered a kind of materialisation of consciosness  and this brought to new ways of perceiving the world and of acting within it.
Rock music was a source of energy which changed the social fantasy. The power of this music was in its effect on the senses. A jazz critic once said “rock is the most revolutionary power in the world- it is able to hurl people back to their senses and it makes people feel good. And this is exactly what revolution is made up of. Rock is a weapon in the cultural revolution”.
American Civil Rights Movement and the brutal reality of the Vietnam war provoked to political radicalism.
Against this background the rock experience was supposed to be an experience of community and togheterness, wrenching (strappando) teenagers out of their isolation in the family, in school, at work, or in the universities and reflecting their own frustrations back to them as the frustrations of their whole generation.