The 1960s
Counterculture- In opposition
to mainstream culture
The 1960s
• The 1960s is often described as the
‘Swinging Sixties’ – a time when lots
of people had fun!
• A time of significant social change
Music
• Pop music became
truly popular in
the 1960s
• New bands
• New issues in
songs
• Inspired new
fashions and new
hairstyles.
The British Invasion
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The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Who
The Kinks
The Animals
The Hollies
The Zombies
The Troggs
Fashion
Miniskirts
brightly
coloured dresses
knee-high
Boots
Not like Mom & Dad
Hippies – different clothes,
different hair, different lifestyle!
•Rejecting traditional values and
lifestyles
•Long hair
•Drugs
•Communes
Black Americans in the
1960s
• Civil Rights
Movement
• Equal rights for Black
Americans
• Laws changed
• Attitudes?
Civil Rights & Martin Luther King
• Assassinated on March 29th, 1968
• Shot by escaped-convict James
Earl Ray, who was captured in London, England, two months later,
trying to travel on a fake Canadian passport to Rhodesia
• His death sparked riots in more than 100 cities nationwide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMXaTktUfA
John F. Kennedy
-US President from 1961-63
-Youngest elected to the office at
43
-Only Catholic President
-First Irish American president
-Won the Pulitzer Prize
-Assassinated on November 22,
1963
•Liberal views on social issues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB6hLg3PRbY&fe
ature=fvwp&NR=1
The Pill
-Released in 1957
-Prevents the Egg from being
fertilized by the sperm
-An injection of hormones
Sex = marriage = children
Women started having more freedom
Canadian population decreases
Women in the 1960s
• Increase enrollment in Universities
• Increase women with careers.
• A women’s protest movement began in the
1960s asking for equal rights for women.
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYbs_O_iMfU Aretha Frankin- Respect (2:22)
Problems for the ‘Swinging Sixties’
• Generational tension
around DRUGS, SEX &
ROCK N ROLL
War and discovery
• Two others issues that dominated
the USA (& influenced Canada)
during the 1960s were the Vietnam
war and Space race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINS
D7MmT4
-French withdraw
-North establishes Communist gov.
-USA scared = supports South
Draft Dodgers
-20 000 – 30 000 Draft
Dodgers came to Canada
-Accepted as immigrants
1963- Out with Diefenbaker, in
with Pearson- A left shift
Lester B Pearson
• His minority government introduced:
• universal health care
• student loans
• Canada Pension Plan
• The new Canadian flag
• The Royal Commission on Bilingualism
and Biculturalism
He also brought in Trudeau, Turner
and Chretien as cabinet ministers