I think the transistor radio had a lot to do with it. Before the advent of those tiny portable music boxes in the mid to late 1950s the radio was a piece of furniture that sat in the house and the whole family would listen to the same thing. Most likely what the head of household wanted. Now teenagers could bring their music with them to the parks, street corners, or wherever they gathered and listen to the music they wanted to hear. Rock 'n Roll daddy-o! Which by its very nature was rebellious. This became a symbiotic relationship between the radio stations/record companies/advertisers and their targeted market. The teenagers wanted rebellion and they got it. The more they got the more they wanted and it snowballed from there. The transistor radio was then what the internet is today. A virtual communication device that spread ideas through the music, deejays, and advertising which gave way to the mores of the 60s and 70s. Society is never static. It evolves as sure as mankind.
The change in our society began much earlier than the 20’s. American culture is based on rebellion against European mores. The rebel as culture hero goes back to Prometheus. Abraham was the original iconoclast.
John F. Kennedy’s decision to forgo headgear at his inauguration is often credited (or blamed) for this development. However, as is usually the case, the truth is not so simple.
Money.
–The returning GI’s married and started pro-creating, which led to a high demand for consumer goods.
–The rest of the world was basically dead in manufacturing for 5 years after WWII which let our industries sell to the world.
–Communism and the cold war led to increased funding for military technology.
–All of the above led to increased R&D which led to further consumer goods entering the marketplace.
–All of the above also led to a post-war economic boom that lasted through the boomer generation maturing.
–The disposable income of the boomers led to increased target marketing directly to them, instead of their parents. Like most teenagers, they were seeking to rebel from their parents–which the marketers and sellers of manufactured goods, services and entertainment recognized as giant revenue and profit opportunities. So, goods, services, and entertainment was targeted towards those most likely to purchase said GS&E.
–E.g., young folks “need” movies to go to as part of the dating/mating ritual. Their parents do not–as they have already dated/mated. So movies were targeted [as today] toward adolescents. Kids like violence, sex and irreverence toward the older generations and that is therefore was was offered to them to achieve greatest market penetration.
IOW–money.
As far as hats are concerned, I defer to those more knowledgeable, but my guess is that lack of necessity was a key factor. If you are walking to work in a cold environment, you need a hat to keep warm, but if you drive to work, or drive to the station and take a train to work and then walk a short distance from the car/train/subway to your office, you can do without a hat–and hats were darn expensive back in the day, as much as a suit.
Sex–yes, the pill. Another giant revenue generator. You are talking about 33 million females–you do the math.
Drugs, ditto. Money.
Communes–no, they did not work. I don’t care what you hear of read, the numbers were just not that large. I was there.
BTW, if you think I am kidding…Dylan was once asked why he did folk music and he said: “because that was what was selling”. Heresy to the Zimmerman devoted, but true nonetheless.
Don’t want to do a threadjack, but I am waiting for the MAD MEN plot to show this discovery.
Anyway, that is MNSHO.
As the above posts prove, there were about a hundred factors happening at the same time which lead to one of the fastest total reboots in society the world has ever known.
I’ve always thought it interesting to compare “the 60’s” with “9/11.” The vast changes over a period of time with no one real reasons vs. the vast changes where the cause can be pin-pointed to one day. Hell, one second where it all changed.
Other than airport security what changes in society happened after 9/11? This is a serious question. Yes, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might not have happened - though the administration obviously wanted an excuse - and attitudes towards Muslims worsened. But the world always changes over time. There is literally nothing I can think of comparable to the 20s or 60s that occurred from 2001 to 2005 that matters in the same way.
How come mores became looser around the 1960s and early 70s?
It was a long term campaign of “softening the enemy” that began in the 1840’s and culminated in breaking the back of social mores in the mid 1960’s. The “enemy”: women (soften the women and the men will follow); first battle: Listomania; coup de grâce: Beatlemania.
It all started with Franz:
…followed by Rudy Vallee:
…followed by Frank Sinatra
…followed by Elvis…
…then finally, the Beatles.
I’m not so sure that attitude was applicable to Americans who did not suffer on nearly the same scale as the Europeans, Russians and others did.
I heard this one a long time ago:
Two aristocrats in bed, pausing during sex.
"Is this what the peasants call ‘fucking’?
Other one nods.
“Much too good for them.”
Well, I was there . . . and what I remember is that in the early 60’s life was really, really, really boring, as a teenager. The world was very constrained. For example I remember the time when, if you were in school, you would be sent home if your skirt was either above or below your knee. Everyone ate the same foods and watched the same tv and drove the same cars made by three hardly distinguishable manufacturers. Everybody’s mom stayed home and cooked and cleaned and shopped, period. It seems unimaginable today.
What seemed to happen was that a huge cohort of teenagers suddenly appeared. They had energy, money, curiosity and free time. And yeah, the Pill. But the relaxation of social mores was driven entirely by the young. It was fought tooth and nail by adults.
But there were too many of us.
Could higher education have played a role? From the end of WWII until the early 1970s, thanks to the rise of the organized labor movement, one could work in manufacturing, construction and lead a middle class life. However, the percentage of jobs in manufacturing compared to other sectors began to fall after WWII. The new jobs that emerged often required a college education. College enrollment exploded after WWII due to the GI Bill, and continued with the establishment of community colleges and the expansion of state university systems. On top of owning a house and car, the American Dream increasingly included sending children to college, in the hopes they would be better off than their parents.
Before WWII, those who weren’t college educated generally learned a trade or worked in their parents’ small business. They usually entered “the real word” shortly after they reached the age of majority. My parents told me stories about career days in high school where students were lined up deep at tables manned by the representatives of auto factories and steel mills, completing applications. A new high school graduate would experience a few weeks of freedom over the summer, after which he’d show up at the mill or plant. There was no time to be “loose”.
Those who went to college often experienced the liberty of being out from under their parents’ rule, with little of the responsibility. There’s also the exposure to new ideas and new ways of thinking.
And we had cars. For the first time in history the automobile was ubiquitous enough so that teens had ready access to them. How many of us had our first sexual experience in the back seat of an automobile?
Or college housing?
ooh, are we voting?
Post WW1 there was a change in society.
Post WW2 there was a change.
A big war with a large-scale draft + 15 to 20 years seeming equals social change.
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?