British Invasion

A fascination that British culture held for American teenagers in the mid-1960’s. The phenomenon began with music but eventually encompassed magazines, fashion, theater, film, and travel.

Origins and History

After World War II, most American teenagers developed their interests and values without any reference to cultural events outside the borders of their nation. They listened to American music and created their own teenage culture. In the latter half of 1963, they were first exposed to a new, unusual singing group: a British rock group called the Beatles, which had combined rhythm and blues and Latin beats to create a new sound. As teenagers became caught up in “Beatlemania,” they began to crave the culture of the nation that had spawned this group.

The Music

When the Beatles debuted in the United States, teenagers went crazy. They not only bought the records, but they also read everything they could find on the group. Not satisfied with the information available in domestic publications, teenagers began subscribing to British fan magazines such as Beatles Monthly and The Mersey Beat, both of which highlighted groups from Liverpool, England. As the teenagers grew increasingly enamored of the Beatles, they wanted more. Dozens of other British groups began touring the United States.

The early British groups were relatively clean-cut; their longish hair was neatly groomed and their concert attire consisted of Eton-collared suits and Cuban-heeled boots. They looked and played to a formula successfully established by the Beatles. The Rolling Stones brought the United States back to its musical roots by playing a heavily blues-influenced rhythm and blues, and its members’ scruffy appearance began to alter the image of the British rock star.

The Clothes

Before long, American teenagers, who had read in the fan magazines about the burgeoning British fashion industry on Carnaby Street and King’s Road, began to imitate the new styles. Girls shortened their skirts and dresses and wore doll-like makeup; both sexes wore the British flag on clothing and let their hair grow longer. British teenagers fell into two camps, the Rockers and the Mods, but it was the Mods rather than the rough-looking Rockers that American teenagers chose to imitate. British models such as Patti Boyd, Jean Shrimpton, and most famous of all Twiggy demonstrated the British look in American and British teen magazines. Twiggy’s extremely slender, boyishly angular figure became the ideal. Frosted lipstick, false eyelashes, heavy eyeliner, and cartoon-like lower lashes were extremely popular.

Youthful fashions began to be rendered in bright colors and bold patterns. The most popular designer was Mary Quant, a young British woman who used natural fabrics and focused on clothing textures in addition to style. Teenage girls wore short shirts called miniskirts accompanied by wide belts, poor-boy tops, and clunky wooden jewelry. They also began to wear hip-hugger pants.

The Carnaby Street look meant change for teenage boys as well. Teenage boys, who had previously faded into the fashion background, suddenly blossomed. They wore textured vests and bright colors similar to those teenage girls wore, giving rise to unisex clothing. Their ties (when they wore them) were wide and bright. So revolutionary was this interest in fashion on the part of teenage boys that several songs celebrated it, including the Kinks’ “Dedicated Follower of Fashion.” The teenagers’ long hair and brightly colored clothes drew taunts from many adults, including “Are you a boy, or are you a girl?” which became the title of a song by the Barbarians. These comments only served to heighten the teenagers’ spirit of rebellion, and gradually, even conservative businessmen began wearing paisley prints and colored shirts.

Theater and Film

British drama, including John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (first performed in 1956), had begun to capture the sense of rebellion felt by many of that nation’s youth. Plays about these young people and British life in general began to be performed in the United States. Peter Brook, director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, had the company performing new drama from Europe, and his 1970 production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream presented New York audiences with a vibrant, acrobatic theatrical event quite unlike a traditional staging of the revered playwright’s work.

When The Knack (1965) was filmed in Britain, it was done in black and white and featured actors unknown to screen audiences, including Rita Tushingham and Michael Crawford. The popular Tom Jones (1963) introduced actor Albert Finney to Americans, and Alfie (1966) introduced Michael Caine. Blow-up (1966), which questioned the meaning of reality, was probably among the strangest films of the decade. Many of the films poked fun at the conservative British society or questioned its values and assumptions. The Beatles, well aware of the cinematic scene in England, filmed their first film, A Hard Day’s Night (1964), on location in England. They wanted their film to be artistically sound and not merely a video catalog of songs, so they contracted with noted director Richard Lester and used cutting-edge techniques (black-and-white film, long stretches without dialogue, and Marx Brothers-like antics), which netted the film critical acclaim.

As the Vietnam War heated up and the teenagers who had caught Beatlemania turned into young adults, their attention focused on events affecting them much more directly; the hunger for British culture had generally disappeared from the American scene by 1967.

Impact

When The World Book encyclopedia’s 1964 year book mentioned the Beatles, teenagers knew they had influenced mainstream America. Although the British invasion lasted less than five years, it affected the United States for years to come. Americans were no longer focused on only their own continent. British music, theater, films, styles, and publications regularly appeared in the United States. More men began to enjoy dressing stylishly in a variety of colors and patterns, and the men’s fashion industry developed to meet their demands. Long hair on men slowly became commonplace, first showing up on businessmen, then on truck drivers and construction workers, the very men who had most vociferously criticized the style. Even bed sheets, which had mostly been white, blossomed with stripes, flowers, and bold patterns in bright colors.

Additional Information

Jane and Michael Stern, teenagers during the 1960’s, wrote Sixties People (1990), which looks at the decade’s styles and trends through its people. Todd Gitlin, a former campus activist, puts the decade in its political and historical perspective in The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (1987). The Sixties (1995), edited by Gerald Howard, discusses the arts and culture of the time.