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Sixties People
Chronicles the oddball cliques and fads that composed the pop culture of the 1960s--from Mods and Hippies to Surfers and Playboys--in a witty and offbeat survey
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 17, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 21, 2017
I spent some time in high school obsessed with this book. It was in my local library, and I checked it out and read it multiple times over a few years. Most of the kids in my generation (Gen X) have only a very limited idea of the variety of styles and trends that were popular in the sixties, tending to think that everyone was a hippie who went to Woodstock. This is through no fault of their own: I think one of the biggest PR campaigns in the last century focused on pushing this idea that the 1960’s produced something of lasting value and was an important decade. According to legend, the 60’s generation managed to make the world a better place through their high-minded idealism, incisive critique of social problems, and political activism. This image of the 1960’s became a common motif in television and books for decades afterwards and was absorbed by succeeding generations in the same manner that vitamins in food are absorbed: unconsciously and as an unavoidable byproduct while searching for flavor. As a result of this bombardment, most of my generation assumes glazed and bored expressions from chronic overexposure at the mere mention of the decade. Some of my generation may think the 1960’s were great based on what they’ve heard (over and over again), but it’s the enriched myth they’ve been fed since birth and the recycling of images so pervasive that they’ve become ingrained into other times as well.
For instance, there was a commercial for a compilation of 60's music called Freedom Rock that was being sold when I was in the seventh grade in the late 1980’s. The commercial starts out like this:
Two dirty hippies are sitting outside on lawn chairs next to a van when one hippie presses play on a cassette player.
"Hey, man," says the other hippie, "Is that Freedom Rock?"
"Yeah, man." says the first hippie.
"Well, turn it UP, man!"
This commercial had just the right amount of cheese to fascinate middle-schoolers, and I can remember that this turned into something of a liturgy among my peers for several long months. Any lag in the conversation could be filled with, “Hey, man! Is that Freedom Rock?”... This is the simplified, gonzo version of that time period, marketed to sell products and to bank on the nostalgia of an overpopulated and self-important generation. That my own memories deal with this image from an era that ended before I was born shows the crushing gravitational pull of the Boomers. It’s a depressing thought that whether we were busy aping them or mocking them, we never managed to establish the velocity necessary to leave their orbit. Therefore, we were eternal bit players in their drama.
Considering all this, how could I possibly like a book all about sixties people? Haven’t I suffered through enough of that generation’s self-glorification already? I believe that if I had discovered this book today, I would have avoided it, guessing that I would be getting the expanded version of the typical Boomer conceit. But that would have been a shame as this book is an authentic look at the trend of the 1960’s. There is little of that later bid for greatness (provided you skip the introduction) that could cause the eye to begin to roll. This book introduces you to the actual 1960’s, a time like any other time in what it offered for young people: various options for experimentation, obsession with the products that would define a self, and a consuming quest for some cool, interesting identity that would not seem like a silly affectation in ten years (but which invariably does).
This book is a fun exploration into the disparate counter cultures found of the 1960’s from hippies to bikers to surfers to beatniks. If you notice, all of these aesthetics are still around, although they may be called by different names, so it is entirely possible to extend most of these descriptions out of the sixties, if you really felt like it. One grudging admission you must give to Boomers (beyond knowing how to create a lasting narrative that resonates throughout all of time) is that this fascination with themselves provides other generations with valuable resources (such as this book) that no other generation would think worth compiling to this degree of specificity. This book describes each group’s differing philosophies and fashion sense. It talks of the music that was popular with each. What style of furniture each preferred. Hairstyles. Hobbies. Makeup. Food. On and on and on. When I was a high schooler looking to “find myself”, this book had some of the most descriptive and interesting identities around that I could presumably adopt.
I remember being particularly drawn to the “Young Vulgarians” type:
Young Vulgarians were street-smart teenagers from hardscrabble neighborhoods such as South Philadelphia and the Bronx. In the early sixties, they created a spectacular style.
Unburdened by middle-class rules of good taste, young vulgarians positively dripped with splendiferous cheapness. If you want a quick mental picture of what they looked like, think of Priscilla Presley in 1963, when Elvis acted as her personal cosmetology consultant, or remember the sassy kids in John Waters’s Hairspray; or flash back to continental doo-woppers such as Dion and the Belmonts. Young vulgarians flaunted huge bouffants, heavy eyeliner, pounds of Vitalis, and black leather coats over sharkskin trousers.
The look was hoodlum baroque, combining a city-tough attitude with formal hairdos as ornate as the chandeliers at the local catering hall. This was a look that was bigger than fashion. It expressed a turgid universe of teenage passion and despair.(pg 59)
Of course, I was unlikely to ever really embrace this lifestyle. I didn’t live in an urban neighborhood. On the contrary, I lived in a small town in Wyoming where the local uniform was blue jeans. I hate Doo-Wop, and I find Hairspray to be cartoonish and silly. As I was generally too lethargic a person to participate in the less taxing “big hair” that was fashionable in the late 1980’s, there would be no way that I would have the energy to attempt a bouffant. But in terms of my aspirational self, I was drawn to this dramatic, tough style even as I could tell that I wasn’t going to ever be its poster girl.
The writers tend not to take the categorizations too seriously or academically. The writing has the breezy, bubbly quality of a teen magazine and you find yourself being pulled into wanting to be an English mod girl in the 1960’s pretty easily. I like it for the same reason I like old magazines and old yearbooks: it’s fun to step into a different time, particularly when that time has been condensed into a better version of itself.
For instance, there was a commercial for a compilation of 60's music called Freedom Rock that was being sold when I was in the seventh grade in the late 1980’s. The commercial starts out like this:
Two dirty hippies are sitting outside on lawn chairs next to a van when one hippie presses play on a cassette player.
"Hey, man," says the other hippie, "Is that Freedom Rock?"
"Yeah, man." says the first hippie.
"Well, turn it UP, man!"
This commercial had just the right amount of cheese to fascinate middle-schoolers, and I can remember that this turned into something of a liturgy among my peers for several long months. Any lag in the conversation could be filled with, “Hey, man! Is that Freedom Rock?”... This is the simplified, gonzo version of that time period, marketed to sell products and to bank on the nostalgia of an overpopulated and self-important generation. That my own memories deal with this image from an era that ended before I was born shows the crushing gravitational pull of the Boomers. It’s a depressing thought that whether we were busy aping them or mocking them, we never managed to establish the velocity necessary to leave their orbit. Therefore, we were eternal bit players in their drama.
Considering all this, how could I possibly like a book all about sixties people? Haven’t I suffered through enough of that generation’s self-glorification already? I believe that if I had discovered this book today, I would have avoided it, guessing that I would be getting the expanded version of the typical Boomer conceit. But that would have been a shame as this book is an authentic look at the trend of the 1960’s. There is little of that later bid for greatness (provided you skip the introduction) that could cause the eye to begin to roll. This book introduces you to the actual 1960’s, a time like any other time in what it offered for young people: various options for experimentation, obsession with the products that would define a self, and a consuming quest for some cool, interesting identity that would not seem like a silly affectation in ten years (but which invariably does).
This book is a fun exploration into the disparate counter cultures found of the 1960’s from hippies to bikers to surfers to beatniks. If you notice, all of these aesthetics are still around, although they may be called by different names, so it is entirely possible to extend most of these descriptions out of the sixties, if you really felt like it. One grudging admission you must give to Boomers (beyond knowing how to create a lasting narrative that resonates throughout all of time) is that this fascination with themselves provides other generations with valuable resources (such as this book) that no other generation would think worth compiling to this degree of specificity. This book describes each group’s differing philosophies and fashion sense. It talks of the music that was popular with each. What style of furniture each preferred. Hairstyles. Hobbies. Makeup. Food. On and on and on. When I was a high schooler looking to “find myself”, this book had some of the most descriptive and interesting identities around that I could presumably adopt.
I remember being particularly drawn to the “Young Vulgarians” type:
Young Vulgarians were street-smart teenagers from hardscrabble neighborhoods such as South Philadelphia and the Bronx. In the early sixties, they created a spectacular style.
Unburdened by middle-class rules of good taste, young vulgarians positively dripped with splendiferous cheapness. If you want a quick mental picture of what they looked like, think of Priscilla Presley in 1963, when Elvis acted as her personal cosmetology consultant, or remember the sassy kids in John Waters’s Hairspray; or flash back to continental doo-woppers such as Dion and the Belmonts. Young vulgarians flaunted huge bouffants, heavy eyeliner, pounds of Vitalis, and black leather coats over sharkskin trousers.
The look was hoodlum baroque, combining a city-tough attitude with formal hairdos as ornate as the chandeliers at the local catering hall. This was a look that was bigger than fashion. It expressed a turgid universe of teenage passion and despair.(pg 59)
Of course, I was unlikely to ever really embrace this lifestyle. I didn’t live in an urban neighborhood. On the contrary, I lived in a small town in Wyoming where the local uniform was blue jeans. I hate Doo-Wop, and I find Hairspray to be cartoonish and silly. As I was generally too lethargic a person to participate in the less taxing “big hair” that was fashionable in the late 1980’s, there would be no way that I would have the energy to attempt a bouffant. But in terms of my aspirational self, I was drawn to this dramatic, tough style even as I could tell that I wasn’t going to ever be its poster girl.
The writers tend not to take the categorizations too seriously or academically. The writing has the breezy, bubbly quality of a teen magazine and you find yourself being pulled into wanting to be an English mod girl in the 1960’s pretty easily. I like it for the same reason I like old magazines and old yearbooks: it’s fun to step into a different time, particularly when that time has been condensed into a better version of itself.
May 17, 2007
still reading. But if you've ever wanted to read relentlessly detailed essays on social stereotypes of the sixties, written with just the right amount of disdain for its subject, this is the book for you.
March 30, 2017
Sixties People by Jane and Michael Stern (Alfred A Knopf 1990) (973.92). This is a light and interesting take on the classes of people that dominated the youth media of the nineteen-sixties. These classes each receive separate chapters including playboys, folkies, the British, hippies, rebels, surfers, and the Young Vulgarians. My rating: 7/10, finished 2/15/15.
February 7, 2011
I read this book back in high school, during the height of my craze for all things 60s. I throughly enjoyed it, and it helped me a lot with the 1960s-set stories I was writing at the time.
June 10, 2013
Read years ago & spent a while today trying to re-discover the title.
Read
August 10, 2013Fluffy, kind of fun. Explores various "types" of the sixties: the Hippie, The Young Vulgarian.
November 4, 2020
Thoroughly enjoyable. I have to admit my favorite part is about the proper construction of a beehive hairdo, a massive ordeal which makes me thank God I was too young to be much affected by this era.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews