Swinging London
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Featured:  Illustration: Portrait fantaisiste du marquis de Sade (1866) by H. Biberstein |
Swinging London is a catchall term applied to a variety of dynamic cultural trends in the United Kingdom (centred in London) in the second half of the 1960s.
It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasized the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and can be described as a cultural revolution. One of the catalysts was the recovery of the British economy after the post-World War II period of austerity and rationing which lasted through much of the 1950s. Journalist Christopher Booker, one of the founders of the satirical magazine, Private Eye, recalled the "bewitching" character of the swinging sixties: "there seemed to be no one standing outside the bubble, and observing just how odd and shallow and egocentric and even rather horrible it was".
"Swinging London" was defined by Time magazine in its issue of April 15, 1966 and celebrated in the name of the pirate radio station Swinging Radio England that began transmissions shortly after the publication appeared. However, the term "swinging" (in the sense of hip or fashionable) had been used since the early 1960s, including by Norman Vaughan in his "swinging/dodgy" patter on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. In 1965, Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue magazine, declared that "London is the most swinging city in the world at the moment." Later that year, the American singer Roger Miller had a hit record with England Swings, which presented a stereotypical picture of England, with lyrics such as "Bobbies on bicycles, two by two."
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Music
Already heralded by Colin MacInnes' 1959 novel Absolute Beginners, the period of Swinging London was underway by the mid 1960s, and included music by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and other artists from what was known in North America as the British Invasion. This music was heard in the United Kingdom over pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline, Wonderful Radio London and Swinging Radio England.
Fashion & symbols
During the time of Swinging London, fashion and photography were featured in Queen magazine, which drew attention to the ideas of Mary Quant. The fashion model Twiggy was another icon of Swinging London, and may have been the world's first supermodel.
Twiggy has sometimes been called "the Queen of mod," a label she shared with others, such as Cathy McGowan (who hosted the television rock show, Ready Steady Go! from 1964 to 1966). Mod-related fashions such as the miniskirt stimulated the rise of fashionable shopping areas such as Carnaby Street and the Kings Road, Chelsea. The fashion of the day was a symbol of youth culture.
The British flag, the Union Flag, became a potent symbol, assisted by events such as England's home victory in the 1966 World Cup. The Mini-Cooper car (launched in 1959) was used by a fleet of mini-cab taxis highlighted by advertising that covered their paintwork.
Film
The phenomenon was featured in many films of the time, the most notable were both celebratory and mocking. These include: the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blowup (1966), Darling (1965), The Knack...and How to Get It (1965), Alfie (1966), Georgy Girl (1966), Modesty Blaise (1966), Casino Royale (1967), Smashing Time (1967), Bedazzled (1968), and Up the Junction (1968).
The comedy films Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) resurrected the imagery of the period.
Television
One television series that reflected the spirit of Swinging London was The Avengers. The BBC Television show Take Three Girls (1969) is noted for Liza Goddard's first starring role, an evocative folk-rock theme song ("Light Flight" by Pentangle), and for many scenes in which the heroines were shown dressing or undressing. In an episode of BBC's Adam Adamant Lives!, Adamant (Gerald Harper), an Edwardian adventurer who had been suspended in time since 1902, was told firmly, "This is London, nineteen sixty-six — the swinging city." An episode of the detective series Man in a Suitcase opened with the announcement: "This is London... Swinging London".
Mores
The 1960s are often considered a time of great shifts in attitudes in the United Kingdom. One notable event was the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover by Penguin Books in 1960. Although first printed in 1928, the release in 1960 of an inexpensive mass-market paperback version prompted a court case. The prosecuting council's question, "Would you want your wife or servants to read this book?" highlighted how far society had changed, and how little some people had noticed the change. The book was seen as one of the first events in a general relaxation of sexual attitudes. Other elements of the sexual revolution included the development of The Pill, Mary Quant's miniskirt and the 1967 legalisation of homosexuality. There was a rise in the incidence of divorce and abortion, and a resurgence of the women's liberation movement, whose campaigning helped secure the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act in 1975.
See also
- UK Underground
- English underground
- Sexual revolution
- Counterculture of the 1960s
- Social history of England
