Compare And Contrast The Fashion Trends In The 1960's

The 1960’s were one of the most influential time periods that the modern world has experienced from a variety of perspectives. Between the incredible advances in science such as the Space Race and birth control, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the emergence of the rock and roll band, the Beatles and catastrophic changes in fashion trends and even the treatment of minorities. The whole world was exposed to a decade full of both intriguement and unfathomable occurrences that the 1960’s had to offer. For Australia and the United States specifically, the fashion trends that ensued had lasting efforts in both countries for centuries to follow. Following World War II, Australia faced one of its biggest time periods the country had experienced

It was a time categorized by growing production of goods, increasing profits, bursting employment and a growing demand for workers-both male and female, married or single. As this big evolution was taking place beyond the borders of just Australia, the same was going on within United States. Nearly half of America’s total populations of 180 million people were under the age of eighteen, and the “sixties” as it was referred to, was the most influential generation the United States had seen thus far in their history. Popular culture was at the forefront of this sweeping movement that was occurring within the United States, and the television was the newest and coolest thing pop-culture had to offer. Television was firmly entrenched as America’s new hearth. Close to 90% of households had a TV, making it almost ubiquitous. The ensuing decade would see the medium growth in both importance and range. As the television was the new and coolest thing within the living rooms of most American families, the same could be said to those of Australians. They too were dumbfounded by everything in which television had to offer, and by the start of the sixties, Australians attracted more than three million viewers nightly, with the largest portion of those people being teenagers. The sweeping impact that the television had on Australia was

Australians imitated much of what was current and popular with the U.S, embracing swing, jazz, or whatever current trends in New York or San Francisco presented, at a few months behind. Beatlemania, hit the U.S. on February of 1964 when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Forty percent of the country watched as this British band began its astonishing sweep across the United States, and quickly in Australia. According to Lawrence Zion, by the mid sixties the influence of America was beginning to decline from what it had been in the first half the of decade, but the stimulus of the Beatles and everything that came along with “Beatlemania,” quickly amassed a following that was unmatched. The circulation of the popularity to which the Beatles had was most evident through the media attention of televisions. The tour of Australasia in June of 1964 was “the greatest entertainment coupe Australian had ever witnessed”. Americans groups or influences dominated most popular culture acts that toured Australia, until the manifestation to which the Beatles had. This opened the door to local Australian and New Zealander artists in their own careers such as Melbourne’s rock’n’roll singer Johnny Chester and New Zealand’s own John