Icons were just capitalists

2008-10-10 12:01

London - Pop culture icons John Lennon and Mick Jagger were clever capitalists who cashed in on the mood of the 1960s, not spokespersons for a generation seeking revolution, a British academic said on Thursday.

Cambridge University historian David Fowler said that so-called "Swinging London" was in fact beyond most normal people, "less a golden age for the nation's young than a celebration of wealth by its social elite".

"The 1960s are often viewed as the point at which youth culture in this country exploded, but in many ways they were the years in which the idea began to fall apart," said Fowler.

"Groups like The Beatles were basically capitalists interested in enriching themselves through the music industry. They did about as much to represent the interests of the nation's young people as The Spice Girls did in the 1990s."

Fowler notes that Rolling Stones frontman Jagger himself, when asked by an interviewer whether he was a spokesperson for a generation, replied that he was just a musician.

Rolf Gardiner a youth culture champion

The academic, who teaches modern British history in Cambridge, said more authentically revolutionary youth movements can be found in the period between World War I and World War II.

He singled out a little-known Cambridge student Rolf Gardiner, who was fascinated by the concept of Jugenkultur in Germany as a way that young people could express themselves more freely and challenge their elders.

Gardiner's cult championed physical labour and rural reconstruction, Fowler said, recounting also how he organised naked bathing sessions along the Cam River, as an expression of "back to nature" values.

"People forget that real youth movements are about a lot more than spending and consumerism - they are a way of life," added the academic from Clare Hall College, Cambridge, author of Youth Culture In Modern Britain, c.1920-c.1970.

"People like Rolf Gardiner were true cultural subversives, pop stars before pop even existed. In terms of the influence he had on giving Britain's young people a sense of identity ... he is just as important as Mick Jagger."

Groups took advantage

The reason the 1960s is perceived as the dawn of youth culture is because of a "break in chronology" due to World War II, which left a state of "collective amnesia," the academic said.

Groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones took advantage of this - but their separation from real fans' lives was reflected in the way they installed themselves in grand country houses, while the London "scene" was equally beyond most people's purses.

"The world of Swinging London may be viewed as an emblem of youth culture now, but it was really for the Michael Caines of this world; an elite who could afford it," Fowler said.

- AFP