The 60s: The Beatles DecadeTV Show

The Beatles' decade began in Liverpool in July 1957 when 16 year old John Lennon and 15 year old Paul McCartney met. This chance encounter produced one of the most important musical partnerships of the 20th Century. They listened to American artists and hung out in the Jacaranda coffee bar. They were part of a new breed of 'teenagers' who benefited from their parents increasing affluence. Fashion was changing too, and Mary Quant designed youthful and colourful dresses. In America, youth was winning too, and Kennedy was elected President. The Beatles went to Hamburg in 1960 and it was there they discovered freedom, sexual freedom. It was during this time that the Cuba Missile Crisis posed a great threat to world peace and for a while the world waited to see if peace would be shattered. Working class writers and actors started to emerge along with the Beatles. Everything was changing. Music, consumer goods, fashion - the sixties generation really did seem to have it all.