Youth culture 1950's-1960's

Lecture Notes- British New Wave 

• Peoples perception of reality was being warped because of film and photography.
• Films represented what was really happening at the time.
• This brought challenges such as trying to maintain 'Britishness' whilst there was an influx of American culture. 
• New Wave- Punk, rage against conformation.

Why the 1950's-1960's?

• End of rationing- Food and fabric was plentiful.
• Growth in consumption.
• Technology moving on Lots of gadgets were being made.
• Expansion of Youth culture.
• Advertising was trying to get women back into the house and kitchen after the war. 
• Growth in TV and Cinema 
• Young people would go to the cinema more than the older generation- this was represented within the films being made. 
• Music shows the divide in generation. 
• Films addressed what Hollywood didn't- Sex, Adulatory, mixed race relationships ect.
• Class conflict- even if you came from a poor background you could make something of yourself. 

Criticisms

• Alan Lovell- didn't like the university educated Rich film makers making films about the working class.
• integrity, were they really representing the real lives of the working class. 
• Nothing should have been taken at face value. 

Notes from tutor lecture

• Films and Albums showed the image that people wanted to get across to their audience.
• Artists liked to push the idea that they were Rich (glamorous) when really they were poor.
• Album covers were very simple and self explanatory 
• Colours and designed from the 50's are coming back into fashion now. 
• Albums showed importance of the band members through composition and where they were stood in the line up. 
• The Beetles were very iconic for this time and created lots of different album covers.
•  They sold the bands personality through the art work as well as the music. 
• Sargent peppers album cover changed album art forever. 
• The Beetles changed visual culture. 
• They changed so much within the short time they made music- represented fast paced world.
• Technology was progressing and improving so fast.
• The beetles were innovating art.
• First band to merchandise.
• They found a market within the market.  
• They were all abut the concept and image that they wanted to represent. 

Research task

• Album covers previous to the 50's were very simplistic and straight forward, for example a CD cover would usually feature the singer or bands name, a photo or painting of the person or singers in the band and the album name, This can be seen in (figure 1.) This was because there was no such thing as the internet and music wasn't really advertised on TV so this is how the person buying the music would know what the person on the album looks like.  The first band to change the way that album covers are seen is the Beatles with their album cover for 'revolver.' This album cover includes bold line drawings of the band members and a photo collage style background using photographs of the band. This was the first time that a more illustrative album cover had been made.
•  It could be said that they revolutionised the way that album are is seen throughout the world. They released their album 'revolver' (figure 2) in 1966 and this was the first time that anything like this had been done on an album cover. 

'The first hint of change in rock album design came in 1966, with the release of the Beatles 'Revolver,' which featured a collage of line drawings and photographs of the band designed by artist Klaus Voorman.' [1]

(figure 1) Earl Bostic and his Alto Sax (1952)

(Figure 2) Revolver, The Beatles, 1966.

• As a part of marketing, record labels started to sell the artists personality in order to sell more music as the person buying the CD would feel more of a personal connection with the artist. The Beatles played a large part in this and the youth culture of the time loved it, fans became obsessed with them and through this marketing they began to feel like they knew the artists from the band. The band members would be seen with exiting new Album cover designs and even doing goofy things in the images on their CD's to show people that the fans are just like them. This can be seen on thier album please, please, please (figure 3) where the band members are seen 'hanging out together' with big smiles on their faces.  They created this illusion through the album art work because thats the first thing you see and recognise when buying music. 

' It was the pop music industry, however, which was most influential in gathering and symbolising the fantasies of youth culture, and in which graphic design probably had the most significant and diverse part to play.' [2]

(figure 3) The Beatles, Please, please, please, released in 1963

• As the popularity of music started to grow amongst the youth culture of the 50's and 60's and the way that music was looked at started to change and it started to be seen as more of a serious thing. Because of the popularity boost,  marketing and band image also started to advance. Subsequently album art started to progress and develop massively meaning more creative elaborate album covers. The album covers became more interesting and attention grabbing in order to intrigue the consumer and create an image for the band or musician.

'By the mid 1960's, the album was thought of as more of a coherent entity than just a collection of a few hit singles with additional filler material. As artists, record companies and listeners focussed more attention on the album, cover art became more elaborate, innovative and interesting.'[3]

• The Beatles album cover for 'sgt peppers lonely heart club band' (figure 4) stepped up the bar yet again for album covers as nothing this elaborate had ever been done for a CD cover. This album cost around £3000 to create compared to the usual of £50 that would normally be spent at the time, this payed off as it is now be known as a artistic landmark. it was designed by Peter Blake and Jann Howarth.  The album cover features the band dressed in brightly coloured uniforms photographed with life size cardboard cut outs and some wax figures of the most iconic celebrities throughout time. This album cover has been over analysed through the years and there are lots of conspiracies and ideas about hidden messages and meanings in the image, no one really knows if they are true or not. another unique aspect to this album is the lyrics to all of the songs featured on the album were printed on the back of the album, this is the first time that this had ever been done. the album cover was very unique and innovative for the time that it was made, this resulted in the cover becoming iconic all over the world. This was the first time that the album cover became more important than the music and people would buy the album cover in poster form for their walls at home. 

' The albums status as a cultural landmark was asserted almost immediately (at least in part due to the striking cover art...)' [4]

' The cover of an album such as the Beatles' sgt. Peppers lonely hearts club band (1967) became iconic and fans scrutinised the cryptic collection of personalities, floral shapes, and illicit plants contained in the staging for hidden meanings.' [5]

(figure 4) The Beatles, Sgt. peppers lonely hearts club band, 1967

• Throughout the time that the Beatles created music they changed so much in sound, image and with their album art that it was hard to keep track. Because of this they seem to have helped shape visual history in a huge way. It could be said that the Beatles moved so fast to reflect the fast changing times of the years when technology was advancing faster than ever. They changed and evolved right up until they decided to stop making music as a band in 1970.

' With every album the Beatles gave us a 180-degree change. A completely different change, a different sound, a different attitude. They kept changing with us...' [6]

---

[1] Shephard. T and Lennord. A, The routledge companion to music and visual culture, p. 181

[2] Jobling. P and Crowley.D, Graphic design: reproduction and representation since 1800, P. 215-

[3] Perone. J. E, The Album: A guide to music’s most provocative, influential, and important creations. P. 214

[4]  Julian.O.P, Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: it was 40 years ago today. P. 27

[5] Perone. J. E, The Album: A guide to music’s most provocative, influential, and important creations. P. 214

[6] Mulligan. K. S, The Beatles: a musical Biography. p.133

Late 20th century to now

Notes 

• Graphics and music were closely related and they started to inspire each other.
• Led Zeplins album covers were really iconic (quite abstract)
• Storm Thorgoson was famous for creating the most iconic album covers. 
• You can see how morals throughout the world have changed by looking at album covers. (Some albums show naked babies this would be seen as wrong now)
• Music and film also inspired each other visually. Elp, Gieger created their album cover and it is inspired by the Alien film. 
• The music industry was very important in graphics and illustration. 
• Black sabbath were the first metal band their albums showed horror imagery.
• the Sex pistols represented Britain's economy going down the drain.
• Punk was created because young people wanted to rebel and create music on a budget (DIY)
• These punk bands aim was to shock the establishment.
• The punk movement became a parody of its self. (the great rock n roll swindle) 
• Buzzcocks were a punk band that created their own DIY album covers and DIY music.
• all of the punk movement was happening in the poor towns in Britain Don Mc Cullin photographed the every day like of the lower class Britain.
• Strong graphics and illustration started being used for government campaigns (Satchi and Satchi, 1979, labour isn't working) 
• in the 1980's The face (famous magazine) started it showed a lot of fashion photography and strong graphics. 
• Neville Brody worked by cutting and pasting images down on paper.
• in 1984 Martin Parr started using colour in photography pervious to this even though colour photography was invented people usually still used black and white. 

Film

• 70's A Clock work orange was withdrawn by the producer because of the violence shown in the film
• Jaws was the first block buster film. 
• Franchise was created and merch started to be made for films.
• Alien was created and the sci fi genre began. 

Digital

• 1984 the desk top computer with a graphic interface was created
• Luxor junior was the first animation using cgi in 1986
• Toy story was then made.
• 1991 Terminator 2 was the first film to use cgi animation with live action this was also the first use of a PC for cgi effects.
• the matrix uses a lot of cgi throughout the film.
• A scanner darkly 2007- uses retroscope (drawing on top of the film) to create a comic book effect.
• 1984 apple created desk top computers marketed for home use
• Kraftwerk was a bnd that made digital music the ablum showed advances in digital technology.
• Computer games were created  pong and space invaders were the first games. 
• Computers allowed designers to be more free with design.
• Typography started to be used more and tyrpography was even specially created for certain things. 
• Trick Typography was now possible. 
• The internet was then created by Tim Barners Lee 
• Google was created and it has became so bit that it owns most things throughout the internet.
• Everything changed because of the internet it was a huge revolution.
• Copyright began because artists work would be seen online and get stolen by other artists. Copyright protected them and showed that they created that piece of work. 
• there is lots of pros and cons of digital technology. 
• Because of technology people are able to do more things so one person could do everything for example photographers can make films and do graphic design. Its harder to do art because everyone can now do it.

Research task

Research the work of Graphic designers in contemporary music graphic design and or lifestyle magazines and branding

Pop punk started at the beginning of the 1970's it mainly came from the rebellion of young people as the music that was being produced at the time had heavy production values, which made it impossible for them to do.  Because of this the teens started to create DIY music with low production values, along with this came DIY album covers. These album covers were made by graphic designers that would find images and letters and paste them down to create a collage style image. One Iconic graphic designer of this style was Jamie Reid. He is most well known for creating the graphics for the Sex Pistols albums for example the god save the queen album (figure 1)

'The importance of visual imagery to punk can be demonstrated by examining the work of Jamie Reid, who became art director for The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. Reid had met Malcolm McLaren at Croydon Art College in 1968. Their common art background meant that when Malcolm McLaren asked him to work with the Sex Pistols in 1976 there was a feeling that the graphics, packaging and imagery surrounding the group could be of vital importance. Both were interested in, amongst other things, the ideas of the Situationists and Malcolm McLuhan.[1]'

(figure 1) Jamie Reid, sex pistols 'God save the Queen' Graphic

It could be said that Storm Thorgerson is one of the most iconic graphic designers that created album covers as he created so many highly recognisable album covers for example Pink Floyd's album cover for the division bell (figure 2.) His work often used photography as computer technology was not around at the time the art work was created. His work is often mistaken for hard drawn/painted art because of the quality that they give. He also used clever theories and optics for some of his designs for example in (figure 2) he used the famous vase illusion to create the image.

The concept of two heads making one is based on a drawing known as the "vase illusion", where two silhouettes of faces in profile constitute the edges of a white vase. The viewer sees either the faces or the vase but not both.[2] 

(figure 2) Storm Thorgerson, Pink Floyd's album cover for the division, 1994

[1]Huxley David and Sabin Roger, Punk Rock: So What?, Routledge, 1999, p.85
[2] Thorgerson, S. and Powell, A. (1999) 100 Best Album Covers. London: Dorling Kindersley Ltd

1930's USA

Research Task

1) detailed study of 3 key hollywood films from the 30s

2) analysis of 3 key photos from the dustball programme

3) analysis of 3 key art deco posters looking at political or commercial context with reference to illustration or typography


This period of time was Very glamorous and luxurious but at the same time there was an economic disaster and this is visible throughout the art that was created at this time. The Art deco movement showed The Glamorous side of life in the USA. The Art Deco style was influenced by a few different styles such as cubism, constructivism, and Bauhaus and modernism. This style developed out of the art novae period. Art Deco designs were created for many different things such as advertisement, political campaigns and  even magazines. 

Art deco clothing and product advertisement's were mainly focussed on the glamorous side of  life, and tried to offer an idealised version of life, although there was a lot of poverty and economic hard ship happening across the USA. The illustration in a poster  by Julius Ussy Engelhard shows (Figure 1) the decadence and luxury of the wealthier people of the 1930's usa. 

But in Germany, immediately following the First World War, the development of fashion in the style of art deco had to struggle against the economic hardship caused by the war... Against this backdrop of poverty the fashion journals dreams of the luxury of previous epochs  [1] 

(Figure 1) Julius Ussy Engelhard, poster for Kilda puderquasten, 1927

 As well as commercial use posters were often used for political reasons for example posters would show their industrial developments as a form of showing off. This would make the people feel more optimistic in such a bad economical time. The way that industry was represented was very big and over powering to show dominance. This will have also made the future look brighter as industry created jobs and more money. as well as industry these posters would show other technological advances like transport especially trains as shown in (Figure 2.) These posters showed how much transport has improved and the also glamorised it making it look big and powerful. The typography along the bottom of the page has been composed in a clever way to help represent train routes. 

 ... the real revolution in the field of public transportation had occurred in the nineteenth century, with the creation of the major international shipping routes and railway networks, along with the principle of genuine public transport that was accessible for [2]  

(Figure 2) Cassandre, Nord Express, poster, 1927.

Typography was also a big part of the art deco period as text started being used for more of an illustrative effect. for example in Charles Loupot's poster for paris (figure 3) the typography Is representative of the image portrayed in the poster. The Typography shows orange wavy lines running through it and it could be said that this is symbolic of the steam that is shown within the poster. The poster also shows a political side as the message behind the imagery within poster is showing how decretive arts and industry work in harmony with one another.

his image of a factory with a rose emerging from the smoke was intended to symbolise co-operation between the decretive arts and industry [3] 

(figure 3) Charles Loupotm, Exposition poster, 1925

[1] Wolf N, Art Deco, Prestel, London
[2] Atterbury P, Art Deco 1910-1939, V&A Publications, 2003. p 315.
[3] Ainsley J, Art Deco 1910-1939, V&A Publications, 2003. p 297

1950's and 1960's

Research task

Research Consumer culture in the 1950's and 1960's advertising.

Consumer culture is when a society is ran by money and what is bought (consumed) reflects in the economy. companies would advertise to sell their products. Many different advertisements were used and they would come in lots of different forms such as radio, poster and TV advertisements.

 Advertisement in the 1950's and 1960's would glorify situations to make them look better to make it look like your life would be improved if you had the product that was being sold to you. the messages portrayed in the posters were designed to make you feel like your life was bad if you didn't have or get a product for someone. it would also manipulate people and make them feel like if they didn't own or do a certain thing that they would be different to their friends and people all over the country. The advertisements would also make things that were bad for you sound like they were good. Sometimes this was taken to extreme for example there would be posters telling you that smoking was good for you as shown in (figure 1.) Some of the advertisements were shocking showing people in the medical field for example doctors and dentists saying that  smoking was good for you 

But how about doctors and other medical professionals, proclaiming the merits of various cigarette brands? Or politicians? What about cartoon characters in cigarette ads? Or children? Babies? Even Santa Claus?[1]

(Figure 1) Camel smoking advertisement, 1950's 

 Although there was a lot of advances for women's rights in the war there was also a lot of sexism going on within product advertisement posters. Most of these posters played on the themes of women cooking and making things for the men (figure 2) and (figure 3)

 In spite of significant changes in women's lives in the second half of the century, food advertisers focussed almost exclusively on women's traditional fender roles. [2]

(figure 3) sexist Kenwood advertisement, 1950's

(figure 3) sexist Chase and Sanborn Coffee advertisement, 1950's

[1] ELLIOTT S, When Doctors, and Even Santa, Endorsed Tobacco,  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/business/media/07adco.html?_r=0 (Accessed 12/03/2014)

[2] K J Parkin, Food is Love: Advertising and gender roles in modern America, University of Pennsylvania press, 2006, p.22

  

1920's in Europe and Russia

Notes 

surrealism

• Surrealism- came from people that started the Dada movement.
• It started in Paris and this became the main centre of the movement.
• The movement eventually spread across the world effecting visual arts and even language in some countries.
• Dali became huge within the surrealist movement.
• the surrealists believed in being irrational and they liked to challenge their thought processes.
• Freud's theories of dream analysis, free association and the unconscious was very important to the surrealists as it helped them to develop new methods of freeing their minds. 
• Surrealism tried to be random but it also tried to make sense from the nonsense in the art.
• Max Ernst combined human form with buildings.
• People always try to interoperate surrealist art but its subjective to the artist and the viewer because its random and doesn't really have any logic behind it.  
• Rene Magritte liked the idea of painting things to look real (trompe l'oeil)
• a lot of metaphores were used within surrealism that link to sexuallity.
• Art was where the idea of euphemisms started. 
• Joan Miro created bizarre representations of animals that looked pretty abstract.
• Salvador Dali uses similar forms throughout his work.
• Dali also used found objects to create his images (lobster telephone) 
• Hans Bellmer created creepy distorted forms of women.
• Man ray created surrealist photography- at the time that he created his images it was ground breaking as nothing like this had aver been done or seen before. 
• In the 70's and 80's surrealism wasnt as shocking as it once was and it began to be used in advertising quite a lot (Guiness advertisement)

The Bauhaus- Germany

• a school of design established in Weimar in 1919 by WalterGropius, moved to Dessau in 1926, and closed in 1933 as aresult of Nazi hostility.
• Started off with Expressionism- very angular, geometric work.
• A few years later it moved away from expressionism and moved on to more modern ideas. 
• in 1924 the Bauhaus was forced to close but the school re opened in  Dessau.   

Revolutionary soviet Russia 

• Russian constructivist created a lot of propaganda art- iconic red army, white army poster.
• El Lizzitsky Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge. 1919
• Gustav  Klutsis created images using collage and bright colours 
• constructivist art represented building things up for example buildings, communities ect.
• There was no boundaries between design and art they crossed over a lot at this time and the same art was often used for a lot of different purposes.
• Photography in constructivism was very angular and a lot of strange angles were used to photograph buildings. This was because of smaller cameras.

Research task

Research Surrealism and Sexuality in 1920s Art,  Photography and Film

In the 1920's surrealism was a new movement forming from the Dada movement. The surrealist movement was all about artist's creating strange random images that would never be seen in real life. André Breton was a surrealist artist that created a lot of surrealist art that often included elements of human form with other strange imagery (figure 1.) The art that was created was linked very closely to Sigmund Freud's psychological theories of dream analysis of dream analysis, free association and the unconscious.

Central to this concept were the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Which Andre Breton adapted to suit his own purposes. He regarded Freud's findings as the fortuitous re discovery of the power of dreams and imagination that had lain hidden behind the purely rational outlook that predominated at the time. [1]   

André Breton, The lamp smokes but the Nile reeks (La lampe fume mais le nil empeste), 1937

Salvador Dali was one of the main artists within this movement as his work was so put there and unique to any other art before this movement. He was also very successful because he created art across all areas as he created paintings, films and sculptures. Everything that he did in life even down to his moustache style screamed surrealism. He saw the world very differently to what the average person might, this becomes clear by looking at his paintings. Dali created a lot of art that referenced more of a sexual theme for example his painting 'The great masterbater,' (Image 2) as the title suggests, the painting has sexual content. The image is quite confusing because it isn't obvious that the image has sexual themes at first glance but upon further inspection you realise what the image is actually showing . 

... an array of odd and sometimes disturbing images began to appear in his work. Many of the paintings had shocking sexual images that are interpreted as indicating Dali's fear and shame regarding sex and sexual relations. [2]

Salvador Dali, The Great Masturbator, 1929

Surrealism also spanned out across different creative areas and the photographers started to experiment with creating surrealist images. Obviously this was a lot different to painting because with photography you are photographing real life and not just creating an image from your head. Because of this photographers had to think more outside of the box so they started they started to create surrealist images with the help of props and different camera settings. Man Ray created a lot of different surrealist photographs in his life. One of his photographs called Ingres' violin (Figure 3) shows a woman with the illusion of a carved back.  This was revolutionary at the time because nothing like this had ever been done within photography. 

...the photograph confuses the usual status and conventions of a photographic image with respect to reality. It introduces fantasy. Any range of techniques can be used to produce disruptions of a conventional photographic signifier, with the camera (lens shifts, focal plane and angles of view, uses of lighting ect.)[3]

(Figure 3) Man Ray, Ingres' violin, 1924

[1] C Klingsöhr-Leroy, Surrealism, Taschen, p 7
[2] M Elsohn Elsohn Ros, Salvador Dalí and the Surrealists: Their Lives and Ideas, 21 Activities, 2003. P 50
[3] D Bate, Photography and Surrealism: Sexuality, Colonialism and Social Dissent, I.B.Tauris, 2004.
 P 29.