Life in the mid 20th century UK was almost unrecognisable to today.
Following World War Two, many of the cities across the UK had been flattened by bombings and much of the early 1950s was spent rebuilding from the ashes of the war. This led to an inherently more conservative British society, still scarred by the memories of the Blitz and the horrors on the continent,
All of this began to changed as the swinging sixties rolled in. The teenagers of this time were the first to be free of conscription, and the first truly free generation of young people.
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One of the most defining aspects of the 1960s was by far music, acts like the Beatles represented a shift in musical culture, influenced by American rock and roll of the 1950s, the Fab Four would change the world. Their lyrics, deemed rebellious at the time, resonated with younger people.
Songs like "I want to hold your hand" would be deemed tame by today's standards however, at the time audiences were shocked by the lyricism used. The band's popularity rose from 1963 after their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and continued to grow until their breakup in 1970.
As they took over America, the Beatles attracted the counterculture movement, and subcultures such as hippies were springing up all over the UK. Even though the Beatles are primarily considered a musical group, they were also political activists.
They used their music as a way to talk about issues that were happening in the real world at the time, including the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.
