The Jazz age The women’s independence movement of the 1920’s resulted in a dramatic change in dress as shown by the desire to look youthful, boyish, flat-chested, and at the same time to wanting her independence in the new decade of the century. This was the Jazz Age, the decade of the flappers. The 1920’s  opened with an explosion of colour, wailing sounds, fast rhythms of jazz, and energetic dancing. the colourful decade of the 1920s still resonates among generations that never experienced it. Thirties Forties and Fifties ..... The 1940s Like today, young people of the 1940s enjoyed wearing their clothes a certain way. Baggy, rolled-up blue jeans with dangling shirttails seemed to be the teenager fashion of the 40s. Bobby socks and loafers were also part of the day’s dress. In the first half of the 40s, American dressmakers designed dresses that looked a lot like the war uniforms of the day. Wrap-around skirts were made because zippers and metal snaps were scarce. Remember, people were asked to conserve on products and materials needed for the war. Katharine Hepburn, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Lauren Bacall, and Humphrey Bogart. Each of these stars had a style all their own. Kate Hepburn, especially helped usher in a new style, in that she always wore slacks, she was hardly ever seen in gowns or skirts. Rock and Roll Some British teens developed a real feel for the rock-and-roll and American blues idioms. Blending that with such local traditions as music hall, pop, and Celtic folk, they formulated original music they could claim, play, and sing with conviction. Young groups with electric guitars began performing and writing up-tempo melodic pop, fiery rock and roll, and Chicago-style electric blues." The rebellious tone and image of past American rock and roll and blues musicians also deeply resonated with British youth in the late 1950s, influencing all the British Invasion artists. By 1962, encouraged by the anyone-can-play populism of Skiffle and self-schooled in the music of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, Roy Orbison and Muddy Waters. Fifties and Sixties By 1959 an age of unbridled affluence and consumerism - "You've never had it so good", as Harold Macmillan coined it,  was firmly established, paving the way for the profligacy and abandon of the past era of the swinging 60s. The new entrepreneurs of mass market consumerism on both sides of the Atlantic ensured that a week didn't go by without some new craze hitting the shops or the media, preferably both at once. Hula hoops, popsicles, 3D cinema, Davy Crockett hats, Bubble cars, Motor Bikes, Transistor radios, Remember the old Black and White TV set sitting in the corner of the room, pyjama parties etc the list is endless. "Protest" didn't enter the mainstream vocabulary until the sixties when political messages began making their way out of coffee houses and hootenannies onto the airwaves. Music festivals doubled as peace rallies. Folk songs inspired the civil rights movement to question the authority of whites. and if you asked someone over for a "sleepover" then, they would be shocked!! The Roots of Pop music Encouraged by the anyone-can-play populism of skiffle and self-schooled in the music of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, Roy Orbison and Muddy Waters, many British and American teens developed a real feel for the rock-and-roll and American blues musical styles. Old time Radio Here at OldRadioWorld.com you will find some of the most popular radio programs of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Before television radio provided entertainment by presenting radio plays and programs of mystery, intrigue, and comedy. Radio has been around for a long time and although there are more commercial radio stations on the air than ever before, there isn't really much worth listening to unless you like lots of commercials and little creativity. not many people would remember or even understand, what you meant if you mentioned a "cats whisker" do you? The war years They came late to the ballgame by British standards, but they came to play. They were crude, crass and lacking in military finesse according to Montgomery and other Allied leaders, but they won many more times than they lost. They were a curious mixture of fervent volunteer kids and caustic older draftees. They were soldiers, Sailors, Airmen  and Marines  from Iowa cornfields and Detroit assembly lines. They sweated through eight abbreviated weeks of basic training. Life at war for the American GI  was essentially long hours of hard physical labour, painful slogging under heavy weights and tedious boredom - interspersed with moments of sheer gut-wrenching terror.