So when did the 50's and 60's, come to an end?  Was there a particular event, that ended those decades, or several?

???

Personally...I found that the 31 December followed directly by the 1 January (in both decades) seemed to put an end to each decade. I'd have to do some research before commenting on other decades... ;)

The 50's ended when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 1960.

The 60's ended when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 1970.

Like gibbo and 80sfan basically said ( ;D), I think a decade comes to a definitive end once the new year starts on January 1st. I think you are talking about specific events that signaled the "end of a decade" as in trends or fads. I know little to nothing about the 50's and 60's, so I can't really comment on that  :-\\.

The fad of the 50's faded by 1964. I heard someone on here say that. Because by then all the doo-wop music was fading fast and the Beatles was dominating pretty much the music world. AND the Vietnam war was escalating.

The fads of the 60's didn't truly fade until the mid-70's when the whole hippie thing was dead, Vietnam war was over and disco was taking over.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s78/AL-B_photos/cos.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s78/AL-B_photos/cos.jpg


;D

The fad of the 50's faded by 1964. I heard someone on here say that. Because by then all the doo-wop music was fading fast and the Beatles was dominating pretty much the music world. AND the Vietnam war was escalating.

The fads of the 60's didn't truly fade until the mid-70's when the whole hippie thing was dead, Vietnam war was over and disco was taking over.


I was pretty much thinking, the same thing.

50s----64?
60s---74?  ???

The 1950's ended at precisely 1 minute and 31 seconds into this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4

The 1950's ended at precisely 1 minute and 31 seconds into this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4


;D

;D


Some guy who claimed to have been in the CIA in the 50's once told me that if Fonzie would've wiped out and gotten devoured by the shark, America would have never gone into Vietnam.  :o :o :o

Some guy who claimed to have been in the CIA in the 50's once told me that if Fonzie would've wiped out and gotten devoured by the shark, America would have never gone into Vietnam.  :o :o :o


Ahhh...great moments in history!  ;D

The 1960's ended when the guy on the left turned into the guy on the right.

http://www.boingboing.net/images/_darrenstevenses.jpg

;)

From my experience as a youngun, a few things that said to me it's no longer the 60's:

- We put a man on the moon
- Beatles break-up
- Post-Woodstock
- Movie ratings (which really changed movies)

Oh, I'm sure there's more, but that's what I remember off the top.

Culturally, the illusory post-war utopia known as "the fifties" died with the assassination of JFK, 11/22/63.

Likewise, the progressive or revolutionary hopes of "the sixties" died with the election of Ronald Reagan and the assassination of John Lennon in the fall of 1980. 

If that's a little to far ahead chronologically, perhaps Watergate (1973) and the consequent pardoning of Nixon by Ford was the death knell of the sixties.

A lot of people of the time consider the events at Altamont to be the end of the 60's.  It certainly ended the peace/hippie movement.    I can see where the end to the Veitnam war could also be considered the end of the 60's.  It was a war that defined a generation. 

I agree with Maxwell Smart, the 50's died with JFK.  In some ways, the innocence of America died, at least the innocence of the 50's.  JFK's assassination gave way to the several tragic events that followed.

There was a utopian way of thinking in both the culture and the counterculture.  We were not so much optimistic as idealistic.  We can do better.  We will figure it out.  JFK was the apex of American idealism.  When we lost Kennedy to the assassin's bullet then ten years later we're looking to impeach Richard Nxion not for making an atrocity our of national policy, but for participating in the Watergate burglary.  I mean, that was like getting Al Capone on tax evasion.  So we all became much more cynical.  The world's too effed up for us to truly make it better, but maybe if I go back and get my MBA, I can make myself rich.  Enter Ronzo...

The seventies were  not just the end of the fifties and sixties, but they signified the loss of civic mindedness that played a key role in American politics since the New Deal...some even say as far back as Teddy Roosevelt, a full century now.  Believe me, if BP had to deal with TR instead of Obama, Tony Hayward would have had several episodes of public incontinence.

There was a utopian way of thinking in both the culture and the counterculture.  We were not so much optimistic as idealistic.  We can do better.  We will figure it out.  JFK was the apex of American idealism.  When we lost Kennedy to the assassin's bullet then ten years later we're looking to impeach Richard Nxion not for making an atrocity our of national policy, but for participating in the Watergate burglary.  I mean, that was like getting Al Capone on tax evasion.  So we all became much more cynical.  The world's too effed up for us to truly make it better, but maybe if I go back and get my MBA, I can make myself rich.  Enter Ronzo...

The seventies were  not just the end of the fifties and sixties, but they signified the loss of civic mindedness that played a key role in American politics since the New Deal...some even say as far back as Teddy Roosevelt, a full century now.  Believe me, if BP had to deal with TR instead of Obama, Tony Hayward would have had several episodes of public incontinence.


I totally agree.  I think that idealism died with Bobby Kennedy.  People viewed him as the last hope to something good, a better future.    Then Nixon came along and completely killed anything Americans had left to believe in. 

And you're so right, the end of idealism totally gave way to the selfishness that arose in the 80's.  Those same people preaching peace and love in the 60's went on to become the 'yuppies' of the 80's.  It was the, if you can't beat them, join them mindset.  And sadly, that lead to what we have today. 

I totally agree.   I think that idealism died with Bobby Kennedy.   People viewed him as the last hope to something good, a better future.    Then Nixon came along and completely killed anything Americans had left to believe in.   

And you're so right, the end of idealism totally gave way to the selfishness that arose in the 80's.   Those same people preaching peace and love in the 60's went on to become the 'yuppies' of the 80's.   It was the, if you can't beat them, join them mindset.   And sadly, that lead to what we have today. 


Perhaps if the Democrats hadn't imploded in '68, Nixon wouldn't have won the election. Too much divisiveness.

Perhaps if the Democrats hadn't imploded in '68, Nixon wouldn't have won the election. Too much divisiveness.





Johnson would have squished Nixon in that election.  However, Johnson did not have the sophistication or subtlety of gelded laws proffered by the general public.  It might have been possible to get him to squeak by Nixon in the '68 as long as they dressed up Nixon like the dirty scumbag poison toad he was!

the 50's really began about a year after World War 2 and ended some time in 1963, based just on 'feel'. by the late 40's suburbia was really taking hold and carhops, drive-ins etc were popping up. it wasn't really a fully developed 50s vibe though, no rock music or anything.

the 60s is a whole other debate. the hippies i've talked to said that it began in the early 60s but didn't really enter mass consciousness until about 1965-66. the ending happened gradually between the last months of 1969 and the first few years of the 1970s; you couldn't pick one time really.

I'm bumping this thread.

I think a crucial aspect of the '50s ended with the arrival of the birth control pill in 1960. It was basically a slap in the face to the "traditional values" of the '50s.

As for when the '60s ended, I basically see the '70s as mostly a continuation of the '60s. I suppose the establishment of the Moral Majority and the Concerned Women for America in the late '70s as a response to the Sexual Revolution could have signalled the approaching end of it. The advent of HIV/AIDS and other STDs in the early '80s was probably the final nail in the coffin because it brought the Sexual Revolution, which pretty much defined the '60s and '70s, to a complete stop.

I'm bumping this thread.

I think a crucial aspect of the '50s ended with the arrival of the birth control pill in 1960. It was basically a slap in the face to the "traditional values" of the '50s.

As for when the '60s ended, I basically see the '70s as mostly a continuation of the '60s. I suppose the establishment of the Moral Majority and the Concerned Women for America in the late '70s as a response to the Sexual Revolution could have been the end of the '60s. The advent of HIV/AIDS and other STDs in the early '80s was probably the final nail in the coffin because it brought the Sexual Revolution, which pretty much defined the '60s and '70s, to a complete stop.




To most people, the 60's didn't truly start until 1964.  :D

The 60s ended 21 years before I was born, so I'm just speaking based on what I have heard from people around then and from history.

According to my grandmother, the 50s began around 1947. Once people had gotten over WW2, you could already see glimpses of the suburban, Peggy Sue '50s. This lasted until some point in 1963, the first year which really has a 60s atmosphere (1962 is the year American Graffiti is set - remember, AG is about the '50s!)

So the 50s ended in 1963, which is also when the Sixties started.

Now when the 60s ended - that is a much more complicated matter. From what I have heard and studied, the tail end of 1969, up to about 1973 was a mix of leftover 60s and 70s things coming in. You also have to remember a lot of 70s culture is really just extensions of late 60s culture. If I HAD to give a year, I would say 1971. It was indisputable the Beatles had broken up, Jimi and Janis were dead, Shaft came out (a VERY 70s movie), and the hippies were starting to fragment into their own groups, including the New Age movement. I would say 1970 is the last year that felt more 60s than 70s, but that even as late as 1974 had a psychedelic feel to it.

This is decadeology, but I'll bite:


The 50's: 1946 (1ST YEAR Of Baby Boom)-1963 (Best President of the last 50 years assasinated)
The 60's: 1964 (Beatlemania)-1974 (Nixon Resigns)

So when did the 50's and 60's, come to an end?  Was there a particular event, that ended those decades, or several?

???
A decade is more than a specific 10 year period.  The 1950's came to an end with Elvis getting drafted in 1958 & with the death Buddy Holley et al in 1959.  One could also argue that JFK's inauguration in 1961 also helped mark the end of an era.  The beginning of the '50's is generally said to have been 1954.  Korea ended the year before & The Black Board Jungle was released.

The 1960's didn't really start until after JFK's assassination in 1963 & the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan in 1964.  Viet Nam certainly was part of the '60's but it ran from 1965 to 1975.  The '60's kind of came crashing down from the heights of Woodstock in August of 1969.  Altamont was a mere 4 months later; followed by the break up of  the Beatles, the Isle of Wight, the deaths of Jimi Hendrix & Janis Joplin; all in 1970 & then the death of Jim Morrison in 1971.  The Vietnamization of the war in '73, Nixon's resignation in '74, & the ultimate victory of the Viet Cong in '75 put the final nails in the coffin. 

The '70's didn't really start until Saturday Night Fever was released in 1977.  And in my opinion couldn't have ended quickly enough.

Last day of the 50s. December 31, 1959.
Last day of the 60s. December 31, 1969.

End of discussion. See, that wasn't so hard, was it?

This whole thread is filled with decadeology and bumped with a decadeology type post. Instead of informing those born between 1970 and 1977 (when Saturday Night Fever was released) that they are not born in the 70s, I am locking it. Please review the rules on this site in regards to decadeology and why it's banned.

Thanks.

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=32986.msg1674146#msg1674146