1961: Are the YOUTH in MORAL DECLINE? | Panorama | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

Panorama's John Morgan - at the ripe old age of 32 - visits the Earlswood Jazz Festival, to find out whether morality among British young people is declining. Are the youth of 1961 - who in their fashion, taste in music and attitude appear thoroughly different from their parents' generation - really so different? Or is this just another moral panic, orchestrated by an older generation who find themselves suddenly out of touch with the world?
Originally broadcast 10 July, 1961
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[@thomasm1964]

Every 16 year old in this film, assuming they are still alive, is now 77; every 18 year old is 79. Remember that as you walk down the street. Those silver-haired old dears and duffers all have untold histories - and they might just be far more exciting than your own!

[@itemushmush]

my dad was born in 1940 and died in 2019, and i looove watching these videos from around the time he was a young man. wish i could show him these vids :(

[@thomasm1964]

@@itemushmush 1939 and 2019 for mine; 1942 and 2015 for my Mum.

[@Marcia_Toms]

Excellent comment 😊

[@oehasan]

Would be good to know what some of who appeared in this film are to now/how their lives panned out. Assuming they are still around off course.

[@miltonlevant3203]

Time don't stand still

[@HandyAndyTechTips]

All throughout history, young people have been criticised for being rude and lazy - even back to the time of Socrates. And it's always been an exaggerated generalisation.

[@GBGOLC]

So true, but this has come to pass. Look at today politicians born around this time. 😂

[@biegebythesea6775]

​@@ajs41that's not all young people, though, is it? Not even most.

[@internethardcase]

@@ajs41when have they not been "behaving especially badly" In Haiti? haha

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

Except this time😂

[@heinkle1]

5 years later, even these 17/18-year olds probably couldn’t comprehend the late-60s counterculture

[@RaptorFromWeegee]

Thats right, within 6 years these kids will all be squares

[@OlafProt]

“Moral decline as compared to what” has always been my query to this.

[@tylerbeaumont]

As compared to the racist, sexist, homophobic behaviour of their own parents and grandparents, of course! Many folks who watched this when it first came out were born into a world where child labour was legal, racial segregation was all but mandatory, and homosexuality was being “treated” with chemical castration in mental asylums. And yet the most amoral thing the news could find about the youth of the day was binge drinking and premarital sex at a jazz concert! The irrationality and lack of self-awareness of moral panics surrounding the youth will never fail to amaze me.

[@fuckbankers]

Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk, was a British clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance - of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistcoat. Bilk's 1962 instrumental tune "Stranger on the Shore" became the UK's biggest selling single of 1962. It spent more than 50 weeks on the UK charts, peaking at number two, and was the second No. 1 single in the United States by a British artist.Wikipedia

[@Seal0626]

"Does it make you drunk?" I'm pretty sure it already has.

[@ucheucheuche]

Oh my God, will each generation stop asking this of a generation younger than themselves?!

[@luigimrlgaming9484]

Only when they stop changing

[@EllRiver]

I'll put this into context, the "young people" in this video are all 80. The youngest is 78.

[@Harry-fk5of]

And often when I see someone who's 80 I really can't imagine them as the people in this vid, but of course, they were just like a lot of 18-year-olds of today all about music and sex and they might still be all about that, in an 80-year-old body

[@ppo2424]

@@Harry-fk5of No things change as you get older, you realise sex and music are not everything in life by a long shot

[@hilaryepstein6013]

@@Harry-fk5of You're right. People should never be judged by their age and I'm sure many in this film would say they feel no different inside.

[@raggedbreath]

@@ppo2424 what is then?

[@Fagocytos1s]

Unless they're dead

[@user-td4do3op2d]

Shouldn’t jazz have been “old people music” already in the 1960s? People were listening to jazz in the 1920s.

[@girrlbyker]

Trad jazz, like this, was popular with young people in the 50s and very early 60s. My dad was a fan and he's 87 now. But he also liked Jerry Lee Lewis at the same time. The Beatles then changed things a lot from 1962, a year after this film was made.

[@samnicholson5051]

I don't much about British Jazz, but as far as the American scene goes I don't think Miles Davis and the like have ever been considered "old people music". Moreso Glenn Miller and all that commercial stuff.

[@TimMcTim1888]

Yes, they just heard it on Jazz FM digital.

[@MrGilliganz]

Nope not at all ..I urge you to search on this platform the history of Jazz ..u will see when it arrived in these shores how pple loved it young and old. Also if interested check out or rather type American Folk Blues Festivals 1963 1966 the British Tours you will notice how Young folk were mesmerised. Of coz different genre but born out of same thing.

[@pressureworks]

@@samnicholson5051 Big Band music was the pop music of its time, listened to by young people.

[@Buddhavibez]

At least they wasn’t making songs about stabbing each other after stabbing someone

[@jamesmaloney2468]

Yeah moral decline was better back then. They done it proper.

[@hilaryepstein6013]

Most of them were just young people enjoying their youth. Maybe those who went to jazz clubs and concerts were a bit more, shall we say, free spirited. Just wait till the "Summer of Love" six years later.

[@SB-qc4qg]

Wish we knew the name of the lad with the booze to find out what sort of life be went onto live

[@thomasm1964]

They show a freedom which .... would have been very familiar to Georgian society. Just because we were essentially still emerging from the Victorian era (with a little bit of Edwardian and Georgian influence) does not mean we were always Victorian in our public attitudes and beliefs. I use the word "public" advisedly. What happened behind closed doors between 1837 and 1901 was far wose than anything these youngsters are portrayed as doing!

[@davidwilde4933]

Any sixteen year old wearing a tie and listening to Acker Bilk nowadays would be highly popular if he joined his peers in the local park 🤣

[@sacredbanana]

RIP to all the dogs seen in this video

[@EllRiver]

Dogs? Most of the people are dead.

[@sacredbanana]

@@EllRiver yeah but I don't care about the people

[@ttube111]

Bark off

[@ajs41]

@@EllRiver Why do you say that? The average age for people who reach adulthood is about 85. It's lower overall because of people who die in childhood.

[@goblinbollocks2838]

​@@sacredbanana weirdo

[@MrWidmerpool99]

The classic tropes of moral decline. Chunky knitwear, pipe-smoking and occasional trombone solos.

[@JasmineSurrealVideos]

😂

[@chamboyette853]

Is it just me or do the young people seem so much more reflective in their answers than people do today, young and less young included?

[@kgrimes4934]

Have you talked to a young person recently in person? Today’s teen is reflective depending on the topic of conversation. They don’t communicate the same on social media.

[@biegebythesea6775]

No that's not true at all. Watch interviews with young people today. They're not only very reflective but many are activists who consider their impact on the world much more than boomers, gen x and my generation, old millennials.

[@chamboyette853]

@@biegebythesea6775 Disagree. They constantly put in buzz words dividing people by race and gender, as if all women are the same, all blacks are the same, all whites are the same ... Ironically or hypocritically they often call out others for being sexist and racist while hiding behind their own "identities" saying things like "as a woman", "as a black ..." ... Sound familiar?

[@drbalbon7332]

Back then there was a moral panic; now there's a genuine fear of the amoral nature of the youth.

[@tgirltouhou]

no it's another moral panic

[@captainkenzie6873]

As a "youth" I witness it worsening daily among my former friends and my younger siblings, anybody who claims it's just an unjustified panic of older people is terribly misinformed and i fear their ignorance may lead to the complete collapse of civilised society.

[@saragarratt4397]

I wonder where they are now? I hope they've all lived long and happy lives.

[@ajs41]

Well my dad's 21st birthday was a few days after this was broadcast, and he's still working full time running his business. I'm going to show him this video either today or tomorrow to see what he thinks of it.

[@Biobele]

@@ajs41how did that go?

[@TitanOfClash]

Fantastic wages

[@monsieurbertillon9570]

That lad was earning the equivalent of about £340 a week now. With housing costs much lower, a lot of disposable income.

[@andydixon2980]

"what's in that bottle? Does it make you drunk'? I think the reporter may have stayed a virgin all his life. Each their own.

[@stephensmith5118]

Great footage pf 1961 ,beatnicks as some were called ,the end of rock n roll and the Mersey beat a year later .

[@PathfinderHistoryTravel]

What will things be like 60 years from now? I wonder.

[@luigimrlgaming9484]

Read Brave New World

[@mukinmukin6352]

Interesting, this was after the day the music died but a good 2 1/2- 3yrs before the Beatles (the Beatles existed back then but were relatively unknown outside of Liverpool and Hamburg) this sort of moral panic/decay that folks blamed on the Beatles was sort of happening already...started by Elvis and Rock...then it faded a bit, then got kicked back into high gear again. Not sure how many of them are here for the Jazz...or if they even like jazz. They just needed a place to congregate and be with each other and to have some kind of music in the background...once the Beatles and the other bands like them broke out...not only did they have a place to congregate but a music genre that they truly loved

[@TobyCostaDunkin]

What a load of old crumbs! There just having a giggle!

[@soundseeker63]

They are all so articulate and able to give intelligent and thoughtful answers. They seem to genuinely engage with the interviewer. I'm struggling to imagine what topic, if any, could get a similar level or coherant engagement from your average 16-18 year olds today. It's ironic that "smart" phones and "social" media seem to have made people more stupid and less socialy adept. Well, at least that's my perception!

[@anmolagrawal5358]

1:06 No way in good heavens is this gentleman 16

[@maximoo9861]

Yes my thoughts exactly

[@ajs41]

Because he's wearing a hat? He reminds me of Prince William at 16.

[@pauldurdan1549]

He is definitely 16. Men actually matured and looked like real men in those days at a younger age.

[@TheConorsmithusa]

Crazy to think the beatles didn't exist at that time 1961

[@itemushmush]

WOW! of course! absolutely insane that they're talking about how *jazz* is affecting the young

[@oliver9549]

The Beatles existed at the time, but they were just a small club band performing every day in Hamburg night clubs at the time. Only two years later they would have their first record out.

[@billquick9053]

..but, they were COMING! 😁👍

[@Red-Revolution708]

You have an upper middle class gentleman, interviewing working class people, and trying to ridicule the way they live.

[@tobleramone]

Was he heck as like.

[@Red-Revolution708]

@@willrobb5577 What’s new this is our country to not only the rich people’s who are in power, it’s time to speak up because the working class man and woman are treated like something on the bottom of the Tory shoe, just look around you how things have changed for the worst.

[@thatssomething1]

That very innocent faraway time just before yknow who exploded in popularity in 63/64 and all those rock bands and drugs and societal unrest in the 60s onwards..

[@OlafProt]

4:45 so seems to be Joe Strummer 😂

[@IAmSoMuchBetterThanYou]

Brilliant.

[@MrGilliganz]

I absolutely love these historical docus...this vilification carries on today. Press media some right wing portray a lot of nonsense with no research about most times a person of colour like me. So happy to see tradition continues lol...i wish i lived them days easier to chat up girls lol .nowadays sheesh. 😃😁😁😁🤣🤣

[@Red-Revolution708]

Opera and Jazz came from the Working - Classes .

[@MrDaiseymay]

its jus a natural social change that is inevitable. Especially after a War. It cannot be halted, in a open free society. All those in control can do, is to keep on warning of the consequences of their actions, and hope some, at least, will be pursuaded to act responsibly.

[@SenjiaMurtic]

Dumbing down of the world!

[@thebat7048]

I wonder what that reporter would think of the rave generation 🥴

[@KarmasAbutch]

Or UK drill 🥴

[@hand587]

The journalist John Morgan was Welsh born and bred but his accent sounds German for some reason! Maybe it's just the odd mix of Welsh and posh.

[@MajesticJoshua]

Imagine if today’s teenagers were as eloquent when they speak as these teenagers were. I know I certainly wasn’t.

[@WordsInVain]

Teens today have become linguistically corrupt... It slowly went south after the 70s...

[@cz2301]

Oh, the deference that the reporter uses when talking about the “youngsters”, as if they were some exotic insects in a far away island

[@rogersmith8339]

I just love those reckless youth! Lol.

[@hughtierneytierney3585]

I used to be 'such a nice young man' and then I discovered 'that awful skiffle music'.

[@rectify2003]

I so want to go back in time and have a wife from days gone by. People were so polite and respectful, even the criminals had a moral code.

[@RithwikHari]

🥴🥴🥴

[@rectify2003]

@@RithwikHari 😇

[@anmolagrawal5358]

4:20 What language this guy is trying to impart on us humans is beyond my senses

[@ajs41]

He's got a speech impediment I think.

[@GavM]

Or completely pissed

[@kingwinter2024]

Oh if only they'd see the world today..

[@feegs123]

All be in their 80s now

[@st6431]

@Gen X ~ Fem ~ 78 And what did they do? People are individuals, they all vote in different ways (or not at all) and some have lots of power beyond that in society while others have very little power at all. To demonise whole age groups is as silly as demonising whole countries or societies.

[@BootlegFuryUW]

The reporter was 16 at the time

[@BraveLittlePixel]

Wow all this rebellion, and it was just all over jazz, how boring and old

[@Marcia_Toms]

Get a girl if your “usually not particular “ ?!

[@emilian7052]

It means not fussy

[@Marcia_Toms]

@@emilian7052 yes I thought it was quite amusing !

[@emilian7052]

@@Marcia_Toms yes haha

[@s125ish]

Couldn’t understand him , what accent is that

[@emilian7052]

@@s125ish I am guessing west country

[@chemicalreagent120]

Evola

[@internethardcase]

This is when boomers lead the decline. Hard Times Create Strong Men, Strong Men Create Good Times, Good Times Create Weak Men, Weak Men Create Hard Times

[@orvos1459]

Yes. Just read the book entitled The Death of Moral Britain. Before the 1950s, Britain had a very low crime rate (despite the population growth in the late 19th to early 20th centuries), low rates of alcohol and drug abuse, low illegitimacy rates, low infanticide with no abortion, low obesity, and low sexual immorality. Moral depravity and extreme hedonism destroyed a once-great nation.

[@Veni_Vidi_Vortice]

Shocking degeneracy. Whatever is the world coming to? 😲

[@L_Martin]

4:29 He seems to say, his friends (and he himself) will sleep with these girls they pick up, and he is unsurprised the girls get pregnant, and then his friends to not have anything to do with looking after the woman and the child. And it is the girls' own fault, according to him. It's pretty fascinating - 1) that the boys are so uncaring about knocking a girl up and then having nothing to do with the baby, and 2) she, the girl, is exclusively to blame for the situation. It's incredible the girls would sleep with a guy they met that night, when there was such a continual threat of unwanted pregnancy. The pill was approved for use by 1960 - were the girls just not using it? Was it not known about?

[@sarcasticallyrearranged]

Just because it existed doesn’t mean that it was prescribed or given out,especially if you were a single woman. Besides, women are still ultimately held responsible for pregnancy and it’s always their fault if the father is uninterested in helping to raise their child.

[@JasmineSurrealVideos]

The dude interviewed at the end is unintentionally hilarious, like he's blunt isn't he lol. Sex and jazz, that's his lot. Is it any different for today's youth with trap, rnb, and sex? I think not. Only difference is these lot are more articulate and their trousers aren't hanging down their rears shoving and pushing each other and causing public disruption 😂

[@KaydeyRai]

Those are some middle aged looking 16-18 year olds

[@nocturnalstar1427]

The Notting Hiill carnival of its day? Play some of these kids some BBC endorsed modern 'drill' music. I'm sure they'd love it...

[@Red-Revolution708]

What happened to youth culture .

[@sideonsid2885]

Jazz corrupted the youth in 61' . The girls are gonna go mad when they hear the new boy band from Liverpool .

[@miniroll32]

God help this guy if he saw todays youth. Even I'm struggling to understand a 'Fortnite [birthday] Party'

[@zannemoonstone]

Definitely jazz over sex😂🏆🏆🏆

[@rogersmith8339]

I know of one young lady (now in her 80s) who lost her virginity in her local park in 1952, aged 13! She was married to him for very many years.

[@asd36f]

Cutting loose to trad jazz- disgraceful behaviour!

[@Kblog777]

All before The Beatles, Woodstock etc.

[@fuckbankers]

Louts 🤣

[@anthonyleighton4754]

They dress like you're dad .....even when they were 22....

[@dot2562]

Imagine the presenter having a look at tik tok 🙄

[@lauramolony]

Many young people of yesteryear seem much better spoken, better educated and better mannered than many young people of today. And I'll bet my last pound that fifty years from now, someone else, whether they know it or not, is going to repeat this comment somewhere!

[@christinah777]

It’s refreshing to hear faith and Christianity come from the voice of the youth. Today this has horribly declined.

[@NiKOliDANBURSKi]

"What d'you do?" "I'm a steel erector" "How old are you?" "38"

[@justm188]

Blame the Boomers LOL

[@tylerbeaumont]

Fun fact, the “youth” referred to here is the baby boom generation!

[@r4zi3lgintoro65]

24yo actors playing teenagers

[@onekitten9007]

These boomers are old lol

[@jeffmorse645]

Those aren't boomers. Baby Boom started in 1946 so the oldest boomers would be 15 when that interview took place. The people he interviewed are older than that. They're the tail end of the "Silent Generation".

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

Wow. People (especially the men) had amazing skin then. I think it was because they were reared on mothers milk and organic food. I see a lot of young men nowadays with acne and thick beards. All the steroids and preservatives in modern food I say!!!

[@Usmodlover]

I’m fairly sure they really didn’t… simply it didn’t get picked up by cameras… Everyone smoked, and people were already eating terrible food… spam, baloney, etc. were a lot of what people ate per my dad’s recollection of growing up then, and unsurprisingly life expectancy was far lower than now

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

@@Usmodlover baloney? We are talking about the UK sorry.

[@cupofqwarffee4802]

That drunk 18 year old looked about 38.

[@benitopussolini544]

Their skin is better because they go outside! they didn't spend every spare minute gazing zombie like into a screen.

[@hhhsf4357]

Did we watch the same video?

[@Rootle2]

The most selfish generation

[@arlosmith9504]

The interviewer is sooooo patronising

[@WordsInVain]

Newsflash: He's the only sober person there.

[@ppo2424]

Not just in decline but plummeting. , I have to generalise of course, but there's no doubt despite some idiotic attempts at moral righteousness,the youth these days are pretty appalling.

[@fuckbankers]

There's always a moral panic about the youth of today.

[@leeriches8841]

The youth of today are insane, changing gender every week, claiming to have every mental health issue under the sun, cancelling people, living every second on TikTok… they have issues.

[@tjmarx]

There isn't a moral panic in 2023. Morality left long ago. Now we have a legitimate panic about their mental competence, but that also extends to millennials whom are no longer the youth.

[@Spanglefangle]

@@tjmarx You honestly think there's no moral panic today?

[@tjmarx]

@@Spanglefangle With regards youth?

[@Spanglefangle]

@@tjmarx Yes

[@davidthompson6834]

Wait till 1967 the summer of love happens

[@fuckbankers]

The days when you could afford to feed and heat yourself.

[@JamsterJules]

BBC journalism at its best - keep repeating the same question until you get the percentage of answers you need - then report it.

[@npc3po301]

They were CAUSING the moral decline, pumping out family and nationality dissolving propaganda, these reports weren't for average joe they were business updates

[@jaymac7203]

The fact that a jazz festival is seen as risqué is crazy 😂

[@samnicholson5051]

The kind of video that those people who moan about todays generation under nostalgia channels needed to see.

[@sandeepraiphotography2111]

Imagine a journalist asking them questions today 😅

[@the-based-jew6872]

The questions wouldn't need to be asked. Because the answer is already there. Yes..

[@janicebarthram6759]

He’d have to speak to them via the internet…….

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

1:06 "How old are you?" "I'm 16."....aye in dog years ! 😳😂

[@nukesean]

16 in dog years would be 2.3 in human years.

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

@@nukeseandon't know where you lifted that mate but scientific study actually finds that the first year of a medium sized dog's life equals 15 human years. The second is around 9 human years and every year after is around 5 human years. And cheers for puncturing the simple joke 😂

[@pressureworks]

That degenerate Jazz Music, especially here, Acker Bilk, corrupting teenagers with that jungle beat !!! Leading to teenagers dancing and kissing, horribly disgraceful! Why doesn't the government do something to put a stop to it all!!!???!!! Meanwhile in Liverpool and Hamburg a bunch of lads were playing some kind of backbeat music.

[@OrangeTabbyCat]

And then came The Stones and abd The Doors and that’s where the real fun began 😂😂😂

[@WordsInVain]

The precursor of the hippies... 🧠

[@mikepeacock2470]

And a good number of the youth in that film asked the same question of subsequent generations in later years. Probably about the same time they started reading the Mail of the Express.

[@jasonayres]

(3:17) "Plonk Bottle". I think that's a petrol container. Oh, sonny, that's just adding fuel to the fire, that is.

[@tommyhughes2264]

Its a scary fact now that all these young people in this film will all be dead by now.

[@ajs41]

I'm not sure about that. Average age is/was about 85 for people who reach adulthood.

[@jeffreyhunt1727]

Boomers today act as if they're the first people to ever criticize the youth

[@jeffmorse645]

They were hugely criticized in the late 1960s (Hippies, Summer of Love, Vietnam War protests, drug use, etc...) so I doubt they think that.

[@bri_____]

Meanwhile; Chairman Mao was committing the worst genocide in human history.

[@captur69]

If that lad is 16...il eat his hat...

[@vaughanrichards7438]

Acker Bilk

[@jonathanbrown4933]

what a bunch of dumb blubbering questions. very suspect when interviewers say, "satistics prove this and satistics prove that" thats like saying "doctors recommend" or "9 out of 10 people choose this or that" those are usually just bullshit bait statements to lure those being interviewed into saying something stupid, which they usually do.

[@litmaglitmag6551]

I find it funny the reporter quoting the ‚statistic‘ of 1/5th of the girls being pregnant when they marry… looking at one or two generations removed - say 1930‘s & 40‘s - the number would have probably been 1/2 or 1/3 😄😄😄

[@CPTM1]

These youngster will hate the younger generation then that younger generation will hate the younger young generation and that generation will hate me

[@robertlloyd122]

All this hand-wringing about JAZZ... decades after it was created!!! 😄

[@jdm65]

Welcome to Jazz Club.

[@radioandtvmemories6178]

Nice

[@jdm65]

@@radioandtvmemories6178 Great