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

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@jaymac7203]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@samnicholson5051]

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

[@vaughanrichards7438]

John Morgan has a lovely speaking voice.

[@SB-qc4qg]

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

[@davidthompson6834]

Wait till 1967 the summer of love happens

[@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.

[@drbalbon7332]

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

[@mrrowwmeoww]

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.

[@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?

[@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

[@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!

[@stephensmith5118]

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

[@fuckbankers]

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

[@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?

[@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 🤣

[@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.

[@MrWidmerpool99]

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

[@JasmineSurrealVideos]

😂

[@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

[@OrangeTabbyCat]

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

[@PathfinderHistory]

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

[@luigimrlgaming9484]

Read Brave New World

[@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!

[@PhilOsGarage]

I think you are watching a different video, the guy with the ‘plonk bottle’ is a blabbering incoherent mess.

[@jasonayres]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@OlafProt]

4:45 so seems to be Joe Strummer 😂

[@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 😂

[@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..

[@IconTitan]

WOW,,,, the teens then to the teens now, were angels,, crazy

[@IAmSoMuchBetterThanYou]

Brilliant.

[@AaronAnaya]

One thing to keep in mind is that by 61’ Jazz wasn’t the “music of the youth” as this film portrays. The first wave of Rock’n’Roll had already happened and America (Where all of this music had originated) was already turning away from Jazz as form of popular music.

[@biegebythesea6775]

Not sure here. 61 was still the same and extremely early doors.I think Margaret Atwood said "the 60s was still the 50s until 1964".

[@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.

[@vaughanrichards7438]

Some of the interviewees are middle class. John Morgan was brought up in a working class district of Swansea.

[@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! 😁👍

[@vaughanrichards7438]

​@@oliver9549 Called The Quarrymen

[@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…….

[@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.

[@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

[@vaughanrichards7438]

@anmolagrawal5358 Or an archaic accent which has been driven out by Estuarine English.

[@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. 😃😁😁😁🤣🤣

[@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.

[@Jamestele1]

The only weird thing to me is that young people were jamming to old Dixie Land Jazz, as opposed to Beatniks in America listening to Bebop and and Cool Jazz, but trends are different in various places. For example, Americans got turned onto Blues music by British musical groups.

[@pressureworks]

It's called Trad Jazz

[@Jamestele1]

@@pressureworks Interesting

[@ajs41]

Young people in Britain have been more interested in black American music than white American music for a very long time, probably since the 1920s and 1930s. Types of white American music, like country music or blue grass, have never been particularly popular in the UK.

[@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.

[@vaughanrichards7438]

Bit like Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins.

[@jdm65]

Welcome to Jazz Club.

[@radioandtvmemories6178]

Nice

[@jdm65]

@@radioandtvmemories6178 Great

[@justmyopinion526]

My mother was a teddy girl during this time.

[@biegebythesea6775]

3:45 very good looking

[@thebat7048]

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

[@KarmasAbutch]

Or UK drill 🥴

[@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.

[@Red-Revolution708]

Opera and Jazz came from the Working - Classes .

[@kingwinter2024]

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

[@rogersmith8339]

I just love those reckless youth! Lol.

[@BootlegFuryUW]

The reporter was 16 at the time

[@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.

[@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 😇

[@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.

[@davidlittle7182]

Can't work out if the reporter is really posh Welsh or Indian

[@flyingphobiahelp]

Posh Welsh is my vote

[@pia_mater]

5:03 does he look Indian to you?

[@vaughanrichards7438]

@@davidlittle7182 John Morgan brought up in Swansea.

[@KaydeyRai]

Those are some middle aged looking 16-18 year olds

[@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.

[@chemicalreagent120]

Evola

[@captur69]

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

[@hughtierneytierney3585]

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

[@sideonsid2885]

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

[@feegs123]

All be in their 80s now

[@arshavin85]

@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.

[@SenjiaMurtic]

Dumbing down of the world!

[@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

[@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.

[@bri_____]

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

[@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.

[@WordsInVain]

The precursor of the hippies... 🧠

[@Red-Revolution708]

What happened to youth culture .

[@twitchygiraffe4636]

He looks like a right knob on the end of this!!!!

[@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...

[@Veni_Vidi_Vortice]

Shocking degeneracy. Whatever is the world coming to? 😲

[@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 😂

[@miniroll32]

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

[@westleymanc]

Drill music from the 60s

[@vaughanrichards7438]

Acker Bilk

[@CPTM1]

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

[@zannemoonstone]

Definitely jazz over sex😂🏆🏆🏆

[@wessexfox5197]

“By rhythms that separate them from the old” it’s literally Stars and Stripes Forever. Hardly a ghastly piece of music the old wouldn’t of known about.

[@BraveLittlePixel]

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

[@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...

[@GuessWhoAsks]

Anyone who considers the bible to be a good example of morality is being hypocritical unless they acknowledge and explain why the bible allowed its followers to commit immoral acts of slavery without ever condemning the practice.

[@L_Martin]

But the slaves didn't believe in God, you see! That makes it alright.

[@GuessWhoAsks]

@@L_Martin Well, to be clear, they did not believe the "Hebrew" god was the best one... forsaking all others. They may have believed in a god or many gods, but not being Hebrew is what allowed them to be purchased and considered property that could be inherited according to the Hebrew bible.

[@L_Martin]

@@GuessWhoAsks Yes, but in the bible, "God" is God. So yeah, these people are barely human! No better than cattle.

[@1Thunderfire]

Let's not forget the rampant misogyny, rape, violence and genocide!

[@L_Martin]

​@@1Thunderfire Can't have written word of god without those!

[@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!

[@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.

[@robertlloyd122]

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

[@Kblog777]

All before The Beatles, Woodstock etc.

[@dot2562]

Imagine the presenter having a look at tik tok 🙄

[@asd36f]

Cutting loose to trad jazz- disgraceful behaviour!

[@fuckbankers]

Louts 🤣

[@anthonyleighton4754]

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