1963: The Year of the Revolution: How Youth Changed the World with Music, Art, and Fashion
The compilers of this oral history date the youthquake (Diana Vreeland’s coinage) that defined the era from the nearly simultaneous debut appearances on British television on January 13, 1963, of the Beatles and Bob Dylan. With the emphasis distinctly on events in the UK, the authors have culled quotes from musicians (Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, among others), music agents and promoters, and fashion pioneers Vidal Sassoon and Mary Quant to delineate how the postwar generation broke from tradition and set a new style. On the American side, coming out of a very different war experience, folksingers like Carolyn Hester and R&B and blues/soul singers such as Mary Wilson of the Supremes (who are both quoted) and Dylan (who is not) charted a parallel course. There is very little narrative connecting the quotes, which are selective (no Beatles, no African American bluesmen despite their acknowledged influence). This is a familiar story and the concentration on the authors’ English homeland may limit its audience in the States, but to the baby boomers whose story this is, interest in the period (i.e., in themselves) is ongoing. --Mark Levine