From beatniks to hippies : Challenging and revolving subcultural youths in Sweden 1959 to 1969

From beatniks to hippies — challenging and revolving subcultural youths in Sweden 1959 to 1969 The purpose of this work has been to explore and analyse the transformation of the youth subcultures beatniks and hippies in a Swedish context between 1959 and 1969, by searching answers to the following questions: What was the background of the subcultures ? How were these subcultures established, transformed and developed in a Swedish context? What became their typical style and taste?, and in what rooms and places were these cultures practiced by Swedish youths? Mass media, especially TV but also radio, film, books and records brought the world in and were the main reason youths in Sweden could identify themselves through foreign subcultures. They adapted most of the original style but brought in some local elements. My studies show a close link between the beatnik-subculture and the hippie-subculture, in Sweden transformed through the mod-subculture. The freedom-movement and visions spread by “the beat-generation” were important as inspiration and guide to unite youths and challenge the national hegemony. The mod-culture established the subcultural practises in public rooms. The transnational bounds in the hippie-culture set a global perspective of the world rather than the previous regional or national perspectives. It is shown in the study that intersectional boundaries were pushed by the subcultures. They helped to bring up equality among sexes and were a main force for women’s liberation throughout the 60’s. All classes were in some way involved in the subcultures, although they practised them in different ways. Subcultural youth style was commercialized, popularised and became in many ways mainstream during the 60’s. These youth-cultures had a vast impact on cultural changes as well as changes in society in Sweden during the time of my research.