70 Years of Youth Revolt

In post-war Paris, jazz clubs became the landmark of a freedom-loving youth; the discomfort of middle-class youth is embodied for the first time in the cinema with James Dean. In the mid-1960s, the Brit pop wave exorcised the frustrations of youth. In France, independent cinema reinvented roles for young women; in the Netherlands the Provos collective invented the happening. From the hippie movement to the emergence of black pride and the rise of anti-capitalist revolutionary cinema, counter-culture accompanied the global rebellion against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Throughout the 1970s, the irrigation of revolt nourished creativity, David Bowie raised the question of multiple identities, the women’s movement challenged male domination, disco freed bodies and launched an LGBT culture. The appearance of mass unemployment seems to sound the death knell of hopes. The punks blow it all up: no future!

At the dawn of the 1980s, the Clash urged punks to stand up to young Jamaican immigrant reggae-fans to put an end to discrimination and injustice. In France, in 1983, it was the march for equality and against racism that brought together an entire generation. At the beginning of the 1990s, a gap was widening between two youths, those from the ghettos and the others. Coming from the United States, hip hop became the voice of the suburbs and some people invented a universe with techno and raves. With the explosion of the Internet in the 2000s, young people are renewing their forms of protest. From the computer and cell phone to the street, youth is overthrowing dictatorships. These struggles are embodied in today’s uprisings: several movements are staging sensitivities that affect all generations.