Contemporary history of Europe

Juvenile delinquency, social unrest and national anxiety: French debates and controversies over rock’n’roll in the 1960s and 1970s

17 May 2022

Juvenile delinquency, social unrest and national anxiety: French debates and controversies over rock’n’roll in the 1960s and 1970s
Talk by by Dr. Florence Tamagne (Associate professor in contemporary history at the University of Lille).

Based on a collection of local and national archival sources, police reports, and press articles, this talk will explore how rock’n’roll and pop music were received in France in the 1960s and the 1970s. Although some ‘threats,’ such as violence and loose moral at rock’n’roll concerts, were present in other countries as well, this talk shows that other so-called hazards should be read in the light of the French context. This was marked by the shadow of the dark years of the Vichy regime, the end of the Algerian war, students’ protests in May 1968, and the lasting influence of the left-wing revolutionary spirit.

Florence Tamagne is associate professor in contemporary history at the University of Lille. She has notably published Histoire de l’homosexualité en Europe, Berlin, Londres, Paris (1919-1939) (Seuil, 2000), Mauvais Genre ? Une histoire des représentations de l’homosexualité (La Martinière, 2001) and Le crime du Palace. Enquête sur l’une des plus grandes enquêtes criminelles des années 1930 (Payot, 2017, Prix Augustin Thierry).  She is the curator of the exhibition “Homosexuals and Lesbians in Nazi Europe” (Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, May 2021-May 2022).

She is currently finishing a book on "Rock music, youth cultures and politics in France, Britain and Germany (1950s-1980s) " and has published several articles on the subject.

 

Tuesday, 17 May 2022

17.00 - 18.30

C²DH Open Space & Online

Maison des Sciences humaines, 4th floor

Free public hybrid event. If you wish to join online, please send an e-mail to oana.stefan@uni.lu to receive the link.

 

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