Shaping 1960s youth in Britain and France: Fabulous and Salut les copains

Abstract

Existing accounts of Fabulous (later Fabulous 208) and Salut les copains (SLC) – two of the most successful youth magazines in Britain and France during the 1960s – have tended to highlight the ‘rapport’ that they fostered between music artists and young readers. However, the representation of youth in both magazines was, in fact, much more extensive, if not complex, when viewed in relation to the official, academic and other media discourses of the period. While Fabulous unquestioningly supports well-established unitary and consumerist notions of youth, SLC adopts a more problematic stance, despite its own status as commercialized mass culture. Both magazines resist popular adult conceptions of youth as ‘trouble’, and, indeed, represent the category in ordered terms. However, SLC regulates youth more extensively, and, unlike Fabulous, avoids engaging with popular notions of adolescence as a period of potential psychological upheaval. Moreover, while SLC legitimizes the authority of the Gaullist state, there is little in Fabulous that suggests an attachment to the British monarchy or any particular political party or leader. Although SLC at times expresses strong views on the subject of youth, its coverage also appears to promote a greater sense of debate and intellectual curiosity among its readers than its British counterpart – an approach that is consistent with specifically French cultural and educational traditions.