1957: Is SKIFFLE MUSIC corrupting the youth? | BBC News | Classic BBC Music | BBC Archive 

I've just found this video and and now at the age of 83 it's amazing to see myself at the age of eighteen. I vaguely remember it being filmed. My band is the one with the girl being interviewed. Her name is Carol and her brother playing the banjo is Eddie and the chap smoking behind her is Ron (he was the bass player - note his fingers taped up). I'm to the right of Carol singing with her although hardly visible in the gloom. The drummer was Pete Smith (hidden behind) and we all lived in Bromley. We thought the interviewer was a twit. We had fun but lost contact shortly after and I hope they had happy lives as I have had.

What a beauty that young lady was.

1930 - Is Jazz corrupting the youth? 1957 - Is Skiffle corrupting the youth? 1960 - Is Rock and roll corrupting the youth? 1970 - Is Hard Rock corrupting the youth? 1975 - Is Punk corrupting the youth? 1980 - Is Heavy Metal corrupting the youth? 1990 - Is Grunge corrupting the youth? 1995 - Is Hip Hop corrupting the youth? Same old story different clothes.

I hope that vicar lived to see the acid house era

"The Beatles were a skiffle band when they started" - Paul McCartney

0:56 She looks like she's from 1967 not 1957.

My Dad loved skiffle. I knew he was a cool dude.

The young woman interviewed looks very contemporary. She would be over 80 now.

From what I've read, skiffle is an American genre that was created in the 1920s in the southern United States. And it stopped being known until it was revived in England during the 50s, and it was a prelude to the British Invasion.

I think it's the dancing that has led to the breakdown of society. It started in the twenties with the Black Bottom, the Charleston, then Lindy Hop, the Twist in the sixties and the Pogo in the seventies. They exhausted the older generations, which eventually led the greatest evil of all - Dad Dancing. It creates havoc and outbreaks of violence. It's noteworthy that Conservative MPs are the most feared proponents of the craze...

It’s Footloose the prequel 😊

He associates the bored look of people listening to his sermons with true happiness. No wonder so many people stopped going to Church with that kind of attitude.

Oh dear, some people do get worked up over anything new, especially if it involves young people. It's always been that way - Jazz 30 years before and Punk 20 years later.

The world went to Hell in a hardcart as soon as skiffle music appeared. 🤣

That washboard player was the coolest

Skiffle. Once you hear it you are possessed

0:50 doesn't seem all that long ago, relatively, but she'll be in her 80's now.

Alas the Old Tea Chest Bass. 😂

the band sounds bad ass.

Birthdays, Christmas and God knows how many "festivities" are pagan in nature.

0:25 I wonder did he have a (pagan) Christmas tree every year

The vicar was fine, what you would expect. But that interviewer was awful, he sounded really nervous.

This is great,I love moral panics!This is pagan!klassic!

0:18 - British dentistry at its finest.

The reason of this question about the skiffle as a corrupting youth is because the majority have lacked of their education

Religious clericals of that day, and now.....those people look so happy. How date they see any joy in the one and only life we know for sure we'll enjoy. Heaven can be here. In this world. If we allow ourselves to do such!

Youth of today, what a rabble (every older generation since humanity began)

That girl with the long hair looks like she time travelled. She does not look typically 1950s in any possible way

"It's having a bad spiritual and mental effect upon them." 65 years on and I have to say he was absolutely right. That girl is hot though.

"Скиффл портит молодёжь"... Через 66 лет и никто уже не помнит этот музыкальный стиль...

1957 Techno vibes 😂

I suppose today's equivalent to Skiffle is the many ekulele clubs. Difference being it's now more middle aged and middle class. Nervertheless it's easy entry into making music.

The tone of the pompous and condescending BBC journalist has not changed across the decades.

0:53 Sad to think that this woman is around 88 years old now or is already dead.

Brilliant

A guy freely practicing his religion in a country that has religious freedom, bad mouthing other forms of religion.

The Yut of today.

Lol, what they thought was corrupting the youth back then!! 🤣 😆😅

For Pete's sake!! It's only music!!

As for the REV... Sad old Git...

Oh dear, we can't be having young people enjoying themselves, slamming car doors, loud music till all hours. Wow were they in for a shock when the swinging 60s dropped !!

In America this is called hillbilly music and its where rock music came from here too. Even we had the classist people deriding it as cultural rot not worthy of the superior upper class tastes.

It seems absurd now with Skiffle as the example but the music we have today is a progression from every boundary pushed over the last 70 years. I’m sure if you played these people from the 1950s some Drill music they’d see it as proof of their point. I’m a libertarian and a music lover but the take that “every generation complains about the youth” is ignoring the facts that sex and violence have got progressively more acceptable in each generation. I was watching Glastonbury and there was a young girl in the crowd mouthing the words to “Wet Ass Pussy” by Megan Thee Stallion. I remember a similar outrage to “Let’s Talk About Sex” by Salt N Pepa in the early 90s which is clearly more tame than WAP. With Only Fans becoming more and more acceptable I expect that it will be the norm for a higher and higher proportion of artists and celebrities to perform full, hardcore porn over the coming decades as a matter of routine.

Think the various god botherers have corrupted many more, usually in the dis-robing room when no-ones looking 🤮

Where are the silly put on accents we hear today ?

It’s like Sodom and Gomorrah…..

While the priests m0lest young boys in the confession box. 🙄

Pagan??????????!! His religious ideals and organisation is wreaked in Paganism!!

Pagan corrupt skifflers of the world unite!

Nonsense.

Awful interviewer doesn’t give her the chance to speak, awful vicar giving Christianity a bad name (skiffle is “pagan” oh come on …!!!)

That priest was not wrong. \m/

BBC showing with these videos that this country wasn't always multiethnic even as they say it was nowadays.

As usual, religious "leaders" don't like anything fun. I am an old man, 83, who attributes my longevity to sex, drugs and rock and roll. Think I'll roll another one and get naked...lol.