Nation Building

The 50's were the decade where technology namely television started to gain popularity. Electronic TV sets were the first television sets and had approximately 5x5 screens and resembled radios. The TV's were often placed in a big wooden chest and given names to make them sound "majestic". By the late 1950's, television sets became a lot simpler and stood on legs. By 1955, CBC television services were available to 66% of Canadians.

In the 60's, for the first time, color television was available. Black and white TV's were selling for approximately $125-$250 ranging from 17" to 23" screens.

The 70's and the 80's were the decades known as the "birth of video games". Arcade cabinets and arcades made by Atari (the first video game company) were a popular teenage hangout and featured popular games known today such as Pac-Man or Pong. One of the most famous video game companies was Nintendo (who was competing with Atari back then) who released the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES and 61 million consoles were sold worldwide. In 1978, the first successful home video game console was released and costed $199. Although television stayed the same. In the 1980's, many new inventions emerged such as Personal computers (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates), the Sony Walkman (portable music device) and cellular phones. The 1980's was the first decade with cable television. Many new stations came into existence often catering to different interests. In 1981, MTV launched and featured VJ's who lead you into music videos. Music videos became popular and the first video aired was called "Video killed the radio star". There was a "color-barrier" in the early years of MTV.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was created to protect members from the soviet union and communism. The way it worked is that if the soviet union attacked one nation, it means that the soviet union attacked all of the nations and they would fight back as well.(Similar to peace treaties that caused WW1- chain reaction). Canada was also a part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as Germany. However the soviet union came up with a version of their own. It was called the Warsaw pact and was a collective defense treaty among eight communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It allowed the soviet union to control Central and Eastern Europe with military force. In the end, both armies of nations helped each other build their own nations and economy.

The cold war was just a chronic political hostility between the U.S and the soviet union using propaganda and threats. Although the cold war wasn't a "real" war considered by many people during the 70's and that was the decade where people started to care less about the cold war and focused on their personal lives. People knew that the war era had come to an end and there wound't be another world war so the future for possible world peace was bright.

On a global scale, Canada contributed armed forces to peacekeeping operations throughout the world, including in areas divided between communist and anti-communist factions. Canadian political and military leaders still prepared for a possible war against the Soviets in Europe. The Cold war basically taught Canada to stay on it's toes at all times and always be prepared for war even when things seem neutral.

Music, entertainment, and culture started to grow once again in the 50's similar to the 20's after WW1. New hobbies such as sock hops, drive-in theaters, bowling alleys, diners, and listening to music became popular by teenagers and young adults. Fashion also started to become more popular and more recognized in the industry. Men wore tight jeans and blazers while women wore dresses with sleeves and sweaters. Speaking of listening to music, music was seen as an escape for youth. 70% of records manufactured in the US were purchased by teenagers. In the late 1940's, a new genre of music became very popular among youth - rock and roll. This was a combination of jazz, blues, swing and country music. Some artists were Little Richard, Pat Boone and Elvis Presley. Music was basically an escape from the worries of the cold war and people started to focus on the nation and the people itself rather than the government. TV shows also started to become popular in the 50's. Programs such as The Texaco Star Theater and Howdy Doody began around this time. Many shows such as Amos 'n' Andy and Jack Benny Show made the jump from television to radio. The most popular show of the 1950's was "I love Lucy". TV shows brought people together and celebrities became even more popular than before.

The 60's was very similar to the 50's in terms of entertainment but there were some differences. Youths continued to turn to music as an escape and an outlet for their struggles. Rock 'n' Roll dominated the 1950's, but the 60's saw multiple genres dominate the industry: The British Invasion, Motown, Protest music. Rock and Pop music acts from England became popular in North America. This music was influenced by music from North America in the 1950's. Artists such as The Rolling Stones and The Who were extremely popular in North America. Other artists include The Beatles, The Jackson five, Bob Dylan, and Mowtown. Music concerts also became popular. Woodstock 1969: A concert held in upstate New York featured many artists of "hippie music". Considered one of, if not the most iconic music concert ever held. Half a million people attended the concert. The exclamation point of the Hippie movement. Hippies were people who craved world peace and talked about world peace through their musical lyrics. New TV shows emerged: The Brady Bunch, Bewitched, The Addams Family, The Munsters, Gilligan's Island.

The 70's and the 80's were much different from the 60's. The hippie counterculture began to disappear. Although, like in the 50's and 60's, music that youth were listening to continued to dominate the music industry. The British Invasion and protest music were no longer popular. The 70's were also the first decade where radio stations featured music made by Canadian artists such as Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot and Rush. The 80's also had a massively wide range of music that was successful. New genres peaked: Pop, second British Invasion, Hair Metal, Hip-Hop. MTV was also created and MTV broadcasted music on television for the world to see. Two major music artists took the spotlight in the 80's: Michael Jackson and Madonna. Popular music artists most noticeably Michael Jackson frequently recorded songs to raise money for charitable causes - namely hunger in Africa. Michael Jackson produced "We are the world" in the US sung by the benefit group USA for Africa. This raised 63 million dollars. Canadian artists also made a benefit group called the Northern Lights who performed the song "Tears are not enough". This led to frequent music festivals designed to raise money - famously Live Aid. Music by Canadian artists, like in the 1970's, grew in popularity. Rush continued to be the most well-known band to come out of Canada. The two most successful Canadian artists of the decade were Bryan Adams and Corey Hart. In 1978, the first successful home video game console was released. It featured games like breakout, Pong and Space Invaders. It appealed to the youth and became popular very quickly. TV shows such as Degrassi began to convey the lives of typical teenagers and tackled controversial subjects including drug abuse, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, racism, divorce, suicide, etc but it was praised for it's realistic portrayal of teenage lively hood and helped teens face these problems when no one else would help.

The economy in the 50' was good and so parents had more money to lend to their children. Teenagers had much more freedom such as getting part time jobs to earn extra money. Teens were also staying in school and eventually teenagers became rebellious and independent. The 50's were also the decade where the baby boom emerged. After soldiers returned home from the war, many of these men married and started families right away and others increased their families that they already had. Women became war brides and left everything they knew behind the come to Canada and the U.S to become wives to servicemen and nearly 48000 British and European women left their homes. During the 1950's, Canada was transformed into youth-centered society. Production of toys, child-care products, and bicycles expanded rapidly to keep up the demand. New schools began to pop up all over the nation, in an effort to accommodate all the new students who required space but classes were still overcrowded and teachers were in demand. The 1950's was the teenager era. They were a part of the consumers market because they kept spending their money which resulted in the lack of resources and space for the new generation because of overpopulation. A second generation or "echo boom" was created when the baby boomers had children of their own. As the baby boomers started to retire in large numbers, more attention was being place on health care for seniors and the stability of pension funds. Fortunately the future looked promising hence housing markets were on the rise and suburbs became popular because land was less expensive outside the city.

Even more than the 1950's, In the 60's youths were gaining even more attention. A shift in attitude towards topic such as war, traditional institution, drugs etc. This was known as the counter-culture. Teenagers in the 1960's wanted to live different lives from their parents. Traditional values were forgotten by teens and this resulted in a trend known as the "Hippie movement". As said before, hippies favored liberalism, personal freedom and social change. They did not believe in war, civil rights, censorship etc. The 60's is where we also saw the second wave of feminism. Women wanted to see social and economic change, equal opportunity, equal pay, protected maternity leaves, etc. However elder men and women did not approve of these demands because they were afraid of how this would impact the structure of the "traditional vales and family".

In the 70's and 80's, the hippie counterculture began to completely disappear. Despite the cold war, people started to become more care-free and there was more hope for peace. War was less prevalent in Canada and the United States and we began to see more communication between the soviets and the US after the Vietnam war was over. The economy was growing and this meant people did not question authority anymore. People became greedier and the term "hippies" was replaced with "yuppies" - people who were rich and had a fashionable lifestyle. People also started to trust the government more now that the cold war was nearing to the end. Aside from the cold war, disease caused the biggest fear in North America. HIV/AIDS surfaced as a fatal illness in the 80's and by the end of 1989, over 400,000 people in North America contracted the illness. In the 70's there was again a big push for movement of gender equality. Women worked more than ever before during the first decade. Women continued to demand for equality and respect in the workplace and we started to see this happen. By 1978, women made up 36% of the workforce and 31.5% of women in the workforce had children under 6.