I Was 21 Years…

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Archive on 4: I Was 21 Years...

I Was 21 Years...

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Billy Bragg marks 40 years since the release of his seminal song, A New England.

Billy Bragg marks 40 years since the release of his seminal song A New England and weighs up what it was like to come of age in 1983 versus 2023.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the release of his seminal song A New England, Billy Bragg is digging into the BBC archives to uncover the similarities and differences in the experience of young people coming of age in 1983, versus 2023.

“It's the archetypal Billy Bragg song, which I'm really pleased of because obviously a lot of people, when they think of me, think of political song writing,” he says. “But I like to think A New England is more reflective of who I really am. It kind of has the implications of politics in it and saying, I don't wanna change the world. But really it's about the struggle for relationships and making sense of the world.”

In 1983, when he released A New England, Billy was angry and he was loud. He was operating within a youth culture, straining against ageing ideas of adulthood, charged by radical politics, vibrant subcultures and existential angst. Now he’s older and maybe wiser, Billy is interested in how young people think today - where do they put their anger, their hopes? How do they experience the freedom and fear that comes with emerging into adulthood?

Billy speaks to Developmental Psychologist Jeffrey Arnett from Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, who pioneered the theory of Emerging Adulthood - a new life stage that has emerged since 1983, capturing those aged 18 to 30. Dame Rachel Whiteread remembers her experience as a young artist in the 1980s, and Billy joins anthropologist, photographer and writer Ted Polhemus on the Kings Road to reminisce about the central role played by subculture in the 1980s. He also talks to a group of young people, living out their early 20s in the 2020s. What do they think about the society they live in? And are they looking for a new England? 

Produced by Maia Miller-Lewis 
Executive Producer Jo Rowntree
Associate Editor Anne Harbin
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Photographs by Jacob Blickenstaff, Paul Slattery, and Nicki Rogerson.

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