Groovy Gylias
Groovy Gylias refers to the cultural life of Gylias during the Golden Revolution. The period saw the emergence of a vibrant cultural and artistic scene, driven by youth culture, and the start of the Gylian Invasion. It emphasised modernity, fun-loving hedonism, and social revolution, and saw the popularisation of the "applied avant-garde" ideal and distinctive economic practices.
Key elements of Groovy Gylias included music — with The Beaties serving as musical leaders —, cinema, Gauchic art, clothing, sexual revolution, and various sociopolitical movements, including demopolitanism, francité, and acid communism. It was a crucial component of the Golden Revolution, and had a profound impact on Gylian identity, symbolising its transformation from the impoverished quasi-isolation of the National Obligation period into a powerful force in Tyranian popular culture.
Etymology
Various terms emerged for the cultural aspect of the Golden Revolution. "Groovy Gylias" became the most popular in English, mainly for its alliteration, and its popularity helped make "groovy" an affectionately-regarded slang term in Gylian English.
A French equivalent was "Gylias génial".
Overview
Groovy Gylias was largely driven by youth culture, emphasising the new and modern. It built on the cultural foundations laid by the Free Territories, and was catalysed by the start of an economic boom. The intermingling of social revolution and widespread prosperity made it a period of national optimism and revolutionary exuberance.
Hedonism represented a notable aspect of the times, reflecting the permissive society being built by the Golden Revolution. Radical transformations of gender and sexual norms, the legalisation of sex work, the availability of regulated drugs through the Controlled Substances Administration, and the promotion of anti-work sentiments by the Institute for the Protection of Leisure all contributed to an idealised image of Gylias abroad centred on radicalism, hedonism, and socialised luxury.
Although Groovy Gylias was largely youth-driven, it enjoyed widespread approval due to the radical milieu and destruction of social conservatism. Thus, unlike other countries, there was no clear "mainstream–underground" distinction, leading some commentators to describe it as Tyran's most successful counterculture. Georgettes are notably defined by their support of the scene, although mainly assuming a "spectator" rather than "vanguard" role. The scene thus replicated the Golden Revolution dynamics identified by Nina Raukan: an influential minority driving innovation and passive acceptance by the majority.
The cultural scene formed part of a broader thriving civil society with a robust public sphere, including sports, salons, community organisations, scouting organisations, and autonomous social centres. The ideal of mass participation, epitomised in the slogan Tous participera ("Everyone shall take part"), found resonance in similar slogans like Ce soir tout l'monde dans l'rue ("Tonight everybody on the street"). Notably colourful figures achieved fame for heretofore overlooked activities that contributed to society or proved appealingly eccentric, including Isabel Longstowe, Sima Daián, Þeo Þorman, Sabina Amorosi, the Lynettes, and the Tessai and Mişeyáqueens.
Demopolitanism, particularly in urban planning, had an important influence on Groovy Gylias. The anarchist reinvention of urban planning, emphasising organic diversity and placemaking, made it a strong ally of the new generation. The nationwide public works programs of the 1960s–1970s included massive building of cultural, artistic, and sports venues.
While the period saw the emergence of the planned capital Mişeyáke as a cultural hot spot, the movement as a whole was notably decentralised; prominent figures in pop culture came from across Gylias. Certain cities grew thriving artistic scenes that attained national influence, such as Mişeyáke's "magic tetragon" — an area containing the Sibylla nightclub, Annemarie Beaulieu's studio L'Usine, Ludmila Canaşvili's salon, and the Mişeyáke Metro Mail building.
Eleanor Henderson, a participant in the scene in her youth, recalled in her memoirs:
"In the 1960s, life in Mişeyáke really started toward midnight. After a concert or a play, people went for a walk, to enjoy themselves. The elegant downtown restaurants were full of artists and bright young things. The city adulated its artists, musicians, and filmmakers. No one was in a hurry. There was time for everything — for books and films, for drinks or drugs.
The capital was so full of life and happenings that I was always surprised when I'd leave it to discover just how quickly it really ended and was replaced by fields and forest. The number of residents wasn't much over 100.000 then, yet Mişeyáke felt like a metropolis — the petite metropolis of Siduri."
Manifestations
Music
Music was a big part of the scene. The Beaties were highly influential on Groovy Gylias, both through their cultural impact as a whole and building a network of like-minded creative individuals around them which became the scene's foundation. Similar leading bands were The Watts and The Byrds, who played prominent roles in the Gylian Invasion and inspired a boom in pop and rock bands at home.
The Gylian Sound developed in the 1960s as the "background music" of the Golden Revolution. Many of Gylian Sound's leading vocalists were young women, such as France Gall, Marian Ellis, Claudine Laurent, and later The Sapphires and Les Myas. It thus provided an influential model of stardom at home that complemented the ideal of the self-contained band, and served to reach foreign audiences that didn't respond to the more aggressive music of the Gylian Invasion.
The "psychedelic revolution" of 1966–1968 brought the emergence of psychedelic music, which flourished and reached the peak of its popularity.
Cinema
Freed from the constraints of the Liberation War and National Obligation period, cinema saw a surge in formal experimentation, colour, and comedy. The "applied avant-garde" ideal was consolidated, blurring the boundaries between art films and those for mass audiences.
Comedies were the most popular genre of the period, particularly musical comedies in the vein of A Hard Day's Night, and the light comedies of Rauna Næsve, Brigitte Nyman, Alike Demetriou, and Máiréad Ní Conmara. The sexual revolution produced a great development in on-screen eroticism, typified by Rauna's raunchy comedies and pornography.
Significant trends in artistic experimentation included neorealism, nouvelle vague, and later psychedelia. Animation came into its own during the era.
Television also emerged as a significant medium for Groovy Gylias, thanks to the freewheeling and adventurous atmosphere of Gylian Television and its regional competitor Associated Television. The first Gylian television series to gain exposure abroad during the Gylian Invasion included Ready Steady Go!, What Do I Do?, La femme appelée Aurelia Nyşel, and Agent Jane.
Art
Gauchic became one of the dominant styles of Gylian art during the period, complemented by demopolitanism. Gauchic's refined aesthetics and subtle avant-garde influences made it an epitome of socialised luxury, and reflected the utopian ambitions of the Golden Revolution.
Annemarie Beaulieu, one of the leading lights of Gauchic, played a significant role in bringing together its artists into a conscious and trend-setting scene.
Due to Gauchic's influence, illustration gained widespread popularity and became an influential artistic medium. Combining literature with illustrations became standard. Street art also emerged as an accepted art form and part of everyday urban life.
Literature
Literature was heavily influenced by the prefigurative tradition of the Free Territories.
Notable trends of the time included New Wave science fiction and social science fiction, which became the dominant trend of Gylian science fiction, and psychedelic literature.
Significant magazine outlets for literature included L'Petit Écho, Silhouette, Downtown, Surface, and The Current.
Clothing
Clothing and jewellery became prominent manifestations of the ideal of socialised luxury, and thus among the most visible symbols of Groovy Gylias. The Gylian clothing industry became known for its colourful designs, understated glamour, and utilitarianism. Notable trends and influences during this period included Levystile, francité, and demopolitanism.
Clothing and art came to embody a perceived paradox among foreign observers: the radicalism of the Golden Revolution was nevertheless reconciled with a certain classicist tendency in terms of aesthetics and appearance. This was due to unique historical circumstances: elegant clothing had come to be perceived as a symbol of broad prosperity since Alscia, and the cultural reappropriation of formerly exclusive symbols through socialised luxury had stripped them of their exclusive and repressive connotations.
Figures like Saorlaith Ní Curnín, Ðaina Levysti, and Isabel Longstowe championed this contrast and advocated a deliberate synthesis of social liberation with voluntary maintenance of conservative standards of appearance and manners. This synthesis earned a large following among certain subcultures such as georgettes, hétaïres, and others cultivating a consciously vintage appearance.
Politics
The period was marked by the Gylian consensus and the flourishing of Gylias' colourful political culture. The LSD Party, established in 1968, became a prominent symbol of the time, entering Parliament in 1969 to much fanfare.
Cultural policy became a significant preoccupation of governments, both federal and local. Mayors like Hilda Wechsler in Ostara, Arau Kanac in Mişeyáke, and Velouria's "conjugal mayoralty" Gerard Harmsen and Maaike Harmsen gained acclaim for their policies that benefited local artistic scenes and closeness to youth culture.
Several leading figures in the Golden Revolution were also supportive or notably close to Groovy Gylias. The decentralisation of the movement played well with the Darnan Cyras government's regional development policies; that many prominent Groovy Gylias figures were female and LGBT was praised by feminists and LGBT activists.
The radical and liberating potential of popular culture and drugs was chiefly explored by acid communism.
Legacy
Groovy Gylias was an iconic event in Gylian history. As one of the best-known aspects of the Golden Revolution, it had a profound impact on Gylian identity and popular consciousness. It was an era of revolutionary exuberance, national optimism, and a new spirit of freedom in the arts, the streets, and public life. One historian writes that Gylias' "best and brightest" in the 1960s either gravitated towards public service or creative endeavours, which became an enduring phenomenon.
It represented the flowering of Gylian pop culture, completing the work begun in the Free Territories without the rationing of the National Obligation period. It established new prevailing styles in pop culture, particularly pop and rock music and Gauchic, and marked the arrival of Gylias as a significant force in regional culture through the Gylian Invasion.
Groovy Gylias remains a powerful image in Gylian history. The era has been featured in both contemporary and later films, television, and other productions. The 1990s saw a revival of national optimism after the wretched decade and produced the Neo-Gylian Sound and similar scenes which revered Groovy Gylias and sought to revive and modernise its spirit and aesthetics for contemporary times.