British Pop Art has its roots in social realism, a pillar of British art since the 19th century. After the Second World War, it experienced a rediscovery in the European cinema – cinema which also produced its own “neo-realism” on the island. The admiration for the beautiful things of everyday life is combined with a real critical curiosity for the consumer world and with a many-voiced plea for the new youth culture. In the middle of the 60s, the artistic transformation of life finds its ultimate expression via music and pop culture in film classics like A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, BLOW-UP und PERFORMANCE. At the same time, visual artists like Richard Hamilton and David Hockney discovered the film as the medium of expression in documentary films that themselves have artistic character. And even the music video has its beginnings in the setting of British pop culture: in the so-called promo films, bands like The Beatles, The Kinks or Procul Harum discover a new form of expression away from touring and the art of the record cover.