Counterculture In The 1960s

The hippie aesthetic era was an important time in rock and roll during the late 60’s and on into the early 80’s. It was a time were rock had a sense of purpose. They sung about the issues that plagued the country. It was also a time where technology would play an important roll in the sound of music, with the advancement in recording and synthesizer technology (Covach, “The Hippie Aesthetic”). The hippie aesthetic was not immune to the advancement of music. This essay will go over three songs that represent the different aspects of this era. It’ll will review a song that is predominately hippie aesthetic, a song that is a little of both, and finally a song that has no trace of hippie aesthetic.

The decade of the 1960s can be said to be a subversion of the United States. From the civil rights movements, anti-Vietnam war demonstration, Kennedy’s presidency, to the assassination of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, the impact of the surging social movements and political turmoils to the American society is extremely far-reaching. There has been a lot of researches on the various social movements in this period. However, people 's attention seems to be limited to another important cultural phenomenon of this period, that is the prosperity of rock & roll. This paper is intended to analyze the

The 1960’s was an era of revolution and social change in the United States. Painters, dancers, actors, musicians and many more artists all wanted to portray societies immoral issues through their art. Musicians played a very prominent role in providing society with an outlet on the importance of this change. Within these musicians was a folk rock singer and songwriter by the name of Robert Allen Zimmerman, or as America knows him, Bob Dylan. He is known and honored around the world for his influence on popular music and culture, however, he is much more than that (Wood 313). The beginning of Bob Dylan’s career as a singer and songwriter was marked by his repetitive emphasis on social change throughout his protest songs which include “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”; with each song, Dylan exposes many issues that affected, not one, but many lives as he aimed to spread social and political consciousness to society.

The Sixties were an exciting revolutionary period of time with great social and technological change. Some people called it the “decade of discontent” because of the race riots in Detroit and La, and the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Other people called it the decade of “peace, love, and harmony”. It was called this because of the peace movement and the emergence of the flower children. (Britannica) The sixties were about assassination, unforgettable fashion, new styles of music, civil rights, gay and women’s liberation, Vietnam, Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, peace marches, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, and Woodstock. All of these components caused a revolutionary change in the world of popular Music.

One of the most well-known things about the sixties is its music. Bands in the sixties started to break the conservative boundaries by talking about drugs and sex in their music; the drugs and sex revolution in this music also

One of the social changes in the 1950s was rock-n-roll music which led to teens rebelling against the social norms and being able to freely express themselves. In fact, much of the older generation looked down upon rock-n-roll because they considered it tasteless and music from the devil. While in the 1960s, music was considered a way to really express yourself and tell the world about how you really felt about the current situation. Much of the 60’s music was used to protest the Vietnam War and show the government that they did not want to go off to war to fight. The 1950s was a decade filled with change and prosperity while the 1960s were the years of rebellion and

The fifties and sixties were completely different in so many ways; the times had changed a lot in the transition of decades. The types of music, for one, were in great contrast. By the sixties the rock-'n'-roll and pelvic thrusting of the fifties had transformed into the pop, rock and folk music of the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Teenagers changed a lot over the two decades a lot, too. The tight pant, leather jacket bodgies, with their greased hair, and the widgies, with their rope petticoats and flared dresses, were replaced by the teenagers of the Psychedelic era. These teenagers preferred the swirled shapes and bright colours, with their newly found mini-skirts, and for the guys it was paisley shirts.

“The rise of rock ‘n’ roll and the reception of it, in fact, can tell us a lot about the culture and values of the United States in the 1950s. According to historians James Gilbert, there was a struggle throughout the decade ‘over the uses of popular culture to determine who would speak to what audience, and for what purpose”. At the center of that struggle, rock ‘n’ roll unsettled a nation had been “living in an ‘age of anxiety’” since 1945” (p.15). Altschuler talks about how music and race interlock with one another. Rock had become a “highly visible and contested arena for struggles over racial identity and cultural and economic empowerment in the United States” (p.35). Other chapters within the book state the battles involving sexuality, generational conflicts, as well as other social issues. The author states ideas that are somewhat problematic. For example, he states that there is a myth that rock ‘n’ roll went into a “lull” following the payola hearings (the practice of record promoters paying DJs or radio programmers to play their labels ' songs) of 1959 and did not come about again until the arrival of the Beatles in 1964.

The early 1960s was a time of extreme social issues such as the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement; everyone was looking for their own voice in this time of adversity. A young Bob Dylan arises to the spotlight and sings songs speaking of protest and originality, expressing societal dissatisfaction felt by not only himself but by his entire generation. In the 1960s Dylan wrote many protest songs that people of his generation found themselves connecting to, leading way to a counterculture aside from popular music which also paved a way for introspective song writing.

Beginning with the late 1960’s counterculture in San Francisco, music and drugs will forever be inter-linked. Hippie bands such as the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and Phish are associated with marijuana, mushrooms, and LSD. Modern electronic “rave” , or club music is associated with MDMA or Ecstasy. When one thinks of rock and roll, sex and drugs immediately come to mind. While the use of drugs is not essential for the creation or performance of all new music, it was certainly in important factor for the counterculture music of the late 1960’s. While some of the most important and influential music was made with the help of psychoactive drugs, it was often to the detriment of the artist. Janis

The Nineteen Sixties were a time of grand turmoil in the United States. The nation almost came apart at the seams many times throughout the decade. The government was involved in a plethora of things at the time that the general population did not agree with. The most important was the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was the most publicly protested war in the history of the country. There were many new forms of protesting used at this time. The most mainstream and effective way of protest was through song. The lyrics of the songs of the sixties were laced with anti-government and anti-war messages that were sometimes hidden and sometimes direct. The generation responsible for the new music was the Baby Boomers. These were the

The 1960’s was one of the most controversial decades in American history because of not only the Vietnam War, but there was an outbreak of protests involving civil and social conditions all across college campuses. These protests have been taken to the extent where people either have died or have been seriously injured. However, during the 1960’s, America saw a popular form of art known as protest music, which responded to the social turmoil of that era, from the civil rights movement to the war in Vietnam. A veritable pantheon of musicians, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan sang their songs to encourage union organizers to protest the inequities of their time, creating a diverse variety of popular

During the 1960s Music was heavily influenced by the political and social events happening at the time. At this time civil rights movements were common as many people were trying to spread the emancipation of racism and segregation. As a result the music of the time tended to reflect this counterculture of peace. This “culture” encompassed civil rights, anti-establishment and, inciting revolution. This was a vital time in history for civil rights activists as well as anti-war revolutionaries and the music industry. From folk music to rock music, everyone was affected by the war and chose to express it through the most international form of art, music. Anti-war activists and counterculture enthusiast craved the music that truly expressed

To understand the sixties counterculture, we must understand the important role of Bob Dylan. His lyrics fueled the rebellious youth in America. Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times are A-Changin” made him favorable to anti-war demonstrators and supporters of the Civil Rights movement. He was commonly hailed as the spokesman for his generation. Dylan used lyrics to allow the youth to find their own form of counter-culture. The youth generation began to see the effects racism, war, etc. effect the society in America. To combat this, the youth created their own form of counter-culture to promote a peaceful change within society. Some of their actions include forming anti-war protests that opposed America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and supporting African Americans/women get the rights they deserve through the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan’s music appealed to the young generation because he openly expresses his disapproval of the establishment in order to influenced his audience to move in a direction for change. Counterculture youth rejected cultural norms of the previous generation and their values and lifestyles opposed the mainstream culture present in the 1950’s. The folk music revival of the early 1960s, as well as the counter-culture movement played an important role in advocating change. Bob Dylan wrote songs that influenced the Civil Rights Movement, New Left Movement, and Anti-War Movement.

Dylan’s portrayal of desperate and changing times in the 60s was evident through his use of literary devices through the portrayal of metaphor, allusion, and repetition. Using biblical references through the use of allusion, starting with the allusion to the bible by the phrase ‘Come gather ‘round people,’ by claiming he used the inclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Dylan is no stranger in lack of beautiful, poetic usage in his song. To add on, the allusion goes to exemplify that change is bound to come, knowingly or not, to men and women of all races, status, and gender. Dylan’s usage of metaphors spoke in philosophical manners and as well in general terms, but was easily able to be translated in its appropriate context in its period of time referring to the civil rights struggle and the hippie counter movement. Using metaphorical phrases such as the relation to the individual to the reference of a “stone that is sinking or swimming”(Dylan 8), as well as “the battle that is raging it'll soon shake the windows and rattle the walls”(Dylan 25-26) are all a means of Dylan explaining in simple means that if one wants to make time worthwhile, then one better start living life to the fullest, or otherwise they may drown as time passes by.