Protest Culture In The 1970's

The 1960’s presented Hippies with the chance to express their beliefs and attitudes in a number of diverse

The evolution of the 1960s “protest song” has typically been associated with Joni Mitchell, but the expanding range of protest songs in the 1970s defines her continued presence as a leader in terms of environmental activism. More than just a vestige of the late 1960s, Mitchell continued to write protest songs long after many other artists from the 1960s had changed their lyrical content. In the “mellow turn” of early 1970s country rock and folk music, Mitchell represented a new environmental shift that moved away from the proto-typical antiwar songs of the 1960s. Mitchell, along with other musicians of this era, defined a shifting musical focus on songwriting and musical presentation during the early 1970as:

Hippies represent the ideological, naive nature that children possess. They feel that with a little love and conectedness, peace and equality will abound. It is with this assumption that so many activists and reformers, inspired by the transformation that hippies cultivated, have found the will to persist in revolutionizing social and political policy. Their alternative lifestyles and radical beleifs were the shocking blow that American culture-- segregation, McCarthyism, unjust wars, censorship--needed to prove that some Americans still had the common sense to care for one another. The young people of the sixties counterculture movement were successful at awakening awareness on many causes that are being fought in modern

This counter culture that developed in the 1960s was an alternative lifestyle chosen by individuals who would eventually become known as hippies, freaks or long hairs (Richards, 2003). Members of the counter culture held a conviction similar to that of the new left wing movement, in that they wanted to overhaul domestic policy within the United States (MacFarlane, 2007). Hippies were generally dissatisfied with the consensus culture that had developed after the Second World War and wanted to distance themselves from American society hence the counter culture (Debolt, 2011).As a result,

The hippie movements of the sixties were driven by a plethora of factors. There were many new technologies that were being introduced in this period, a war against Communism around the globe, internal struggles against several types of injustices, a growing drug culture, and several other important developments. To say the least, it was a volatile period in American history and many sub-cultures were actively seeking to carve out new paths that were starkly different than the traditional norms. These generations who rejected traditional culture helped carve out a new trajectory for the United States and the movements influences can still be felt to this day.

Around the same time within the late 1960’s, a new hippie movement was forming, which was often described as a counterculture.

From Cherokee Indians refusing to abandon their homes in 1838 to the Sit-ins of the civil rIghts movement in the early 1960s, people have been using acts of civil disobedience to stand against injustice they saw in their communities. Although there are many examples of people abusing this benefit and causing more grief and shame than progress, many have used it to their advantage to bring about positive change for the greater good of society, therefore acts of civil disobedience can positively impact a free society if they remain peaceful, respectful, and justified.

In Australia, the fashion of the 1960s emulated the political and cultural changes at the time. This fashion revolution was youth driven and showed their rejection of social standards. For women, the mini skirt came into trend, introduced by fashion icon Twiggy (Leslie Hornby). This above-the-knee skirt came into fashion in a revolt against people telling women how to express themselves and their bodies that came with the womens rights movement and the introduction of the pill. Men wore tunics, capes and more feminine clothing as pants became tighter and they dawned silk scarfs. This shift from masculine clothing to dabbling in the side of feminine, was because of the changing idea of gender and sexuality. Men also tried to recreate the look of the Beatles; in sharp and clean suits due the bands popularity at the time. Nearing the end of the 1960s, hippie fashion came into style. This era of fashion was dominated by bright, swirling colours, tie-dye, paisley prints, loose fitting clothing, flowers, peace signs, etc. This change in fashion was in response to the Vietnam war. People wore their clothes as a political statement, showing their embracement towards love and freedom.

The 1960s in the United States of America was an era of protests. Americans from the 1960s era experienced social changes that caused Americans to revolt of the Establishment of the 1950s. Racial discrimination, gender equality, and poverty are certain specific of the problems that Americans sought the need to identify of what caused the rise of protesters throughout the 1960s. The youth generation from the era “baby boomers” were the causes for the determination for the 1960s. The parents of the “baby boomers” were traditionally from the era of the “Happy Days” from the 1950s, which was after World War II has concluded and the United States became a global superpower. Activism in the 1960s, Terry H. Anderson describes that the activism of the 1960s has a significant positive change in American politics, culture, and society. New Left, a political movement consisting of educators, and not others who sought to implement a broad range of reform on issues such as gay rights, drugs and so on, had an impact in the 1960s. On the other hand, Peter Clecak issued that during the 1960s, the society failed to revolutionize themselves, and without the specific program 's movements American becomes powerless. The activism of the 1960s transformed the United States of America into an excellent democratic nation, because of the altercation of American politics, foreign policies, culture, and society.

The 1960s Hippie movement was a major point in the American history. In the 1960s a certain class of young people associated their lifestyles with the ideas of freedom, peace, and love. Hippies acted against white upper middle class lifestyle because they thought it was based on the wrong ideology. Hippies were against consumerism and American suburban life of the late 1950s and early 1960s was embodied in itself the idea of consumerism. Hippies, on the other hand, felt better about communal life with equal distribution of social goods. Traditional “bigger share” and consumerist greed as concepts of American society were despised by Hippies.

Civil disobedience is possibly the most influential form of protest in order to change of laws. Throughout our nation's history there have been multiple examples where the people would disobey the regular norms of society to force a change in law. Even when we started off as colonist, the people refused to pay unjust taxes on British imported goods just so Great Britain could pay for their costs on the Seven Years' War. The people or the colonist, as I should say, thought it was unfair for the them be taxed as they had no representation in England to represent the people. Another peaceful protest would be the sit-ins at Woolworth. At this event, young African Americans went to a diner and sat at the front counter. This would never happen because

The 1960s were about progress and community, which is evident by the near constant protests that occurred at the time. In the 70s, there was a push-back against the civil rights progress in favor of returning to a 50's esque society, promoted by the white-working class, which caused many to become frustrated and angry at the state of the country.

During the mid-1960s, various racially driven riots descended upon Northern urban centers and blanketed the cities with violence and destruction. Historians have long debated the cause of these riots and whether they were actually riots, or rebellions against America’s prevalent racial polarization in urban areas. Some historians categorize the uprisings as unnecessary riots that stemmed from the increasing black militancy, ghetto residents lack of responsibility for their own difficulty, and a lack of attention towards the needs of whites. However, this claim fails to acknowledge the deep racial divisions across America and the pervasiveness of economic inequality between blacks and whites. The uprisings of the mid-1960s were a insurgence against decades of brutality, humiliation, and unfairness, rather than a riot. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a rebellion as an, “[o]pen or determined defiance of or resistance to any authority, controlling power, or convention.” The uprisings that occurred during the mid-1960s sought to defy the systematic neglect and exclusion towards blacks in a society that whites largely dominated and controlled. The riots that erupted in the mid-1960s were a rebellion against the tribulations blacks endured, specifically police brutality, de facto segregation, and economic inequality and marginalization.

While the 1950s stressed conformity, the 1960s gave full vent to those impulses. The 1960s was a period of transformational change, when long-held values and social norms broke down and were replaced with idealism and rebellion. It is also described as ‘’a breakthrough, a fleeting moment of glory, a time when a significant chunk of humanity realised its moral potential and flirted with its neurological destiny’’ . The young people did not want to reform the society, they did however want to overhaul it, remake it and if needed, destroy it . The sweeping social changes and prevailing attitudes of the decade were epitomised through the rejection of conventions and traditions associated with many aspects of life, including fashion. As Coco Chanel stated, ‘’fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening’’ . Many of these changes were prompted by the feminist movement, the space race and the Vietnam War. Evidently, new fashion trends emerged which reflected these new ideals. Some of the most prevalent trends included revealing clothing, space age designs and alternative hippie clothing.

The “hippies” of the 1960s had many effects on the American society. The visual appearance and lifestyle of the hippies were in sharp contrast to the conservative nature of the older generation, which defined them as a counterculture. The hippie lifestyle was based on free love, rock music, shared property, and drug experimentation. They introduced a new perspective on drugs, freedom of expression, appearance, music, attitudes toward work, and held a much more liberal political view than mainstream society.