The Hippies Movement In The 1960's

A counter culture is defined as a group that rejects the major values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns (Thomas, 2003). The thinking and behavior of younger people who want to be different from the rest of society developed during the 1960s. It was a different way of living chosen by people who would eventually become known as hippies, or freaks. The name came from “hip,” a term applied to the Beats of the 1950s, such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who were generally considered to be the pioneers of hippies (Britannica, 2015). The movement originated on college campuses in the United States, and Members of this counterculture held beliefs almost the same as that of the New Left movement in that they wanted to change domestic policy within the United States.

An dispute which inflated hippie’s opinions was also the barbarities of the Vietnam War, which hippies powerfully opposed. Hippies particularly opposed the draft into the Vietnam War, believing that war was wrong and that blameless American men and even boys should not be required to combat if doing so was against their ethical values. The copious effort of campaigners such as Martin Luther King Junior also urged the hippie effort because it enthused people to offer their opinion in what they believed in and be welcome to express their ethical and moral values and be who they are. Furthermore, many say that the hippie movement was influenced by the murder of John F. Kennedy, a respected president whose passing powered the political and social turbulence of the

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

The 60s were a time of dramatic change for teens. Hippies of all types often expressed themselves by wearing beads, headbands, and lots of denim. They were considered visionary, plastic, “midnight’, and “the freaks and heads”. Folk and Psychedelic rock were the most popular genres of music; as teens generally listened to such bands and artist as The Who, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix. When it came to style, teens started making physical adjustments such as piercings and tattoos. Teens held rallies and protested against wars that were happening, as their voices were only beginning to be heard.

In this essay I will be discussing the ‘hippie’ culture and style, their impact on the 60s and their continued impact in modern life. In today 's world, hippies are known because of the distinct way in which they behave, dress and their overall lifestyles. There are also some who have come to believe that hippies are synonymous with drugs or that they have radical political views on environmentalism, capitalism, religion e.t.c. The dictionary defines a hippie as "one who doesn’t conform to society’s standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle". What I am interested in is whether this definition is true. Polhemus (2007) says "who is real? Who is a replicant? Who cares? Life is a fancy-dress party, Enjoy”. I will be discussing this quote in more depth, relating it to the hippie culture as well as explaining how the hippie culture developed and what it means to be a hippie today.

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.

The members of this movement obtained the nickname, hippies, which were greatly inspired by the beat movement back in the 1950’s.

The whole hippie culture all together was totally against social norms, what society wanted to see, how everyone else lived, and what they believed in. The hippie culture’s main moto was “make love, not war”. They were strongly against war and the Vietnam War, which was going on during the same time the hippie culture was popular. They thought that everyone should have acceptance of the universe. They wanted to see change in the world, global

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.

The Hippie Counter Culture began in 1960. The hippie era was influenced more by personal happiness in which books, music, and fashion followed as result of their personification of a blissful society. Hippies did not care what others thought of them and their motto was “if it feels good, do it”. Hippies were seeking a utopian society. They participated in street theater and listened to psychedelic rock. As part of their culture they embraced more open sexual encounters amongst each other in their community and believed in use of psychedelic drugs which consisted of marijuana and LSD. The fashion choice that hippies dressed in was due to set them apart from the mainstream society. They choose to buy their clothing from thrift shops and flea markets (Haddock, 2011). Clothing choices are described as “brightly colored, ragged clothes, tie-dyed t-shirts, beads, sandals (or barefoot), and jewelry” (Haddock, 2011, para 7). Hippies also referred

There were many chaotic things that happened in the 60’s including the “Hippie” movement, the Vietnam War, Beatlemania, and the civil rights movement. The “Hippie” movement was based upon the idea of having peace and ending the war in Vietnam. Along with the idea of peace, of course, came the fashion. The “Hippie” go to outfit would be the tie dye shirt with some fringe pants. The Vietnam war started in 1955 and drafted about

The Hippie Movement changed the politics and the culture in America in the 1960s. When the nineteen fifties turned into the nineteen sixties, not much had changed, people were still extremely patriotic, the society of America seemed to work together, and the youth of America did not have much to worry about, except for how fast their car went or what kind of outfit they should wear to the Prom. After 1963, things started to slowly change in how America viewed its politics, culture, and social beliefs, and the group that was in charge of this change seemed to be the youth of America. The Civil Rights Movement, President Kennedy’s death, new music, the birth control pill, the growing illegal drug market, and

In October, 1967 over fifty thousand hippies gathered in Washington D.C. to make a statement against the war by trying to levitated the Pentagon building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. Music was a big key to hippies a concert named Woodstock Festival began in a rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969 a man named Michael Lang is a musical concert promoter, producer and artist manager who is best known as the cocreator of the Woodstock music and art festival in 1969 he promoted Jimi Hendrix known as “ American rock singer and songwriter” he was the headline of the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and highest paid performer. Another is Janis Lyn Joplin she an “American rock singer and songwriter” one of the most successful and widely known female rock star of her era. The ground area was the max of the 600-acre dairy farm. Woodstock Festival was a three day of pop and rock concert that turned out to be the most popular music event in history it becomes a symbol of the hippie movement of the 1960s.

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.

From the late 1950s to the late 1970s a phenomenon erupted over the United States. A proud counter culture was born in the midst of the Vietnam War. Many people protested against the Vietnam War and the horrors that many people saw on TV because of it. Many incidents triggered the Anti-War movement and the Hippie counter culture such as the growing United States involvement in Southern Vietnam, the gruesome images that the evening news showed uncensored, the draft that caused many thousands of men to lose their lives and their minds as the end result of the war. This war triggered a great sense of what is right and wrong in specifically young people. Social justice and moral justice were some of the main focal points of the Anti-War and Hippie movements. This war allowed teenagers and young adults to have power in what they believe in and to stand up against unjust killings of our men and innocent lives in Vietnam. The eighteen-year span of the war from 1956 -1975 saw the rise and eventually the fall of the anti-war movement and the hippie movement.