Hippies In The 1960's

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During the 1960’s, a new group of reformists aspired to change the cultural normalcies of their society. These people were called hippies. They sought to find meaning in life through peace and the acceptance of all people. Hippies have impacted today’s society, but before they had impacted us, they were greatly influenced by their own. The hippie movement was caused by many factors including the Vietnam war, the development of rock music, and the previous generation’s culture. The Vietnam war was a widely debated topic. Many people felt that it was none of our business to interfere with the war, including the hippies. Most of the hippies came from the generation of baby boomers. They had grown up hearing the terrors of World War II from …show more content…

America’s economy was doing extremely well and was very prosperous, especially the middle class. Hippies would not have been able to start the movement at a time during an economic crisis. Music has been very influential in every decade in America. When people listen to music, it influences emotions and senses. Words that are put into music are easily memorized and get stuck into the listener’s head. During the 60’s, rock music was extremely popular. Artists such as Janis Joplin and the Beatles were extremely popular. The music highlighted the message of anti-war, drugs, and free-love. Music is a very influential and powerful thing.
Many young people during this time liked the idea of escaping responsibilities. The hippie movement was viewed as an escape from their role in society. They had more freedoms with sex because of the birth control pill that was released to the public in 1960. They could be irresponsible, but not have to pay the consequence of getting pregnant. This practice of “free-love” did have different repercussions in the form of the spread of STD’s. The hippie movement was fun to them because they did not have to work and they could avoid the responsibility of almost being a young adult. They could enjoy life and do drugs whenever they felt like it. They had a very hedonistic view of life. Hippies did what they wanted to because it simply felt

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