The American Counterculture and The Vietnam War

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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 children of conservative war veterans that grew up in suburbia listening to their parents’ crooner music. This generation was destined to rebel. Baby boomers started many new technologies, philosophies, and styles that are still in use today. The main group of boomers that led the rebellion were the hippies. The hippies were a group of mostly low to middle class Americans who destroyed all of the previous values of their parents and lived in peace and love while practicing other things that would have appalled their parents such as open sexuality, recreational drug use, and political activism. The hippies had a very distinct music style which evolved from jazz, soul, blues, and country that is now known as Rock. In the sixties many large events were the birth place of protest like the sit ins and teach ins all over the country. The most influential spawning grounds for protest were the numerous rock festivals held during the decade. All of the music festivals were the place to go to see the hipp... ... middle of paper ... ...l Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.” The sarcastic and satirical chorus to Country Joe’s Rag goes”1-2-3 what are we fightin’ for/Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn/ Next stop is Viet’Nam. Works Cited Perone, James, Woodstock: An Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair,Westport, Greenwood Press, 2005. Dougan,Clark, A Divided Nation. Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1984 The Counterculture and the Antiwar Movement. http://library.thinkquest.org/27941/index.htm Impact of the Antiwar Movement.http://www.sparknotes.com/history /american/vietnamwar/section8.rhtml Woodstock 1969. http://www.woodstock.com/1969-festival Performers. http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/music0_woodstock.html Rosenburg, Woodstock. http://history1990s.about.com/od/1960s/p/woodstock.htm McLeese, Woodstock. http://world bookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar609555&st=Woodstock

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