counterculture

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Recommended: Evolution of rock and roll in present time

In the 1950s rock and roll was just starting out and the songs were targeted at the younger generation. They were usually about love or were just generally made for the sole purpose of dancing. As the years passed by rock and roll began to evolve and change. It went through one of it’s biggest changes in the 1960s. The songs started be more than just about love or something to dance to. It became the way the young people of the counterculture expressed their ideas and protest, like expressing their dislike for the war going on in Vietnam and other anti-war feelings. The 1960s also brought the arrival of the Beatles to the United States and their instant success in the States. Other singers that affected the counterculture greatly was Jimi Hendrix, a genius on the guitar, and Janis Joplin, the first major female rock star. The counterculture also hosted some of the best and worst music festivals in music history. The 1960s hosted many things that affected society and still affect society today, whether it be all the anti-war feelings, a new style of rock, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, or music festivals, they have all made what our society is fortunately today.

The baby boom generation had become adults and they started to create their own ideas of what society should be like. They rejected the values and beliefs that their parents pushed on them as they were growing up in the 1950s. The 1950s was a conservative time period while the 1960s was a time of less restraint and a time about getting back in touch with the world around you. The music was radically different and people were losing the conservative ideals that the 1950s held. Many people of the older generation called rock and roll a “menace to the morals”(Citat...

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...id that “no festival using the name Woodstock has ever been able to maintain the mystique and power of the first one”(Sitkoff). The general idea of Woodstock was to get back in touch with nature and forget about the troubles of the world for at least three days. It was purely celebration of the human being.Woodstock was probably the highest point of the counterculture and embodied what most everyone that was a part the movement believed in. Woodstock is and was considered a celebration of life and a representation of that generation. Woodstock was advertised as “Three Days of Peace and music”(advertisement). The posters that advertised had a dove that stood for peace standing on the neck of the guitar. This festival while light hearted and fun was also a protest against the Vietnam War. Woodstock is still considered one of the most profound events in music history.

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