Turbulent Sixtes
Throughout American history, each generation has sought to individualize itself from all others preceding it. Decades of American history can be separated to represent a distinctive set of values, culture, and political ideals. The 1960's was a decade caught between euphoric, idealistic beginnings and a discordant, violent climax. The music of this time period produced a strong counterculture which sought to influence America in a way never before experienced. The songs were the backbone of this new age; they were the tunes which the generation danced to, marched to, and got high off of. This paper will discuss the ways popular music of the 1960's produced national awareness of the anti-war movements, led to the partialcollapse of the structure of American society, and forever changed the way current generations listen to and buy music. The songwriters of the 1960's were rarely without inspiration. Perhaps the most powerful incentive came from the movement to end the Vietnam War. Many of the most prominent musicians of that generation aided the struggle to protest against and attempt to end the war. The most popular song to be considered an anthem against the war efforts was called "Blowin' in the W . . .
The music was becoming less oriented to free form and more constricted so as to present them on FM radio. Baez especially lived out the countercultural woman's dream, participating in the feminist movement, marrying a draft dodger, and maintaining that she would not pay her taxes. The counterculture was a movement of writers and poets, advocating principles of an alternative lifestyle and a general distrust of all authority, especially the government, oftenly referred to as "Big Brother", a term coined in George Orwell's "1984". However, plainclothes police were called in to violently break up the students, and by May of 1968, the administration regained control. Demonstrations against the Vietnam War took place in many major cities and college campuses. Lower infant mortality rates, soaring adult life expectancy, and the availability of the birth control pill gave women greater freedom from child-care responsibilities. It was here that the hippies set up communal living, sharing large Victorian style houses, setting up free clinics, and staging sporadic rock concerts. Aside from the struggle to end the war in Vietnam and achieve civil rights, the generation of the 1960's was struggling to individualize itself. He calls for the parents of these rebellious students to not criticize them, for they can never understand the battle that their sons and daughters are fighting. The music that this generation spawned has lasted as a remnant of the idealistic and hopful nature of the times. The main proponent of this struggle was a movement called the counterculture. The participants of this movement, often called hippies were characterized not only by their bell-bottomed pants, tie-dyed shirts and loose moral values, but also by the music they listened to. Joni Mitchell, for example, cried for more of these types of protests when she sang, "we've got to get ourselves, back to the garden. In 1967, in New York, roughly 3000 rioters pelted police with bottles, stones, and eggs. These actions led to many college students jointly rebelling against sending troops to Cambodia, and an even larger number called for the impeachment of then President Nixon.
Common topics in this essay:
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