Transcript 1960s Counterculture

1960s Counterculture
The Counterculture Defined
A movement made
up of mostly white
middle class youth.
Baby boomers were
coming of age.
Counterculture Roots: The New Left
Radical political movement of the
1960’s and 70’s
Mostly white college
students
Beliefs
Anti- Draft
Pro- Civil Rights
Anti- Traditional values
(family, materialism)
• Rebelled with sex,
drugs, and rock’n’roll
Opposed authority (“The
Establishment”)
ALL WRONG
San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury
 San Francisco was the
birthplace of the
counterculture/hippy
movement.
 By 1965 hippies had
taken over the HaightAshbury district.
 Haight-Ashbury
district contains Golden
Gate Park home of the
Trips Festival and “beins.”
This is a 20,000-strong be-in
at Golden gate park in 1967
Hippie Culture: The Age of Aquarius
Idealistic-The Good?
•Anti-materialism
•Communal Living: share
everything, no one goes hungry
•Pacifism-embrace non-violence
•Live in the present. Don’t fret
about the past or future
(Buddhist influence)
•Non-conformist-be who you
want to be. Find your true
nature, your true self.
Hedonistic-The Bad?
•Drug Culture
•Marijuana, LSD, speed
•Sexual Revolution
•No rules. Have sex whenever
you want with who you want
•Rock and Roll
•Acid rock
•Hippie fashion
•The “Jesus Freak”
Communes: Counterculture
Ideals in Action
Communes were groups of
hippies who rejected
capitalism and materialism
and lived communally..
Hippies living in communes
shared possessions, work
responsibilities, and
sometimes each other.
Clothing was optional at
some communes.
The Drug Culture
 LSD was created by a Swiss
scientist, used by the CIA, and
tested for use by psychiatrists
before it became illegal in
1968.
Timothy Leary (a Harvard
professor) was an advocate of
LSD. He claimed it could
expand the power of the mind.
Using drugs like LSD made
hippies feel like they were
rebelling from mainstream
society.
The Sexual Revolution
1960: “The pill” introduced and
launches the sexual revolution
Women can now have sex
without fear of pregnancy
Sexual restraint seen as
repressive.
The counterculture embraces
sexuality and the idea of
multiple partners.
The sexual revolution spreads
to gay culture in the 1960’s
with the emergence of the Gay
Pride movement after the
Stonewall riots.
Consequences?
Counterculture Fashion
 Hippies distanced themselves
from mainstream culture by their
dress.
 Colorful, flowing clothing, beads,
headbands bellbottoms, and tie-dye
were popular.
 Men wore their hair and beards
long or in afros.
Women wore their hair long, didn’t
shave, and wore no make-up
 Hippies were often called
“longhairs” or “Jesus Freaks”.
Rock and Roll
 The most popular music of the
time was psychedelic or “acid”
rock
Bands like Jefferson Airplane,
the Jimi Hendrix Experience and
the Grateful Dead played free
concerts at Golden Gate Park.
 Concerts and be-ins were places
for hippies to protest, socialize,
dance, or take drugs.
 At Woodstock over 5000,000
hippies showed up to hear artists
like Janis Joplin, The Who,
Canned Heat, The Allman
Brothers, and County Joe and the
Fish.
Doing the “wavy gravy” at a
concert.
Woodstock Music Festival: August 1969
 500,000 attend free music
concert in upstate N.Y.
Woodstock was not just a
music concert. “For thousands
who couldn’t even hear the
music” it was a “profound
religious experience.”
Woodstock marks the end of
the intensity of the
counterculture. It begins to
fade in 1970, although it’s
influence persists.
Decline of the Counterculture
•Drugs become the end, not the
means
•Distribution of drugs becomes
a source of income for many
hippies
•Sexual Revolution spreads
AIDs and stds.
•Mainstream America reacts to
the excesses of “sex, drugs,
and rock and roll” with
revulsion.
•The youth of the
counterculture grow up, get
jobs, get married and face
reality
Altamont Speedway
•Altamont Speedway Concert in California
December, 1969
•Free Concert-hailed as “Woodstock West”
•Hells Angels hired as security—kill 18 year
old girl
•Violence viewed by public as another excess
of the counterculture
Conservative Reactions
Conservatives such as
Nixon and Reagan call for a
return to “traditional
family values” and a
rejection of the excesses
of the counterculture.
They emphasize traditional
American values:
Patriotism
Marriage
Chastity
Respect for elders
Work ethic and
personal responsibility
Key Point: The reaction to the counterculture leads to
the modern conservative movement.
The Legacy of the Counterculture
•As the counterculture ended
if left America with more
liberating views in the areas of
dress, appearance, lifestyle,
and social behavior.
•While some Americans found
it liberating, some said it was
the start of moral decay in the
country