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| ~ March on the Pentagon ~ |
The American counterculture refers to the period between 1964-1972 when the norms of the 1950s were largely rejected by youth.
THE AMERICAN RELAYER - Issue 5
Politics in the United States
The Emergence of Counterculture
A counterculture developed in the United States in the late 1960s,
lasting from approximately 1964 to 1972, and coinciding with
America's involvement in Vietnam. It was characterized by the
rejection of conventional social norms—in this case, the norms of
the 1950s. The counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards
of their parents, specifically regarding racial segregation and
initial widespread support for the Vietnam War.
As
the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in American
society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the
war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women's rights,
traditional modes of authority, and a materialist interpretation of
the American Dream. Thanks to widespread economic prosperity, white,
middle-class youth—who made up the bulk of the counterculture—had
sufficient leisure time to turn their attention to social issues.
Ideals
and Interests
Unconventional
appearance, music, drugs, communitarian experiments, and sexual
liberation were hallmarks of the 1960s counterculture, most of whose
members were white, middle-class, young Americans. Hippies became the
largest countercultural group in the United States. The
counterculture reached its peak in the 1967 "Summer of Love,"
when thousands of young people flocked to the Haight-Ashbury district
of San Francisco. The counterculture lifestyle integrated many of the
ideals of the time, including peace, love, harmony, music, and
mysticism. Meditation, yoga, and psychedelic drugs were often
embraced as routes to expanding one's consciousness. Spiritually, the
counterculture included interest in astrology, the term "Age of
Aquarius," and knowing people's astrological signs.
Music
Rejection
of mainstream culture was best embodied in the new genres of
psychedelic rock music,
pop-art, and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who
exemplified this era include The Beatles, The Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Neil
Young, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Pink Floyd. New forms
of musical presentation
also played a key role in spreading the counterculture, mainly large
outdoor rock festivals. The climactic live statement of this occurred
from August 15-18, 1969, with the Woodstock Music Festival held in
Bethel, New York. During this weekend festival, 32 of rock and
psychedelic rock's most popular acts performed live outdoors to an
audience of half a million people. Countercultural sentiments were
expressed in song lyrics and popular sayings of the period, such as
"do your own thing"; "turn on, tune in, drop out";
"whatever turns you on"; "eight miles high";
"sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll"; and "light my fire."
Cultural
Divisions and the Collapse of the Movement
The
counterculture movement divided the country. To some Americans, the
movement reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, world
peace, and the pursuit of happiness. To others, it reflected a
self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive
assault on America's traditional moral order. In an effort
to quash the
movement, government authorities banned the psychedelic drug LSD,
restricted political gatherings, and tried to enforce bans on what
they considered obscenity in books, music, theater, and other media.
Ultimately,
the counterculture collapsed on its own around 1973. Two primary
reasons are cited for the collapse. First, the most popular of the
movement's political goals (civil rights, civil liberties, gender
equality, environmentalism, and the end of the Vietnam War) had made
significant gains, and its most popular social attributes
(particularly a "live-and-let-live" mentality in personal
lifestyles; i.e., the "sexual revolution") were largely
co-opted by mainstream society. Second, a decline of idealism and
hedonism occurred as many notable counterculture figures died, and
the rest settled into mainstream society to start their own families.
The "magic economy" of the 1960s gave way to
the stagflation of
the 1970s, and many middle-class Americans no longer had the luxury
of living outside of conventional social institutions.
The
counterculture, however, continues to influence social movements,
art, music, and society today, and the post-1973 mainstream society
has been in many ways a hybrid of the 1960s establishment and
counterculture—seen as the best (or the worst) of both worlds.
Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxA3Q96a8XE
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