1960's Hippie Counter Culture

First, who were the counter culture hippies?

The hippies were american citizens that mainly consisted of white middle-class men and women who didn't conform to normal societal expectations. During this youth movement a community emerged where equality, peace, and tolerance were valued. The hippie counterculture movement of the 1960's infiltrated society by implementing their key values through literature, music, and visual arts.

What did the hippies value and represent? Equality was heavily preached by this group and they believed that everyone deserved to have equal access to resources and share. Rather than focusing on mainstream ideologies, they were a community where anything outside of the 'normal' was accepted . The values hippies advocated never were favored by the federal government, and in turn this made the counter culturists feeling left out. This isn’t to say the hippies liked the actions the government at the time did either, because they didn’t. Hippies stood against institutions, spoke out against violence (war/nuclear weapons), eco-friendly, promoted differences in sexuality. These all are things the government would find it impossible to agree with and practice.

Key Focus Questions:

1) What values/beliefs did the hippies support?

2) How did counter culture influence literature, muic, and visual arts?

3) How has hippie culture evolved?

authenticity

Hippies did not participate and share culturally acceptable practices and beliefs, and that is what made them stand out in society. They viewed others as conformists to society’s standards and could never truly be self indulgent or authentic. They weren’t just authentic because of their lifestyle but because they expressed themselves through style, music, drug use, sexuality, and diction.

peace&love

They weren’t in favor of the Vietnam war, and shunned violence. Anti-war activists gained attention with protesting ‘peace and love’, ‘make love not war’. They would use the slogan ‘flower power’ and the phrase ‘flower child’ because it symbolized peace nature embodied.

tolerance

The hippie counter culture community were very open minded and accepting of people of all races, sexuality, and religious/philosophical beliefs. This was because a majority of the hippies were excluded from the middle class because of they criticized the restrictive values of employment, and appearance.

literature

John Kerouac’s novel On The Road was based in the 1940’s during the beat movement that occurred right before the counter culture movement. The story contained a lot of risqué material that did everything but convey mainstream society characteristics. The main character Sal and his friends frequently used of drugs, alcoholism, sexual relations, and displayed criminal behavior in a quest to simply live life. The rebellious nature of this novel intrigued the masses during the counterculture movement. This book and others alike were extremely popular and influencing many ‘conformist’ to ‘drop out’. A term used when speaking of the people who opted out of the mainstream and claimed the title as hippie.

visual arts

Visual arts in the 1960’s looked like murals, art graphics, abstract, psychedelic looking posters, and collages. Vibrant colors were key in making the ‘psychedelic’ effect more prominent because that was the new popular style. The psychedelic movement had music and art more experimental, and some posters incorporated political/social messages. Art was displayed on concert posters, awareness posters, and etc. The film industry is a form of digital art, and members were involved in the counterculture movement. Many films came out of the 1960-1970’s that showed visual representation of the styles and diction of the movement. Most films had story’s with themes of finding ones self typically on a journey, and they shared similarities in drug, and alcohol use.

The power of music

ANALYSIS: : counterculture influenced artists to be more experimental with genres and invented a new expression. “During the countercultural movement, African American artists became more prominent and mainstream. As a whole, music became a much more open and free field of expression, open to experimentation with new sounds and alternative instrumental arrangements. https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/CYOU_Project/executive-summary// " Before, music genre's were categorized by young, old, white, or black music, and not only was their a change in style/instrument arrangement but in lyrics as well. New messages were being spread through music such as peace, nature, and views on life.

The new changes in music opened up women’s opportunities in the industry, and soon enough women became more outspoken about their opinions of society's restrictive expectations of them. 'During this period, sexuality and gender roles became more liberalized, and women began to vocalize their discontent with society’s expectations of them. https://tropicsofmeta.com/2020/03/15/freedoms-just-another-word-for-nothin-left-to-lose-janis-joplin-the-mistaken-icon-of-the-counterculture/ "

"United by the goal of redefining social norms, activists, protestors, hippies, and proponents of the growing counterculture found in the Beatles an ideal representation of the sentiments of the times."joss.tcnj.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/176//2012/04/2010-Corry.pdf

Janis Joplin, also known as “darling of the counterculture” or “first counterculture pinup girl”. Janis didn't fit into any stereotypes and was criticized for not having a normal appearance and lifestyle.

The Byryds songs had messages of peace, and humanity. They had a folks/rock music sound and genre. Rock's style of music became more mainstream and popular because of the movement. The doors were open for new music style possibilities.

Bob Dylan was a singer/songwriter in the early 1960's that wrote his music about the Civil Rights Movement, and Vietnam War . Bob was apart of the youth rebellion against hypocritical accepted American beliefs.