The CountercultureChapter 23, Section 3

Countercultureadopting values that are different than everyone around you

Hippies

promoted peace, love, freedom

new styles of dress and music, freer attitudes toward sexual relationships and the recreational use of drugs

their behavior created a huge generation gap between them and their parents

because they were the baby boomer generation, there were many of them and they greatly influenced culture

Sixties Style

young women wore their hair long and down and chose loose fitting dresses

men grew their hair out and wore beards

they tried to look as different from their parents as they could but their dress became the “uniform” of their generation

they felt sympathy for and worked to help the poor of the world; they dressed as peasants might dress and often wore indigenous styles

Sixties Art

hippies painted their cars and their bodies

Pop Art became popular (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein) it featured realistic depictions of items from everyday life

Op Art used neon colors (often for black lights) and involved optical illusions; was often used for album covers or posters

The Sexual Revolution

traditional views were rejected

they believed that sex should not be tied to family and should be “free”

they lived in communes and shared partners freely (diseases?)

Many people were very upset with this behavior

The Drug Scene

Psychedelic drugs and hallucinogens cause the brain to behave abnormally and permanently change it

marijuana was very popular among youth as well

Timothy Leary was working on research at Harvard University and discovered LSD; he encouraged young people to “Tune in, turn on and drop out”

Not everyone was doing these things and they were very dangerous (Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix all died of overdoses)

Music

folk music became popular because it told a story or had a message (Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie)

The British Invasion brought many groups here and changed music (Rolling Stones, Beatles)

Lots of songs protested the war in Vietnam

Woodstock

August 1969

in a field in Bethel, New York

attended by 400,000 people

Police chose to avoid confrontation by not enforcing drug laws

many bands and people camped out

Altamont

December 1969, California

attended by 300,000 people

Rolling Stones concert

When the security did not show up, the Stones hired the Hell’s Angels (notoriously violent motorcycle gang) to provide their security and they beat a man to death as he approached the stage

this was the last large concert