The '
counterculture of the 1960s' refers to a period between 1960 and 1973
[1] that began in the
United States as a reaction against the conservative
social norms of the 1950s, the
political conservatism (and perceived social repression) of the
Cold War period, and the US government's extensive military intervention in
Vietnam.
[2] [3]
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, experimentation with psychedelic drugs and a predominantly materialist interpretation of the American dream.
New cultural forms emerged, including the pop music of
English band
the Beatles, which rapidly evolved to shape and reflect the youth culture's emphasis on change and experimentation. This was accelerated after 1964, when the Beatles were introduced to
cannabis in a
New York hotel room by
Bob Dylan[4], another youth culture icon.
Social anthropologist Jentri Anders has observed that a number of freedoms were endorsed within a countercultural community which she lived in and studied: "freedom to explore one’s potential, freedom to create one’s Self, freedom of personal expression, freedom from scheduling, freedom from rigidly defined roles and hierarchical statuses…" Additionally, Anders believed these people wished to modify childrens' education so that it didn't discourage "aesthetic sense, love of nature, passion for music, desire for reflection, or strongly marked independence…"
Civil Rights Movement
Main articles: American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
British Invasion
Main articles: British Invasion
Free Speech Movement
Main articles: Free Speech Movement
In one view, the 1960s counterculture largely originated on college
campuses. The 1964 Free Speech Movement at the
University of California, Berkeley, which had its roots in the
Civil Rights Movement of the American South, was one early example. At Berkeley a socially privileged group of students began to identify themselves as having interests as a class that were at odds with the interests and practices of the University and its corporate sponsors. However, other rebellious young people who had never been college students also contributed to counterculture development. The
beatnik café and bar scene was a tributary stream.
New Left
Main articles: New Left
Antiwar Movement
Main articles: Opposition to the Vietnam War
Opposition to the Vietnam War began in 1964 on United States college campuses. Student activism became a dominant theme among the baby boomers, growing to include many Americans. Exemptions and deferments for the middle and upper classes resulted in the induction of a disproportionate number of poor, working-class, and minority registrants. Countercultural works such as
MacBird by
Barbara Garson encouraged a spirit of nonconformism and anti-establishmentarianism. By 1967, a majority of Americans opposed the war.
LSD and other Drugs
Ken Kesey and his
Merry Pranksters helped shape the developing character of the 1960s counterculture when they embarked on a cross-country voyage during the summer of 1964 in a psychedelic school bus named "Furthur." Beginning in 1959, Kesey had volunteered as a research subject for medical trials financed by the CIA's ''
MK ULTRA'' project. These trials tested the effects of
LSD,
psilocybin,
mescaline, and other psychedelic drugs. After the medical trials, Kesey continued experimenting on his own, and involved many close friends; collectively they became known as "The Merry Pranksters." The Pranksters visited Harvard LSD proponent
Timothy Leary at his
Millbrook, New York retreat, and experimentation with
LSD and other
psychedelic drugs, primarily as a means for internal reflection and personal growth, became a constant during the Prankster trip. The Pranksters created a direct link between the 1950s
Beat Generation and the 1960s psychedelic scene; the bus was driven by Beat icon
Neal Cassady, Beat poet
Allen Ginsberg was onboard for a time, and they dropped in on Cassady's friend, Beat author
Jack Kerouac--though Kerouac declined participation in the Prankster scene. After the Pranksters returned to California, they popularized the use of LSD at so-called "Acid Tests," which initially were held at Kesey's home in
La Honda, California, and then at many other West Coast venues. Experimentation with LSD and other psychedelic drugs became a major component of 1960s counterculture, influencing philosophy,
art, music and styles of dress.
Black Power Movement
Main articles: Black Power
Hippies
Main articles: Hippies
In 1967
Scott McKenzie's rendition of the
song "
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" brought as many as 100,000 young people from all over the world to celebrate San Francisco's "
Summer of Love." While the song had originally been written by
John Phillips of
The Mamas & The Papas to promote the June, 1967
Monterey Pop Festival, it became an instant hit worldwide (#4 in the United States, #1 in Europe) and quickly transcended its original purpose. San Francisco's
Flower Children, also called "
hippies" by local newspaper columnist Herb Caen, adopted new styles of dress, experimented with psychedelic drugs, lived communally and developed a vibrant music scene. When people returned home from "The Summer of Love" these styles and behaviors spread quickly from San Francisco and Berkeley to all major U.S. cities and European capitals. A counterculture movement gained momentum in which the younger generation began to define itself as a class that aimed to create a new kind of society. Some hippies formed communes to live as far outside of the established system as possible. This aspect of the counterculture rejected active political engagement with the mainstream and, following the dictate of
Timothy Leary to "turn on, tune in, and drop out", hoped to change society by
dropping out of it. Looking back on his own life (as a Harvard professor) prior to 1960, Leary interpreted it to have been that of "an anonymous institutional employee who drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars and drove home each night and drank martinis .... like several million middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots."
The hippie ethos posed a considerable impediment to the success of alternative movements growing within the counterculture. At the extremes, "doing one's own thing" could lead to rejection of values imposed from without and adamant avoidance of other people's expectations. As a result, the individual tends to be isolated, which may or may not be much of a problem for that individual – but it does threaten collaborative actions or accomplishments.
As members of the hippie movement grew older and moderated their lives and their views, and especially after all US involvement in the
Vietnam War ground to a halt in the mid 1970s, the counterculture was largely absorbed by the mainstream, leaving a lasting impact on philosophy, morality, music, art, lifestyle and fashion.
Sexual revolution
Main articles: Sexual revolution
Beginning in San Francisco in the mid 1960s, a new culture of "
free love" arose, with millions of young people embracing the hippie ethos and preaching the power of
love and the beauty of
sex as a natural part of ordinary life. By the start of the 1970s it was acceptable for colleges to allow co-educational housing where male and female students mingled freely. This aspect of the counterculture continues to impact modern society.
In Europe
The counterculture movement took hold in
Western Europe, with
London,
Amsterdam,
Paris,
Berlin and
Rome rivaling
San Francisco and
New York as counterculture centers. One manifestation of this was the general strike that took place in Paris in May 1968, which nearly toppled the French government.
In
Central Europe, young people adopted the song "San Francisco" as an anthem for freedom, and it was widely played during Czechoslovakia's 1968 "
Prague Spring," a premature attempt to break away from Soviet repression.
As this newly emergent youth class began to criticize the established social order, new theories about cultural and personal identity began to spread, and traditional non-Western ideas – particularly with regard to religion, social organization and spiritual enlightenment – were more frequently embraced.
In Mexico
Main articles: La Onda Chicana,
Mexican rock
Rock music was tied into the youth revolt of the 1960s, Mexico City as well as northern cities such as
Monterrey,
Nuevo Laredo,
Ciudad Juarez, and
Tijuana, were exposed to American music. Many Mexican rock stars became involved in the
counterculture. The three-day
Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro, held in 1971, was organized in the valley of Avándaro near the city of
Toluca, a town neighboring Mexico City, and became known as "The Mexican Woodstock". Nudity, drug use, and the presence of the
American flag scandalized conservative Mexican society to such an extent that the government clamped down on rock and roll performances for the rest of the decade. The festival, marketed as proof of Mexico's modernization, was never expected to attract the masses it did, and the government had to evacuate stranded attendees en masse at the end. This occurred during the era of
President Luis EcheverrÃa, an extremely repressive era in Mexican history. Anything that could possibly be connected to the counterculture or student protests was prohibited from being broadcast on public airwaves, with the government fearing a repeat of the
student protests of 1968. Few bands survived the prohibition; though the ones that did, like Three Souls in My Mind (now El Tri), remained popular due in part to their adoption of Spanish for their lyrics, but mostly as a result of a dedicated underground following. While Mexican rock groups were eventually able to perform publicly by the mid-1980s, the ban prohibiting tours of Mexico by foreign acts lasted until 1991.
Also: In October 1967, che Guevara's command was terminated in Bolivia.
Feminism
Main articles: Second-wave feminism
The role of women as full-time homemakers in industrial society was challenged in 1963, when American feminist
Betty Friedan published ''
The Feminine Mystique'', giving momentum to the women's movement and influencing the second wave of feminism.
Alternative media
Main articles: Alternative media
Underground newspapers sprang up in most cities and college towns, serving to define and communicate the range of phenomena that defined the counterculture: radical political opposition to "
The Establishment," colorful experimental (and often explicitly drug-influenced) approaches to art, music and cinema, and uninhibited indulgence in sex and drugs as a symbol of freedom.
Music
During the early 1960s,
Britain's new generation of blues rock gained popularity in its homeland and cult fame in the United States. Folk singers like
Peter, Paul & Mary ("Puff the Magic Dragon") and
Bob Dylan (''
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'') influenced the British groups, and popular music became more closely aligned with the
counterculture.
An international sound developed that moved towards an electric, psychedelic version of rock. In 1962 (see
1962 in music),
The Beatles (''
Please Please Me'') emerged from England and popularized British rock, while
The Beach Boys' success brought harmony-laden surf music to the forefront of the American scene. With country and soul musicians unable to maintain their hipness, both faded from mass consciousness.
The Beatles went on to become the most prominent commercial exponents of the "psychedelic revolution" (e.g., ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'') in the late 1960s. Psychedelic American bands that achieved commercial success include the
The Mamas & the Papas (''
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears''),
Big Brother and the Holding Company, (''
Cheap Thrills''),
Jimi Hendrix (''
Are You Experienced?''),
Jefferson Airplane (''
Surrealistic Pillow'') and
The Doors (''
The Doors''). The
Grateful Dead are considered the first
jam band of the 1960s.
Psychedelic rock came to dominate the popular music scene for both black and white audiences.
While the hippie psychedelic scene was born in California, a more edgy and hardcore scene emerged in
New York City that put more emphasis on
Avant-Garde and
Art Music. Bands such as
The Velvet Underground came out of this underground scene predominatly cenetered at
Andy Warhol's legendary Factory club. While the
San Fransisco scene emphasized on peace and love, The New York Underground was involved in more hardcore drugs such as
Speed and
Heroin and was much more raw and intense.
The Velvet Underground have now been seen as one of the most influential bands in music history and developed the
Protpunk sound that would lead to
Punk Rock.
As the psychedelic revolution progressed, lyrics grew more complex and long playing albums enabled artists to make more in-depth statements than could be made in a single song. Even rules governing single songs were stretched--singles lasting longer than three minutes emerged for the first time (
Bob Dylan's "
Like a Rolling Stone" was the first of these).
Though not unheard of before the 1960s, the idea that popular music could and should lead social change came into its own during this period. Most existing musical styles were influenced, and new musical genres came into being, including heavy metal, punk rock, electronic music and hip hop.
Film
Main articles: 1960s in film
The Counterculture Revolution also had a big effect on
cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such as
sex and
violence causing both controversy and fascination. They turned increasingly dramatic, unbalanced, and hectic as the cultural revolution was starting. This was the beginning of he
New Hollywood era that dominated the next decade in theatres and revolutionized the movie industry. Films such as
Arthur Penn's ''
Bonnie and Clyde'' (''
1967''),
Stanley Kubrick's '' (''
1968''), and
Roman Polanski's ''
Rosemary's Baby (film)'' (''
1968'') are examples of this new, edgy direction. Films of this time also focused on the changes happening in the world.
Dennis Hopper's ''
Easy Rider'' (''
1969'') focused on the drug culture of the time. Movies also became more sexually explicit, such as
Roger Vadim's''
Barbarella'' (''
1968'') as the
Sexual Revolution progressed.
Environmentalism
Main articles: Environmentalism
Counterculture environmentalists were quick to grasp the early (i.e., 1970s) analyses of the reality and the import of the Hubbert "
peak oil" prediction. More broadly they saw that the dilemmas of energy derivation would have implications for geo-politics, lifestyle, environment, and other dimensions of modern life.
Technology
In his 1986 essay ''From Satori to Silicon Valley'', cultural historian
Theodore Roszak pointed out that
Apple Computer emerged from within the West Coast counterculture. Roszak outlines the Apple computer's development, and the evolution of 'the two Steves' (
Steve Wozniak and
Steve Jobs, the Apple's developers) into businessmen. Like them, many early computing and networking pioneers – after discovering
LSD and roaming the campuses of UC Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT in the late 60s and early 70s – would emerge from this caste of social "misfits" to shape the modern world.
The counterculture had representatives in the sciences, the trades, business, and law. Many counterculture participants were stable, dedicated, and persistent. Much was done in the area of the human interface with the natural environment (in connection with science, technologies, community planning, parks, and other spheres). While ''ad hoc'' action groups sprang up frequently, usually fading away just as quickly, some established themselves as ongoing
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) dedicated to working toward particular goals. The counterculture gave rise to many lasting NGOs.
Legacy
The legacy of the 1960s Counterculture is still actively contested in debates that are sometimes framed, in the U.S., in terms of a "
culture war." Jay Walljasper, a commentator and the editor of ''
Utne Reader'' — though not himself from the so-called
'60s Generation, and having grown up in American-Heartland farming country — has written, "From the great gyrations of the counterculture would come a movement dedicated to the greening of America. While many once-ardent advocates of radical ideas now live in the suburbs and vote Republican, others have held fast to the dream of creating a new kind of American society and they've been joined by fresh streams of younger idealists."
References
1. The Movement and the Sixties, , Terry H., Anderson, Oxford University Press, ,
2. Hirsch, E.D. (1993). ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-65597-8. p 419. "Members of a cultural protest that began in the U.S. in the 1960s and affected Europe before fading in the 1970s...fundamentally a cultural rather than a political protest."
3. "Rockin' At the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock," Mary Works Covington, 2005.
4. http://expectingrain.com/dok/int/theloveyoumake.html, retrieved 27 March 2007
External links
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Counterculture Wiki
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Island Foundation
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