The+Counterculture

According to the text book [|counterculture] was a group of young Americans in the 1960s who rejected conventional customs and mainstream culture. They rejected things that were of value to the mainstream culture. In the 1960s that generation didn't adopt, or go along with the things that they saw. They wore colorful clothing. They let their hair grow out, and had more open dicussions about their sexual activities. By 1980 they started going back to the things that were introduced to them early on.

Unconventional appearance, music, drugs, communitarian experiments, and sexual liberation were hallmarks of the sixties counterculture most of whose members were white, middle-class young Americans. To some Americans, these attributes reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, and pursuit of happiness. Other people saw the counterculture as self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive of America's moral order. 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. Parents argued with their children and worried about their safety. Some adults accepted elements of the counterculture, while others became estranged from sons and daughters. Many young people rebelled against the social conformity of the 50's by flocking to the counterculture lifestyle in the 60's. A decade earlier, members of the counterculture were known as //beats, beatniks,// and the //Beat Generation.//

The drug that the Beat Geneation used.

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/lsd.html

The beat culture of the 1950’s paved the way for the hippies with free speech, open sex, recreational drugs and connections to the Eastern religions and culture. In many ways, hippies were direct descendants of the beats who hung out in San Francisco and New York. The civil rights movement was a clear inspiration for the hippies, for they rode along the waves of these and other important social movements. Both wanted to make the American dream of life, liberty and the [|pursuit of happiness] available to all citizens, not just the white male power elite. Public nudity, including in movies, became much more common. Women became liberated and led the way on many initiatives, such as environmentalism, health foods and new age spiritual practices. Gays started coming out of the closet towards the end of the sixties. However, compared to the current explosion in sexual materials and practices, the 60’s seem tame by comparison.

Them in the public nudity.

http://www.subcin.com/zabriskie.jpg

With a country in shambles, as a result of the [|Vietnam War], thousands of young men and women took their stand through rallies, protests, and concerts. A large number of young Americans opposed the war in Vietnam. With the common feeling of anti-war, thousands of youths united as one. This new culture of opposition spread like wild fire with alternate lifestyles blossoming, people coming together and reviving their communal efforts, demonstrated in the Woodstock Art and Music Festival.

Thousand of people protesting about justice.

According to what I have been reading Counterculture is a group of young Americans in the 1960's who rejected conventional customs and mainstream culture. In 1960 many young people adopted values that ran counter to or against the mainstream culture.They also had people that where call hippies. The hippies where young people promoted peace,love,and freedom.They let there hair grow and new styles of dressing, and there muisc was different to.

Many young women gave up thier hair styles and the way they dress.They dress the way they wanted to, also they let there hair long,and began to wear beards.Hippies painted their cars, and their bodies. And this spirit of fun and irreverance also invaded the art world.

The sexual revolution in the counterculture led to more open dissussion of sexual subjects in the mainstream media.In 1960 counterculture also turned to prychedelic drugs.The drug before was free to use and people use it everymin of there life, but what they didnt know was that it was killing them.Their deaths represented the tragic excesses to which some people were driven by their reliance on drugs to enhance or to escape from reality. Music also reflected to the cultural hanges of the 1960s. The diverse strands of the counterculture all came together at the Woodstock music and art fair in August 1969.Many americans viewed both the festival and the mood.The counterculture represented a rejection of morals and honored values,and seemed a childish reaction to the problems of the era.Hippies were children of the comfortable middle class.The hippies wanted there freedom. All they wanted is to feel free like everybody eles. So they got it and did what they had to.