Essay On The Grateful Dead

Formed in 1960 amid the rise of the counterculture of the century in Palo Alto, California, The Grateful Dead was one of the most illustrious American Rock bands of the century. Making #57 on Rolling Stone magazines “Greatest Artists of All Time” issue and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the band is acclaimed for it’s unique and expansive style. Ranging from blues, reggae, country, jazz, folk, and rock, the band had music that was unheard of and has sold more than 35 million albums worldwide. Emerging from the San Francisco Bay Area, founding members were the lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, keyboard player Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, bass player Phil Lesh, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann. Previously playing
Starting out during an era where groups such as “the Beatles”, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones were dominating radio stations, they decided to change up their style from jug band into a rock’n’roll group. Originally trying to establish “psychedelic music” and being activists for the psychedelic movement, the boys started to try and fit their music to a more known and established category such as blues, folk, pop rock, country and genres that more fans could identify with, yet still labeling themselves as a rock group. Touring constantly throughout their career, they gained a powerful fan base that named themselves “The
One of the reasons their concerts had such a low violence and riot rate was because of the consistent drug use throughout the audience of their concerts. In 1987 soon after they got their first big hit, the band began to grow in popularity, as did the Deadheads. The band had to resentfully enforce more rules such as no more camping and vending in the lots of the concert venues. Instead of the happy go lucky hippies they were accustomed to, more of the upper class higher income frat boys started to appear because of their sudden rise of appearances on radios, entering more mainstream territory. Trouble began following the Deadheads, having 55 arrests for mostly drugs and disturbing the peace in April 1989, along with 2 violent police encounters and 70 arrests and reports of