Hippies In The 1960s

Margaret Meade once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” In the 1960s, there was a group that was thoughtful and committed, referred to as hippies. Although the group consisted of young college students, they had a large impact on the time. With their open-minded ideals, they created a powerful group compelled to change the country. To understand what this time was really like, one should know how the hippie movement began, the distinct ideals and lifestyle choices of the hippies, how this led to Woodstock and the end to the hippie movement. The 60s were viewed as an exciting and impactful time; however, some alluring events and groups preceded
They pushed anti-war movements and broke down values and norms. Typically, they were college aged men and women. They were just out of high school realizing they didn’t agree with all that they had been told when growing up. They began challenging and pushing these ideas (Cliffnotes, 2014). Some of the members of this group dropped out of college to focus more on trying to change cultural and political issues. They wanted to experience life as intimately and deeply as possible. Universities all over the country, from New York to Berkley, were demanding change (Shmoop, 2014). Their parents’ views were becoming very different from their own. Growing up, most children had gone along with what their parents told them. When they began moving away from their parents and seeing the not so perfect world they lived in from a different perspective, they realized that what their parents think might not be right. They began to challenge ideas and lifestyles, pushing for alternative methods of life. They wanted nothing to do with the current culture they were living in and tried to establish all kinds of things to be specifically their own (Richards, 2014). Once the counterculture was in full swing, there were distinct ideas and characteristics the lifestyle was represented
August 15-18, 1969, hundreds of thousands make their way to Woodstock. Woodstock was one of the biggest music festivals of the time. The festival was also known as “Woodstock Music Festival; An Aquarian Exposition: Three Days of Peace and Music”. The festival was held on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York (Rosenberg, 2014). It involved 32 iconic rock and psychedelic musicians and bands of the time, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Who (Historic U.S. Events, 2012). Woodstock embodied the hippies and formed a more promising outlook on political change. It improved the social optimism in America and kept people optimistic that change really could happen. Rock and roll had grown. It had political strength that everyone could rally around, which was shown at Woodstock (Rosenberg,