Woodstock Research Paper

History Research Project: Woodstock

Woodstock was one of the most famous concerts in American history. On one weekend, August 15th to August 18th 1969, over five hundred thousand people watched 32 acts perform and change the history of rock n roll and popular music. After WW2 and the Depression, the people born between 1946 and 1964 were knows as the baby boomers. This generation was highly educated and became involved in the nations affairs. The Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy led to the generation becoming involved in antiwar and revolts against the government. This was after the civil rights and feminist movements which brought equality and change throughout the country. Since people were
The famous phrase was to “turn on, tune in, drop out” which led to a new social status. Music, love, and drugs eventually became the words to describe the baby boomers generation. Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfield created the Woodstock Ventures Inc. and approached Max Yasgur who let them use his farmland in Bethel, New York for a concert called “The Woodstock Music and Art Fair”. They had no idea that they would be planning the concert of the century. It became so crowded that there was neither an entrance nor exit; food, water, police, doctors, and the bands had to be delivered by helicopters. Woodstock hosted many famous artists including Joe Cocker, The Who, and arguably the greatest guitarist Jimi Hendrix. The concert was home to music lovers, marijuana and LSD users, openly sexual people and free thinkers mostly regarded as Hippies. Throughout the use of people’s voices and the concert itself, Woodstock reflected two cultures, the traditional American culture and the
He tries to show that the American culture was coming to an end and a new culture was taking over. People had a new mentality in which they argued with political aspects. In 1970 when “Chicago Seven attorney William Kunstler gave a speech at the University of California, Santa Barbara, following which protesters set fire to the Bank of America”. Prior to the 1970’s, the old American culture was not as violent as the new counter culture. They did not express their opinions like the counterculture did. Woodstock was kind of like a goodbye to the 1960’s American culture, and a hello to a new one. After the concert, “hair styles were longer, entertainment promoters realized the fruitful market for rock concert… movements such as Black panthers and the Symbionese Liberation Army became more prominent”. This is an example of how society was changing because of the ideas influenced by Woodstock. Woodstock was a symbol of peace and it influenced the Black Panthers getting more attention and the end of the Vietnam War. Chris Mullins shows that Woodstock was not only a symbol of peace and new ideas, but it was a farewell to the American Culture and an experiment of a new