1. American History Chapter 23: An Era of Activism
III. The Counterculture

2. Objectives
Find out about social changes promoted by the counterculture.
Learn how the music world of the 1960s and 1970s contributed to the cultural changes of this era.

3. Bellringer
Counterculture – how is it a counter to traditional American culture?
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4. A) A Time of Change
Counterculture – Group of young Americans in the 1960s who rejected conventional customs and mainstream culture
hippies - peace, love, freedom, new music, new dress, sexual attitudes, drugs
Baby boom resulted in huge student population – music and clothing industry, college courses, and politians could not ignore

5. a) Sixties Style
Rejected restrictions and challenged authority – women wore long hair, loose dresses – men beards and long hair – reject the suit
Wore “poor” clothes and “oppressed” clothes – ponchos
Pop Art/Op Art – soup cans and psychedelic drugs look

6. b) The Sexual Revolution
Don’t need to be married to have sex
Communal groups – couples – not married
Sex and the Single Girl and Human Sexual Response

7. c. The Drug Scene
Psychedelic drugs – hallucinations and altered perceptions of reality – marijuana
Harvard University – Timothy Leary researched psychedelic drugs and created LSD – fired – “Tune in, turn on, drop out”
Argued it freed the mine
Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix died of drug overdose – escape reality

8. B) The Music World 1960s – folk music
Songs about protest, laborer, and slavery
1964 revolutionized music in America – “the Fab Four”
Rolling Stones and Janis Joplin

9. a) Woodstock
Woodstock Festival – 1969 music festival in upstate New York
Bethel, pasture heat and rain – police did not enforce drug laws and the festival remained under control
Mainstream deplored the drugs, sex, and nudity – seemed a childish reaction to the problems of the era

10. b) Atlamont
300,000 people to see the Stones in California – Hell’s Angels hired to provide security – beat a man to death
Hippies mainly middle class – when the counterculture ended – many of them went to work for companies they had denounced

11. Review What social changes were promoted by the counterculture?
How did music both reflect and contribute to the cultural changes of this era?