Woodstock, A Peaceful Rock Revolution Essay, Research Paper

Woodstock: A Peaceful Rock Revolution

To some, the sixties were a decennary of find as Americans foremost journeyed to the Moon. Others remember the clip as a decennary of America s moral diminution with the coming of stone and axial rotation and its representation of & # 8220 ; iniquitous & # 8221 ; , inappropriate ideals. Yet for many people, the 60s symbolized a decennary of love and harmoniousness. Flower peoples exemplified these beliefs, and in 1969 they gathered at a music festival known as Woodstock to observe their music, their love, and their freedom in a concert that has remained on of the most influential events of the sixties.

The young person of the sixties were known as the & # 8220 ; Love coevals & # 8221 ; . They made love indiscriminately and openly, and preferred unfastened to formal matrimonies. Weekend & # 8220 ; love-ins & # 8221 ; , free signifier assemblages, communal life quarters, and stone festivals were held in response to the & # 8220 ; love motion & # 8221 ; . The & # 8220 ; love motion & # 8221 ; was the hippy belief for peace and harmoniousness. It reached its extremum in the summer of 1967, and by so it had over 300,000 followings who referred to themselves as the & # 8220 ; love kids & # 8221 ; or the & # 8220 ; soft people & # 8221 ; . They gathered in San Francisco, the hippy centre of the universe, during the summers. During these & # 8220 ; Summers of love & # 8221 ; , they lived on the streets of Haight-Ashbury, sitting in groups along the street and thruming their guitars ( Frike 62 ) .

These & # 8220 ; love kids & # 8221 ; , otherwise known as the flower peoples were the consequence of the antiwar motion that was brushing the state during the Vietnam war. Flower peoples were resolutely against the war. They participated aloud, and frequently violently in infinite anti-war protest mass meetings and Marches. They were known to publically fire bill of exchange cards, and some even renounced military service for prison ( Hertsgard 124 ) .

Flower peoples were non merely antiwar, they were preponderantly antiestablishment. The position symbols of their seniors were resolutely rejected: wealth, societal place, civilization, physical attraction, and economic security. They held in contempt, cosmetics, expensive jewellery, cabarets and eating houses and all other polishs of the flush society. Wealth meant nil to them. Personal freedom to show oneself was believed to be the most of import thing in life. They were antiauthority, antirace favoritism, and antipollution, in short they were Rebels against the society, contending against the moral criterions of America they felt were unfair ( Hertsgard 153 ) .

Events such as stone concerts shortly became a platform against the inhibitory authorities and accepted ethical motives. Such events provided chances to show their bitterness. The stone concert of Woodstock was a premier illustration. It was described by psychoanalyst Rollo May as & # 8220 ; a diagnostic event of our clip that showed the enormous hungriness, demand, hankering for community on the portion of the youth & # 8221 ; ( & # 8221 ; The Big Woodstock & # 8221 ; 17 ) . Rock concerts of the sixties had become the equivalent of a political forum for the immature for the look of political thoughts, the spirit of community and consciousness of the universe around. & # 8220 ; Woodstock was a jubilation of joy which wiped out, at least temporarily, the relentless feelings of nonsense that permeate our civilization & # 8221 ; This concert, held in Bethel, New York, in August of 1969, has become a symbol of the sixties. It is a symbol of the hippie civilization embodied in the young person of the clip. This concert was the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Billed by its vernal Manhattan boosters as & # 8220 ; An Aquarian Exposition & # 8221 ; , it promised music, peace, and great stone and axial rotation. By a conservative estimation, more than 400,000 people, the huge bulk of them between the ages of 16 and 30, showed up for the Woodstock festival. Thousands more would come if constabularies had non blocked off entree roads, which had become parking tonss choked with stalled autos. The battalion of autos and people besides forced the New York Thruway to shut, making one of the state s worst traffic jams ( & # 8221 ; Peace Mecca & # 8221 ; 10 ) .

Peoples walked every bit many as 20 stat mis to acquire to the concert, all the piece singing vocals of peace and love and carrying posters exposing their hippy sentiments. Among the many were & # 8220 ; Keep America Beautiful-Stay Stoned & # 8221 ; , & # 8220 ; Love is Power & # 8221 ; , and & # 8220 ; Flower Power & # 8221 ; . Flowers, along with a dove perched upon a guitar became the symbols of the festival. These images were painted on autos, apparels and even organic structures ( & # 8221 ; Rock Audience & # 8221 ; ) . Their shabby apparels were a symbol of their freedom, their uniforms being bleached denims and worn tee shirts. They wore beads and plumes with their long hair pulled back in bandana and beaded headbands Had the festival lasted a small longer, every bit many as one million of these colourful young persons might hold made the pilgrim’s journey to Bethel ( & # 8221 ; What Happened & # 8221 ; 8 ) .

The enticement of the festival was an all-star dramatis personae of top stone creative persons, including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane. But the good quivers of the good groups turned out to be the least of it. What the young person of America, and their observing seniors saw at Bethel was the possible power of a coevals that had in infinite upseting ways rejected the traditional values and ends of the U.S. Thousands of immature people, who had antecedently thought of themselves as an stray minority realized now what power they had as a group over society ( Fass 3 ) .

Woodstock was the inspiration of four immature enterprisers who wanted to set on a & # 8220 ; great Rock and Roll show for America & # 8221 ; In 1968, the four work forces, Michael Lang, Artie Kornfield, Joel Rosenman, and John Roberts, made a visit to their friend Max Yasgur who lived on a farm near Bethel, New York. They had chosen the town of Bethel for their concert because of the symbolic scriptural mention in its name. The four managed to convert Yasgur to allow them keep their concert on his 600-acre farm. He agreed to the estimation that merely ten to fifteen-thousand people would be go toing the concert on his land ( Woodstock Music ) .

The concert was widely advertised, but the out of the blue big crowd it attracted, about 400,000 people, suggested that the possible significance of the event was spread by some sort of an belowground web. & # 8220 ; If you were a portion of the civilization, & # 8221 ; said one pilgrim from Bethel, & # 8220 ; you had to be there. & # 8221 ; Consequently, the crowd was excessively large for the constabulary to manage, merely one-fifth really paid the admittance for the concert, the staying attended for free ( & # 8221 ; All Nature 194-96 & # 8243 ; ) . Law was about impossible to implement due to the monolithic crowd, and the constabulary were outnumbered well, one for every two-thousand attendants. Drugs were used widely at the festival, yet out of fright of bestiring the crowd to ill will, fewer than 100 apprehensions were made on drug charges ( Grunwald 227 ) .

After the first twenty-four hours of the festival, the boosters hired the Hog Farm hippy commune to patrol the carnival. They took attention of childs on bad drug trips, and acted as nurses to the few physicians at Woodstock. Along with the mass drug usage, 1000s of people suffered from hurts such as colds, broken castanetss, and sore pharynxs. Due to the unexpected big group of people, there was hapless sanitation and really small H2O. The conditions became so bad that the festival physicians declared a & # 8220 ; Health Emergency & # 8221 ; and over 60 physicians were flown from New York City to assist with the crisis ( Huges 334 ) .

The bad lucks at the Woodstock were legion, yet they failed to set a damper on the high spirited crowd. It rained through the entireness of the weekend, turning everything to mire. It rained over the instruments, and yet the sets continued to play. Consequently, several performing artists were treated for burning Burnss. There was even a power blackout during the center of the Grateful Dead set, which lasted for several hours ( & # 8221 ; Woodstock & # 8221 ; ) . Max Yasgur s farm became a boggy mass of people as the rain fell throughout the yearss of the festival.

Along with the pouring rain and the ensuing clay, there were legion other things to deplore about the concert in Bethel. Three people died, two of which were caused by an overdose of drugs. Over 400 young persons had reportedly suffered from & # 8220 ; bad trips & # 8221 ; caused by low-grade LSD, which was being openly peddled at $ 6 per capsule. On the other manus, three babes were born, there were no colzas, no assaults, no robberies, non even one battle was reported ( & # 8221 ; Tired Rock & # 8221 ; 2 ) . This T

haem of peace prevailed at the concert, and was subsequently remembered to be the individual thing that set Woodstock apart from the remainder of the concerts, doing it the most successful and the most remembered.

The Bethel scene demonstrated more clearly than of all time before the pervasiveness of a national drug civilization. At least 90 per centum of those present at the festival were smoking marihuana. In add-on, narcotics of all sort and description, from hash and acid, to rush and Equus caballus, were freely available ( & # 8221 ; Peace Mecca & # 8221 ; 3 ) .

Woodstock was said to be the & # 8220 ; greatest group of instrumentalists of all time assembled & # 8221 ; . In entire, 28 world-famous instrumentalists gathered to play at this festival. Among them were Acts of the Apostless such as the Grateful Dead, The Who, Janis Joplin and the Creedence Clearwater Revival. The festival began on the afternoon of August 15th, with a public presentation by Joan Baez. She set the temper for the remainder of the instrumentalists who were to play over the following few yearss. The music continued throughout the weekend and eventually ended with Hendrix giving a & # 8220 ; psychedelic & # 8221 ; public presentation of the Star-Spangled Banner. Sing the diverseness of the sets, the instrumentalists dealt good with one another, and many became friends. Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane commented on the harmoniousness between the groups playing at Woodstock: & # 8220 ; It brought everyone down to a common world. That was the most cherished thing about the festival. All egos all melted off & # 8221 ; ( Ewen 644-48 ) .

Although Woodstock was deemed a success, as a consequence of few people paying admittance, there was a reported shortage of over one million dollars. Finally, this was made up by the sale of movie and book rights. The fiscal addition for the boosters was, nevertheless, nil. The Woodstock film released in 1970 proved to be a success. It depicted the festival as a major & # 8220 ; love and drug fest & # 8221 ; . The Woodstock album, released the same twelvemonth was besides a major fiscal success. On the album was the anthem for Woodstock, & # 8220 ; We Can Be Together & # 8221 ; , by the Jefferson Airplane set. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was now officially an event that marked a decennary, typifying the music and ideals of the young person in the 1960ss ( & # 8221 ; Woodstock & # 8221 ; ) .

Several efforts were made to live over the success of Woodstock. None compared to the unique and intense feeling of love and peace that signified the Woodstock success. Many efforts ended with force, bad drug narratives, constabulary battles, and lost money. The most ill-famed was the stone festival held in Watkins Glen, New York. Over 600,000 people attended, doing it the largest stone festival of all time. There were aggregate public violences at this festival, over 1500 people were hospitalized, and several died. Drugs were consumed by over 95 per centum of the music lovers, and that big scale drug usage resulted in several deceases due to o.d. . Barely five per centum of the attendants paid for their ticket, and in the terminal, it was considered a failure ( & # 8221 ; All Nature & # 8221 ; 200-01 ) .

Woodstock and Watkins Glen were non the first efforts at successful stone festivals. Between 1967 and 1970, more than 2.5 million people attended some 30 stone festivals. Eighteen others had been planned or announced, but were canceled ( Fass 8 ) .

Before, & # 8220 ; stone and axial rotation & # 8221 ; was the music for & # 8220 ; lapidators & # 8221 ; and flower peoples, but with the event of Woodstock, stone music became widely heard by the mass public market. Merely as Elvis had ruled the music scene in the 50s, the Beatles became the music phenomenon of the sixties. These four & # 8220 ; mop-haired & # 8221 ; stone vocalists from England revolutionized the manner and techniques of stone. Their influence over the immature was enormous, as they became one of the primary trendsetters of the sixties. The four vocalists: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, had become stone fables by 1967 ( Hertsgard 19 ) .

For the first clip since Elvis, music stirred the young person into a craze and caused mass craze. Anywhere the foursome went, they were followed by shouting rabble of immature misss. The Beatles though were non the lone group to pull big crowds of fans. The Rolling Stones, The Who and Alice Cooper besides had their portion of immature following. Most parents of the clip were incognizant of the young person reaction to music. The 1s who did cognize were shocked to see their boies and particularly girls so haunted with the new music civilization.

The Church besides became disturbed by the turning popularity of stone music. Rock music was viewed as an & # 8220 ; instrument of the Satan & # 8221 ; that was taking America s young person to a & # 8220 ; iniquitous binge of sex, drugs, and communism & # 8221 ; ( Ewen 653 ) . Musicians such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were accused of being immoral and advancing communist beliefs. As the decennary continued, jobs between stone music and the Church grew. In 1965, Pope Paul VI censured adolescents

for look up toing stone vocalists. He condemned the Beatles and pressured parliament to censor stone and axial rotation ( Ewen 672 ) .

Despite the spiritual force per unit areas, stone music flourished in England, as did the music scene in the U.S. San Francisco instantly became the bosom of it. Known as the & # 8220 ; Liverpool of the West & # 8221 ; , San Francisco was spliting with stone activity in the sixties. Embedded in this metropolis s stone scene were such groups as the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, and the Byrds. The music of these groups began the ill-famed & # 8220 ; Acid Rock & # 8221 ; motion. It symbolized and portrayed the drug maltreatment of the decennary. The widespread usage of head changing drugs such as marihuanas and LSD provided the inspiration for the creative activity of this music ( Grunwald 254 ) .

The music of the 1960ss was diverse and colourful in its nature. The different sounds of 1960ss stone included common people, reggae, acid, blues, psyche, hood, and countless others that helped determine the music of this period. Compared to the 1950ss, it had become subtler and more sophisticated. Songs of this decennary reached for the poetic, the symbolic, and the mystical in an attempt to better nail the tempers of the times. Through such varied agencies, stone music became an art that appealed to the young person of America

This music provided a support during the disruptive times of the 1960ss. It stood steadfastly while the mushroom cloud of the atom bomb and the fume from the desolation in Vietnam hung threateningly over America, and it remained a support throughout the antiwar motion which profoundly involved the immature. In rebellion to the war, the young person of America had become & # 8220 ; flower kids & # 8221 ; , or flower peoples. They rebelled against a society whose ethical motives they held in contempt. They symbolized the cosmopolitan demand for love and harmoniousness. Finding an mercantile establishment in music, they created vocals that expressed their demand for personal freedom and social peace & # 8211 ; shouting out to & # 8220 ; give peace a opportunity & # 8221 ; ( Hertsgard 309 ) .

The music festival of Woodstock was a outstanding event of their clip that was viewed as a & # 8220 ; jubilation of life & # 8221 ; in the 1960ss, during which & # 8220 ; Hundreds of 1000s of childs came together to bask each other in the presence of music, and of peace. They knew about art and nature. They lived for a weekend in the still oculus of the hurricane & # 8221 ; ( Woodstock ) .

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