Culture and Counterculture

1
Culture and Counterculture

• The Main Idea
• The counterculture that emerged in the 1960s and
  1970s left a lasting impact on American life.
• Reading Focus
• What led to the rise of the counterculture?
• What was life like in the counterculture?
• How did mainstream American society react to the
  counterculture?
• What legacy did the counterculture leave behind?

2
The Rise of the Counterculture

• The counterculture of the 1960s was a rebellion
  of teens and young adults against mainstream
  American society.
• Young Americans believed that societys values
  were hollow and its priorities were misplaced.
• They called the mainstream the Establishment.
• They wanted to create an alternative culture
  based on peace and love.

3
Where did the counterculture come from?
The number of teens and young adults in the
United States rose dramatically in the 1960s.
These young people were living in turbulent
times threat of nuclear war, racial
discrimination and segregation, the Vietnam War,
and environmental pollution.
4
Rising Student Activism

• Students on college campuses began rebelling
  against school policies they considered
  restrictive, unjust, or not relevant.
• At the University of California at Berkeley
  students protested when school officials banned
  speech making and political organizing at the
  entrances to the campus.
• The events at Berkeley marked the beginning of
  the Free Speech Movement, which swept campuses
  across the nation.
• Mainstream Americans were shocked as they
  expected young people not to question authority.

5
Life in the counterculture

• Counterculture
• Thousands of teens and young adults left school,
  jobs, and traditional home life.
• Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco was a famous
  center for the 1960s counterculture

• Hippie Culture
• Rejected materialism and the work ethic of the
  older generation
• Eastern religions, astrology, the occult, and
  illegal drugs
• The goal of most hippies was to find freedom and
  spiritual enlightenment
• Height of hippie movement was summer of 1967
  (Summer of Love)
• The hippie lifestyle offered a pleasant
  alternative to social concerns such as racism,
  sexism, and conflicts over the war in Vietnam

6
Mainstream Reactions to the Counterculture
Some observers of the counterculture were put off
by the unkempt appearance of hippies.
On a deeper level, many mainstream Americans
objected to the unconventional values of the
counterculture. They saw hippies as
disrespectful, uncivilized, and threatening.
To many in the Establishment, it appeared that
society was unraveling. The television show All
in the Family reflected American society in that
it illustrated that mainstream America did not
embrace counterculture
7
Legacy of the Counterculture

• Attitudes
• The 1960s counterculture had the most lasting
  impact on attitudes towards lifestyles and social
  behavior, art and music.
• Attitudes about sexual behavior loosened.
• People explored topics that were once taboo.

• Art and Film
• New style called pop art emerged.
• Andy Warhol led the pop art movement.
• Film broadened its subject matter as censorship
  rules relaxed.

• Music
• The Beatles brought new techniques and ideas to
  rock and roll.
• Bob Dylan wrote political songs and became the
  spokesperson for his generation.
• Woodstock Music and Art Fair was considered among
  the most important events of the counterculture
  movement