Taylor Titus

Ms. Christine Olding

College Writing
27 February 2015
Summary Response on The 1960s Hippie Counter Culture Movement
During the 1960s the hippie movement was one that changed
America for generations to come. It was a movement whose
participants were mainly teens and young adults. It gave people a way
to freely express ones self, where nobody judged one another. They
were all about one love and as part of the movement the participants
took part in things like protests against the Vietnam War. The hippie
movement could possibly be one of the greatest movements to hit the
states that would test the limits and make people reconsider what was
right or wrong. In the article The 1960s Hippie Counter Culture
Movement, it gives everything you need to know about hippies
coming from the history, meaning, goals and even the end of the
movement. I believe this movement sculpted the youth of America and
impacted so many people, showing them who they really are instead of
who their parents wanted them to be. In todays society as a result I
think that is why most people are okay with expressing themselves
without feeling judged, making them feel like they have a voice in this
god-forsaken world.

In the beginning of The 1960s Hippie Counter Culture

Movement, it gives a little background on what the people
participating in the movement believed in and what they did that made
them into such an iconic figure in history. The word hipster from the
1940s song Harry the Hipster is where the word hippie came
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from. This whole movement originated from another movement that
happened in Germany before it hit America. These participants were
called beatniks. Then the beatniks had moved to New York City to
later on move to San Francisco. Meanwhile they took on the new name
hippie. (bhaddock)
In Virginia City, Nevada a couple of guys got together and
created the Red Dog Saloon. This would be the core of illegal
substances and psychedelic music festivals. LSD was a drug that
swallowed the hippie participants. Seeing how most people and bands
were on it when going out. When the Red Dog participants decided to
leave Virginia and go back to San Francisco they started The Family
Dog. At one of the first shows hosted they served punch that was
spiked with LSD. The scene exploded so much The Family Dog soon
became Red Dog Productions. Through them parties and
performances were booked at various venues. It was at these events
that crazy lights were included along with film projections with all

different colors. If you were to attend such event you most likely wore
a crazy costume or you made yourself extremely colorful. (bhaddock)
The Summer of Love would bring media coverage to the
movement making known across the world what was happening. This
is turn made the movement bigger than ever. But as quickly as it blew
up it fell down. The Summer of Love started in early 1967, by the end
of summer 1967 it was pronounced dead in Haight Ashbury. Though it
was pronounce dead here it still was alive throughout America and
moved West. It would finally end in 1969 with a festival that is still
known in history today. Woodstock was a music festival that took place
over a several amount
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of days in New York. 500,000 people ended up attended the festival
with at least 10 of the top bands that influenced the hippie movement.
After this event things started to change for the participants and not in
a good way. Mega-stars like Jimi Hendrix had died due to drugs, Charles
Manson had done his dirty work. Soon, other youth groups were
attacking people that were considered hippies on the streets. This
movement had a huge impact in history, some see it as good and
some see it as bad. To me this article showed me the good the hippie
movement did, it gave people a chance to express themselves, to
break away from traditional ideas our parents put in our heads. It gave

not only themselves a way to be free but it has shown generations like
me to embrace my inner weird. (bhaddock)
In this article it opened my eyes to who the hippies really were. I
learned more about them and it made more sense to me as to why
they decided to do this when they did. The hippie movement effected
the youth of America but not without starting in Germany. Once the
beatniks came to the states and took on the new role as hippies it gave
them a purpose. To me they seem like the seed that planted the start
of something extraordinary. Before the movement had started parents
had put into the youths mind this idea about the perfect family with
nothing to revealing and nothing to risqu that would ruin the family
name. The world needed something as extreme as this to bring down
the seriousness society lived in.
By the end of the hippie era fashion changed in the sense that
business apparel declined and was replaced by more casual dress
standards, (bhaddock). People were loosening up. It doesnt seem like
the beginning or during of the
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movement is what mattered but the ending. For example, Woodstock
marked the end of the hippie movement pretty much as a whole,
seeing as the article states Woodstock as it being what ends the
hippie era, (bhaddock). Then you have The Summer of Love, which
brought media coverage showing what was happening on every

television. It was this action that popularized the hippie culture

throughout the United States, (bhaddock) bringing it to the west cost.
Though it isnt cool now, I think it is more or less funny that at
almost every event that you would attend during this time period
something you ate or drank was laced/ spiked with LSD. This is
probably why everybody acted to the extreme that they did. They all
wanted peace and to end the violence but mixed with the drugs, then
you have the crazy behavior, etc. Looking at pictures used in the
article it is almost like they lived in another dimension. As if they lived
in a world of their own, I say this because of the way they acted, not
that it was bad but with these colors and designs it wasnt like
anything outside of the movement. The attitude they had with not
caring and just loving each other is how I feel after I study all night or
finally reach my work limit. This was their attitude all the time.
This attitude goes into what they thought of relationships. Living
with the opposite sex without being married was looked down upon.
But after the movement unmarried couples no longer felt persecuted
for living together, (bhaddock). Again, they had this idea of pushing
boundaries and challenging the idea of what was right and what was
wrong in the eyes of their parents, schools, even the government. They
changed the music industry setting a platform in my eyes for
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artists to come later in my generation with artists like Jimi Hendrix. To

me, and I am pretty sure many others who have knowledge of the
hippie movement, the United States would not be what it is today
without this movement, without these people finally having a voice and
saying no.

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Work Cited
bhaddock. The Hippie Culture Movement (1960s). Mortal Journal, 9
March 2011.
Web. 3 March 2015.