Woodstock (Blog #4)

When most people hear Woodstock, they think of three things, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Many people claim that the festival, deemed one of the greatest music festivals in the world, was simply that, just a music festival. However, there are many who argue that it was a stand for the counterculture of the late 60's that claimed they weren't just a bunch of "hippies" but rather a group that voiced the virtues of peace and love in our society. I classify this as a social movement, because the "hippies" were finally trying to express their morals and values to a society that was telling them to "cut your hair and get a real job."

In the mid 1960's, the hippie movement had really taken hold. This was a time coming out of the straight laced, American dream era where nuclear families, families that center around the mother and father of the family and any number of children, were encouraged and thought be the norm in society. Hippies were seen as a threat to this way of life, and prejudiced against. Their view that life is about peace and love was often chalked up to their recreational drug use, and belittled or ignored. The hippies were a group of people and a way of life, not just a habit.

Tired of being looked down on and treated poorly, they decided to take a stand. They decided to create an event that symbolized their beliefs, including: universal human rights, ethical business practices, free expression, and a loving care for the planet. They decided to make a music festival in the town of Bethel, New York. In order to ensure the success of this gathering, they gathered some of the biggest stars at the time including Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and Bob Dylan. They used this event as a tactic to serve as a rallying cry for hippies everywhere. Joni Mitchell, a woman that worked with various musical groups including, Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, and Neil Young was quoted as saying 

"Woodstock was a spark of beauty" where half-a-million kids "saw that they were part of a greater organism."

This mentality united the hippies around the country and gave them a way to promote their way of life and express themselves freely in a world that was rapidly becoming more and more censored. They were challenging authority by embracing their values and living the way they felt they were meant to. For four days, they exuded the idea of free love and expression by doing what they felt with whoever they chose. This generally was not allowed in normal society and would end up getting them punished. In regards to racism, there really wasn't any at Woodstock. The morals that founded the hippie movement advocated equality for all, including race and sexual preference. This challenged the idea that society had set by saying that being homosexual or bisexual was taboo, and shunning those that were. Regardless of their association with drug use, the hippies were accepting of all types of people and thought that we are all in this together, so we might as well get along.

I knew about this movement because, since it's beginning in 1969, it has been an annul event. I was however unaware of it's origins and how it came to be. I didn't know that it was a reaction to society and their way of expressing themselves for at least a few days a year.
This movement was significant because it made being a hippie not as frowned upon. In addition, it gave the hippies a chance to get together and express their life views with others like them. It's legacy lives on in the annual festivals and still stands for the universal human rights, ethical business practices, and free expression it once started as. Now to end this blog like the first Woodstock ended, with Jimi playing the National Anthem.