History
During the 1960s, the Baby Boomers had reached their teen years. They yearned for a different society, feeling limited by social norms. The open minded teens had begun adopting ideals and beliefs that had come overseas from the Wandervogel in the early 1900s. The Wandervogel, which means “Migratory Bird”, was the youth in Germany that opposed traditional values and entertainment. Instead of conforming to practical forms of entertainment, they wanted music, singing, creative dress, and communal outings in nature. As a result, the Wandervogel’s migrated to the United States and begun to spread their views.
These health-conscious, down to earth people introduced the “beat generation” to the US in the 1950s. The beat generation was a group of writers who were openly homosexual and had explicit descriptions of homosexual sex. They described themselves as the beat down generation because they were marred for their beliefs and lifestyles. The name of the generation later changed to Beatnik. They focused on drug experimentation, alternative forms of sexuality, and eastern religion. In the late 1950s, a large number of the Beatniks in New York had moved to San Francisco. This is what initiated the hippie culture in the 1960s.
Chandler Laughlin was heavily influenced by the Beatniks and had attempted to create his own commune in Berkeley. Laughlin recruited multiple music artists like the Grateful Dead as well as the Charlatans, of which he was a part of. After gaining more followers, they moved the commune to Virginia City in Nevada by opening the Red Dog Saloon. The saloon became the focus point of drugs and music. LSD, which was often experimented with by hippies and the Beatniks, was being distributed by a manufacturer who lived in Berkeley. People would drop acid at concerts or just in the streets and believed themselves to be “opening their mind” and awakening themselves to a higher consciousness. With the heavy influence of LSD in the onset of the hippie movement, it became an integral part of the counterculture.
Hippies were usually teens or young adults who tended to wear their hair long and had an unorthodox fashion sense. Nudity was accepted among the counterculture and self-expression was promoted. They believed in community and love. As they experimented with drugs, they were strictly vegetarian and ate healthily. Although in history books, it expressed that a majority of the population was a part of the hippie movement, only one in ten people actively participated in the lifestyle. The life of partying and celebrating without concern of the future could not last long and by the end of the 60s, the hippie movement was over with many “hippies” returning back to society, getting a normal job and family. Woodstock in 1969 was a large hippie concert that was near the end of the movement. Over 400,000 people had attended the event. Woodstock was not only attended by hippies. It also had mainstream media there as they began to mix. People were changing and becoming more open to the views that the hippies had that were productive such as vegetarianism but disregarded the negative influences which still linger like LSD.
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