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essays on the history of Woodstock
1960’s and the influence on rock n roll
THE EFFECT OF ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC UPON AMERICAN CULTURE IN THE 1960S
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Woodstock, presumably named after the Peanuts cartoon character, became known as most popular music festival in US history, after the three day concert involving; sex, drugs and Rock & Roll took over the town of Bethel, New York. “It is acknowledged as the defining moment of the rock-driven counterculture of the late 1960’s, when half a million fans descended on a small farm in upstate New York for what was promised to be “3 days of peace & music.” (Evans 8) What started as a simple investment proposal to help four young men open a recording studio and retreat for New York musicians, ended with over a half of million people crammed into a 600-acre dairy farm, riddled with muddy, half (fully) naked, and completely “stoned” hippies.
John Roberts, heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, and his friend, Joel Rosenman were looking for ways to invest Roberts’ money in such a way that would make them more money. They placed an ad in the New York Times stating they had capital and were looking for business propositions. Soon, they were introduced to Artie Kornfield and Mike Lang. These four young men would become the organizers of this raving spectacle musicfest.
Plans started with the idea they would hold a two-day rock concert in Wallkill, New York, for approximately 50,000 people in hopes it would raise enough money to pay for their recording studio. They sold tickets for one day, two day, and three day passes via mail or in stores. Over time, they began hiring security guards, signing bands and musicians, and organizing concessions. They thought they had everything thought of until one by one things began falling apart. The town of Wallkill immediately began boycotting the concert which ended up passing a law on July 2, 1969 bann...
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...dollars and had over 70 lawsuits. Warner brothers released a hit documentary film called “Woodstock” (IMDB) which thanks to the profits, helped them pay off all but $100,000 of the debt. They had no idea they’d be creating the most popular music event in history.
Works Cited
Cocker, Joe. "I get by with a little help from my friends." Live at Woodstock. Rec. 17 Aug. 1969. A&M Records, 2009. MP3.
Evans, Mike, and Paul Kingsbury. “Woodstock; Three Days That Rocked the World.” New York, New York. 2009. Print.
Rosenberg, Jennifer. "The Woodstock Festival of 1969.” About.com. 20th Century History. Web. 4 Apr 2014.
“Woodstock in 1969: 50 moments that changed the history of rock & roll.” Rolling Stone. 24 June 2004. Web. 4 Apr 2014
America's Historical Newspapers - 1690-2000. American History through the News. “The Concerts at Woodstock and Altamont”. Web. 4 Apr 2004.
Woodstock is a talked about legend. On August 16-18, 1969 Woodstock Music Festival took place on a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New York town of Bethel. John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and Michael Lang who all worked together to organize originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near the town of Woodstock, New York. The longtime artists’ colony was already a home base for Bob Dylan and other musicians. Despite their relative inexperience, the young promoters managed to sign a roster of top acts, including the Jefferson Airplane, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival. Anyone with a big well known name to people no one had ever heard about was there to perform.
... around famous band. They were an icon to the U.S by trying to send a message in their music that says drugs aren't bad, to the people. Jerry Garcia was a main part in this band and they wouldn't have been this successful without him. The Grateful Dead made rock and roll history from all of these points.
The Woodstock Music & Art Festival took place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, August 15th, 16th, and 17th, 1969. As you can imagine, a concert like Woodstock would have had to be planned very carefully. It didn’t just happen.
In the summer of 1969, a music festival called, “Woodstock”, took place for three straight days in Upstate, New York, with thirty-two musical acts playing, and 500,000 people from around the world coming to join this musical, peaceful movement. Woodstock started out being a small concert, created to locally promote peace in the world, by the power of music and its lyrics. Now, Woodstock is still being celebrated over 40 years later. The chaotic political climate that the ‘baby boomers’ were growing up in is most likely the reason for this event becoming of such an importance to the world. The violence of the Vietnam War, protests at Kent State and the Democratic Convention, and the assassinations contributed to an ‘out of control’ world. The fact that so many people came to Woodstock and were able to latch onto the ideals of peace, love, and community became a wonderful, joyous symbol to this generation. This three day music festival represented the ideal for baby boomers during a chaotic political time.
and the event promoters could only afford to pay $1500.00 to each of the 25 bands that performed. That didn’t seem to matter to David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He was quoted as s...
Acting as a catalytic reaction, the Beatnik Riot put in motion for a new modernized America. Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park in Manhattan, New York was previously occupied by young protestors driven by anti-war and racial aspects. “In the spring of 1961, the Washington Square Association, a community group of homeowners around the square, appealed to New York City’s Department of Parks and Recreation to do something about the hundreds of ‘roving troubadours and their followers’ playing music around the square’s turned off fountain on Sunday afternoons “ (Straughsbaugh 1). “The parks commission began issuing permits to limit the number of musicians, allowing them to ‘sing and play from two until five as long as they had no drums,’ Van Ronk writes” ( Straughsbaugh 1). Permitting the number of musicians provoked the traditionalist to become active protestors. The community around the square complained about the ruckus caused by these hippies, racial mixture, cultured young folks. In Greenwich Village an old historical dilemma was of the racial ideas having this heritage people were not in favor of t...
Woodstock had more acts scheduled to play then any other single event ever held before. They were trying to sign the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands in America. The problem was getting the bands. Bands didn’t want to take contracts from an unproven venture, because they had no credibility. “To get the contracts, we have to have the credibility, and to get the credibility, we have to get the contracts,” Rosenman said. Woodstock Ventures solved that problem by paying enormous sums unheard of in 1969. The breakthrough came when they signed the Jefferson Airplane, the biggest psychedelic band back then. They signed for $12,000. An incredible sum of money considering the Jefferson Airplane usually took gigs for five or six thousand dollars. Credence Clearwater Revival signed for $11,500, and the Who signed for $12,500.
The years preceding Woodstock were filled with multiple large events such as the Civil Rights Movement, protest against the Vietnam War, and the Stone Wall Riots in 1969 located in New York. The Stone Wall Riots as well as the protest against the Vietnam War were major sparks in this already kindling time in history. As counterculture became widely popular amongst the youth, norms began to cripple away. Instead of focusing on school, college students were becoming political activists, attending Vietnam protest also known as “sit-ins” which is where a large group, usually consisting of college students because they were the most involved in counter culture, went somewhere and peacefully protested.
Throughout the 1960’s, many events that were occurring had a major impact on the lives of Americans. Some events, mainly those that involved violence, were negatively affecting people’s lives. There was a lot of war going on during this time like the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the deployment of over 100,000 troops in Vietnam. Different riots were breaking out all over the country; there was even violence in political affairs. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated during the late 1960’s (The Sixties). On the other hand, there were musical aspects of the 1960’s that positively influenced people. In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place in Bethel, New York (About Woodstock). Woodstock was able to bring
Initially, Woodstock was simply going to be a concert for people to attend and enjoy, free of repression and the outside war zones. Unexpectedly, an estimated 500,000 people were at the gates waiting two days before the concert even started (Evans 65). Woodstock was not anticipa...
Two New York venture capitalists, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman, placed an ad in the New York Times seeking investment opportunities and business propositions. The ad caught the attention of Artie Cornfield and Michael Lang, a self-identified hippie rock promoter. They were convinced that a new studio in Woodstock, New York, would attract their business as well as musicians from all over the country. Together, Cornfield and Lang decided to host a small concert in Woodstock to gather enough money to build a new recording studio (History Channel).
In 1969 a rock festival emerged in the sea of concerts that went by the name of Woodstock. Posters advertised that the festival would be “three days of peace and music” on August 15-17. From the very beginning people said it was like The Woodstock Festival was cursed. The planners couldn’t find a venue, because no one wanted thousands of young people on their property unsupervised. Finally they found a six-hundred-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York that allowed them to have the festival on their property. As the planners began to set up the event they estimated no more than 200,000 young people would show and only about 186,000 advance tickets were sold by the time the event came around. Around half a million people showed up for the festival
War opposers gathered around at Woodstock in 1969 to experience “3 days of peace and music.” Woodstock captured the American antiwar spirit. Jimi Hendrix played his famous rendition of the star spangled banner on his electric guitar. His interpretation captured the agony of war with the harrowing sound of bombs bursting and jets clashing within the song. Although Woodstock was a music festival, the event consisted of expressions of anti-war. Musicians such as Country Joe, chanted their anti-vietnam protest songs to the audience. The impact of the anti-war movement shaped artists’ music and changed the face of Rock and Roll
"All Nature is but Art: Woodstock Music and Art Fair." Vogue. December 1969:194-201. "Big Woodstock Rock Trip." Time. August 1969:14b-22. Ewen, David. All the Years of Popular Music. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.,1977. Fass, Don. "The Sixties." http://www.sixties.net (19 March 1999). Frike, David. "Minor Epiphanies and Momentary Bummers." Rolling Stone. August 1989:62-91. Grunwald, Henry. "Youth Trip." This Fabulous Century: 1960-1970. 1986 ed. Hertsgard, Mark. A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles. New York: Dell Publishing Groups Inc.,1995. Huges, Rupert. Music Lover’s Encyclopedia. New York: Doubleday Inc.,1984. "Rock Audience Moves to Dusk-to-Dawn Rhythms." New York Times. 18 August 1969:25. "Tired Rock Fans Begin Exodus From Music Fair." New York Times. 20 August 1969:1-3. "What Happened in the Sixties?." http://www.bbhq.com/sixties2.htm (19 March 1999). "Woodstock: Dawn of the Bigtime." Economist. August 1989:75. "Woodstock Music and Art Fair." Newsweek. August 1969:88. "Woodstock: Peace Mecca." Billboard. August 1969:1,10.