How Did Woodstock Influence Pop Culture

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1969 saw the enactment of one of the largest music festivals in history, and certainly the largest of its era, and the most influential by some length. This essay will discuss what set Woodstock apart from dozens of other music based festivals which defined the aptly named ‘Woodstock generation’ and why the festival generated such an influence among not only those who attended, but all who felt its messages were relevant to. Popular – or ‘pop’ – music was also heavy influenced due to the iconic festival, after performances were proven to be able to spread messages of hope, peace and love among crowds of hundreds of thousands of revelers, this created the mass movement and idea of the deregulation and decommercialisation of modern music.

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These are subjective matters and can never be truly confirmed, only observed, but it is obvious why Woodstock had the largest influence on society and pop culture as a whole. Quite simply, it was the perfect combination of music, people, art, peace and love. It lived up to it’s billing of ‘three days of peace and music’ and its messages of hope and tranquility were fault not only across the nation in a traumatic time, but all over the world, largely due to the fact the Vietnam was dragging on, making the peace subject of the festival much more significant and allowed the three day event to have a world wide influence. The effect of these festivals was so strong and long lasting that most responses in a survey cite music and music festivals as ‘the best experience of the 60s’ (Weiner and Stillman, 64). The Vietnam war going on at the time became a focal point for many concert goers promoting peace, and this is one of the main issues Woodstock became so widely regarded as the most important festival of the 60’s, possibly of all time – in a political sense at least. With public opinion dropping on the idea of sending more soldiers overseas as casualty rates grew whilst ground was lost, Woodstock was a shining beacon to those opposing the war against communism in South East Asia. The draft, enforced by Richard Nixon, was a large factor in this; by forcing peaceful young males into a war they didn’t believe in, Nixon was alienating himself from the public, and most importantly the then-young Baby Boomer generation, which dominated the decade. Draft researchers Lawrence Baskir and William Strauss have noted that ‘Vietnam was a crises they all faced – whether in the barracks, on the campus or in the streets. Unlike other Americans, most members of the Vietnam generation are reluctant to judge a man by his personal response to the war. They know that the labels – loser, coward,

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