How Woodstock Changed America

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It’s the year 1969, and more than 500,000 people are huddled together on a cow farm swaying to Jimi Hendrix’s version of Star Spangle Banner. Three days of peace, love and music has come to an end and reality sets in with a slap in the face that nothing will ever be the same in America. Woodstock was no mere music festival, like today’s Coachellas and raves where nothing major happens. Woodstock is the counterculture movement that changed America’s music and social normality.
Initially after World War I American society strived to keep everyone happy and conservative, anything different or wrong was frowned upon. Teenagers would go to diners; dance to bubblegum pop and doo-wop while ignoring the segregated seats and brewing wars. It was not …show more content…

African Americans were still facing discrimination even though segregation was outlawed, gender roles was still presently enforced, nuclear testing was becoming a reality and their friends and family were dying in a war halfway around the world (Freccia). The youth of Woodstock was over it and they were ready for a revolution, so began the “hippie movement… who not only were opposed to the vietnam war but also were engaged in illegal drug use and enjoyed rock and roll music” (Tauber). Since their parents rules were not a concern anymore, many hippies at Woodstock went very open and bare as “lyrics from Dylan’s The Times are A-Changin” say “Come mothers and fathers/.../and don’t criticize what you can’t understand/ your sons and daughters are beyond your command” (Hopkins). What the hippies did at Woodstock; standing for peace, love and equality they went against their parents morals, while singing to The Beatles lyrics Give Peace a Chance. Woodstock changed Aamericans into what we are today “it was supposed to be anti materialist” completely different from their parent’s generation (Seckler). In present time America what our parents say and think have some value however they no longer hold us bounded to what we do with our lives. Marijuana is currently legal in some states and gay marriage are? is ruled legal throughout the

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