The Beat Generation and Non-Conformity In a time period where social rules were strictly followed, religious views were placed above all else and conformity was encouraged and expected, a movement that provides total liberation from these standards would be labelled “unlikely.” However, those involved in the Beat Generation were not fond of labels. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s, a subculture that is later named the “Beat Generation”, arose in popularity amongst young people. What started as a small group of young writers turned into a national movement that questioned social norms and explored individuality. The original “Beats” had no intention of starting a movement. They were a close-knit group of college friends with similar beliefs …show more content…
The term “beatnik” was created by Herb Caen in 1959 within the San Francisco Chronicle, and was intended to be derogatory. Stereotypes of the young artists and writers arose with cartoon drawings of black turtlenecks and berets, projecting the movement as the exact opposite of what it was- a style that could be mocked, copied and fed into the mainstream. This was rejected by the Beats. Allen Ginsberg wrote to the New York Times, “If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man.” According to the University of Virginia Library, “The term beat was first used by Jack Kerouac in 1948 while talking to his friend Clellon Holmes: ‘So I guess you might say we're a beat generation.’ ’’ Referring to the young generation that was tired and weary from the standards placed upon them by society and the effects of World War II. The Beats had two motifs, as described by poets.org, “… changing consciousness and defying conventional writing.” The Beat Generation was not only a literary movement, but a cultural movement. It promoted expression, experimentation and finding yourself as an individual. In an era that exemplified compliance and placed a copious amount of pressure to obey social norms, the Beat Generation was a beacon of light for
Firstly, the group of friends and writers most commonly known as the Beats evolved dramatically in focal points such as Greenwich Village and Columbia University, and subsequently spread their political and cultural views to a wider audience. The three Beat figureheads William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac each perceived an agenda within American society to clamp down on those who were in some way different from the accepted ‘norm’, and in response deliberately flirted with the un-American practices of Buddhism, drug use, homosexuality and the avant-garde. Ginsberg courted danger by lending a voice to the homosexual subculture that had been marginalised by repressive social traditions and cultural patterns within the United States.
1. The sociocultural history of rock & roll during the 1950s created a metamorphosis of teenage mannerisms against the older generation. Shumway (118) emphasizes how the rock & roll periodization represses the nature of normal convention illustrated in “Blackboard Jungle”; through the deviant nature of boys against adults. The boys are malicious towards each other, sneering at one another just as Vince Everett did in “Jailhouse Rock”. While the post-war generation tried to discipline the baby boomers into their known demeanor, the recalcitrant teens rebelled against all means of adult intervention. Similarly Szatmary (50) expressed the generation gap between the baby-boomer and their parents fueled the fear of delinquency in their children. Shumway (125) refers to “Blackboard Jungle” to reiterate the essence of the song “Rock around the Clock” to define the conception of foreseen dangers of youth and the behaviors associated with rock & roll as a transformative cultural practice. In reference to the integration between African Americans and whites during the rock and roll era thr...
In one of the chapters, ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’ the author reveals how blacks in America use the music to express their anger and commitment to emerge as great people in an unfair community. Most songs are written to educate the society on the negative effects of racism. They encourage the society to love one another and embrace unity. The human nature is founded through a social platform where philosophers claim that people were created to love one another and live with peace and unity. Through this book, it is clear that the blacks in the hip-hop generation are money minded. However, this is expected in a world where the economy is tough. The author claims that the youth are the people who are majorly affected by racism. Many of them have been arrested for pity mistakes which are magnified in the courts due to the impression that the society has on the black people. They engage in dirty activities like drug dealings that that put them on the wrong side of the
Tytell, John. "The Beat Generation and the Continuing American Revolution". American Scholar 42 (1973): 308-317.
...the Beats" in the late fifties and early sixties, paving the way for a more accepting American society and the tolerance of alternative lifestyles we enjoy today.
The Beatnik Riot of 1961 characterized the young Americans of the United States that were fighting for their rights. The young radicals rebelled against the milquetoast population of America during this time. The riot conveyed that the beats were not only fighting for their right to sing, but for equality of sex and race. The Beatnik Riot started a domino effect of protests across the United States.
America was built on rebellion. This was no different for the Beat Generation whom took Americans in the 20th century, into a new way of life. Middle class free spirited people who questioned the practices of everyday lifestyle and mainstream culture, the beats lived in disillusionment with society. The fifties being a time of conservative family morals encouraged the bohemian nature of the beats for their want to experience more. The nature of this rejection is expected but, why? And how does such rebellion begin to take place, what forms does it take, and does such rebellion provide a lasting change?
In the words of rapper Busta Rhymes, “hip-hop reflects the truth, and the problem is that hip-hop exposes a lot of the negative truth that society tries to conceal. It’s a platform where we could offer information, but it’s also an escape” Hip-hop is a culture that emerged from the Bronx, New York, during the early 1970s. Hip-Hop was a result of African American and Latino youth redirecting their hardships brought by marginalization from society to creativity in the forms of MCing, DJing, aerosol art, and breakdancing. Hip-hop serves as a vehicle for empowerment while transcending borders, skin color, and age. However, the paper will focus on hip-hop from the Chican@-Latin@ population in the United States. In the face of oppression, the Chican@-Latin@ population utilized hip hop music as a means to voice the community’s various issues, desires, and in the process empower its people.
In Total Chaos, Jeff Chang references Harry Allen, a hip hop critic and self-proclaimed hip hop activist. Harry Allen compares the hip hop movement to the Big Bang and poses this complex question: “whether hip-hop is, in fact a closed universe-bound to recollapse, ultimately, in a fireball akin to its birth-or an open one, destined to expand forever, until it is cold, dark, and dead” (9). An often heard phase, “hip hop is dead,” refers to the high occurrence of gangster rap in mainstream hip hop. Today’s hip hop regularly features black youths posturing as rich thugs and indulging in expensive merchandise. The “hip hop is dead” perspective is based on the belief that hip hop was destined to become the model of youth resistance and social change. However, its political ambitions have yet to emerge, thus giving rise to hip hops’ criticisms. This essay will examine the past and present of hip hop in o...
Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.
Since hip-hop has expanded from the undergrounds in Bronx in the 70’s it has grew into a popular accepted music genre. Consequently, as it progressed from the golden age it gradually grew away from its original roots. If one were to evaluate the change of lyrics in hip-hop, they would see a difference between early hip-hop and today’s hip-hop. The current state of hip-hop is in a stage where things like hey young world are outdated. Instead of broadcasting out a positive message, hip-hop sends out a message of sex, drug, and violence. The early musicians who helped solidify hip-hop, by producing music that told stories on subjects of race, respect, or even music that had a positive message.
Musically hip-hop spawned the age of DJ’s. With strong influences from Reggae, hip-hop has developed into an empowering form for the expression of ideas, power, revolution and change. Power and empowerment have emerged from these musical styles that now have many commonalities. Hip-hop and Reggae are both forms of protest music. “Protest music is characterized by objections to injustices and oppressions inflicted on certain individual groups…. typically, the intent of protest musicians is to oppose the exploitation and oppression exercised by dominant elites and member of dominant groups”(Stapleton, 221). Hip-hop has developed as a new form of protest music void of the common acoustic guitar. The goal of protest music is to promote freedom through music.
Hip hop culture has been around since the 1970s. Multiple sources all come down to the South Bronx in New York City, as the origin of hip hop culture. The culture began to take its shape within the African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Latino communities. The father of the start of this culture was a Jamaican-born DJ named Clive Campbell but also known as DJ Kool Herc. He brought forth a new sound system and the Jamaican style of “toasting.” Toasting was when Jamaicans would talk or rap over the music they played. This whole new style soon brought what is now known as DJs, B-Boys, MC’s, and graffiti artists (Kaminski).
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries, and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and content. It will also identify the history of hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular, this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them.
The Beat Generation Quickly became known by their very aggressive way of writing. Their writing included from what people from the American society thought to be disrespectful and offensive type of writing, where they included Sex, drugs, race, and Rock n Roll in every one of their writings. They did this to simply make a statement. A statement that suggests that they do not care who they offend, they did this to tell their side of the story on how they thought postwar society had turned into, and how they wanted to rebel in regards of how the American culture turned into because of it. They loved that all of their works were involved with drugs, sex, and music because they were fascinated with it all (Sterritt, 2) and once some of their works came out everyone immediately knew who they were. This is what was known as a rebirth of a new world that influenced the twentieth century in a way that no one will ever forget.