The History of Haight-Ashbury
The music of the 1960's was about peace, love and happiness, right? Wrong, the music of the 1960's was a message of protest, hope and open-mindedness. The music of this decade not only spoke for a culture but a lifestyle. The artists, people and politics of San Francisco's corner of Haight-Ashbury may best summons the message of the music. Between the years of 1964-1967, San Francisco (especially Haight-Ashbury) was the heart of the counter-culture movement. Haight-Ashbury was the center of attention, even seen as "Eden" to members of the counter-culture. Though the corner of Haight-Ashbury has produced possible some of the best music ever, it wasn't always paradise. The people who lived in San Francisco were exposed to free love, drugs, demonstrations, poetry, peace, war, crime and protest. It was the combination of all of these elements that helped produce and define a period of music history. "By 1967, 50,000 hippies resided in or near the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco" (Szatmary 165). Admits the residents of Haight-Ashbury were the founders of the movement the Beats, who helped organize rallies, peace meetings and inspired the hippies (Szatmary 164). An extension to the lifestyle of th
Its not to say the music or the message died with the disarmament of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury area, it just spread to the rest of the country. Thanks to the commercialization of the movement, the counter-culture became a culture. Politics and policies compared to drugs and love now inspired the music. Though some of the same artists produced the music, the origin of their inspiration had moved. The message now had spread throughout the country, but Haight-Ashbury was left in ruins. Historically Haight-Ashbury will remain a shrine to acid rock, and even today some hippies attempt to keep the original message alive. But the ultimate fate Haight-Ashbury had to face after the summer of love, was the same fate the rest of the country soon had to face; the hippie dream was just a dream (or trip). e Beats became the more popular hippies; who continued the idea of peace and happiness. Though this idea of a possible utopia may or may not have been influenced by the eccentric use of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), "The hippies turned to mind-expanding drugs to enhance their individual potentials." (Szatmary 167) and 'As an avenue to understanding a new social order, mind-expanding drugs became the centerpiece of acid rock." (Szatmary 176) it still provided the backbone for the music. The movement consisted of ideas like: no social classes or equality for all, free love, peace, freedom of individual expression and a societal utopia. The rationalization of the hippies came from the rejection of the views their parents provided, and introduction into a counter-culture (http://www.halcyon.com/colinp/archives.htm). But after the summer of love (1
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Approximate Word count = 1129
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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