Hendrix

Jimmi Hendrix was the most influential musician of the 60's

When the 1960's are mentioned to many people the first thing that comes to mind is the hippie movement. The hippie movement would only be the base for a greater movement to arise, the rise of Rock music. Even though Rock had existed for years before the 60's rock would give rise to the genres of music we listen to today such as Alternative, Metal and Progressive rock. In a sense the hippie movement consisted of "Drugs N' Rock N' Roll".

Jimmi Hendrix would be a center for this movement creating a new type of music crucial to the Hippies and today's music. Jimmi Hendrix is considered one of the originators of the modern rock movement due to his more than legendary songs of counter culture and freedom. Hendrix's songs continue to play in venues around the world.

Jimmi Hendrix is also considered one of the originators of the modern rock movement due to his more than legendary songs of counter culture and freedom. Hendrix, regarded by many as one of the greatest, was not only known for his music but for his interesting style and life. His life ended too short though and if alive today music would not be about money but about feeling.

Chapter 1: Understanding the times

Life in America has been molded by many factors including those of the hippie movement in the Sixties. With the development of new technology, a war against Communism, and an internal war against racial injustice, a change in America was sure to happen. As the children of the baby boom became young adults, they found far more discontent with the world around them. This lead to a subculture labeled as hippies that as time went one merged into a mass society. These people were upset about a war in Vietnam, skeptical of the present government and its associated authority, and searching for a place to free themselves from society's current norms, bringing the style they are known for today. "Eve of destruction; no satisfaction...and a third motif went rippling through the baby-boom culture: adhesive love".

The freedom they found came with the help of drugs. This new drug allowed a person to open their mind to new understandings and philosophies. But it wasn't just marijuana that opened the minds of the youth; a new drug known as LSD came into existence: Depending on who was doing the talking, [LSD] is an intellectual tool to explore psychic 'inner space,' a new source of kicks for thrill seekers, the sacramental substance of a far-out mystical movement- or the latest and most frightening addiction to the list of mind drugs now available in the pill society being fashioned by pharmacology (Clark 59). With politicians and law enforcement officers looking on the drug as a danger to society, many expert chemists "set up underground laboratories" It wasn't just the youth in America who was using these drugs.

The amazing statistic wasn't the amount of soldiers smoking marijuana; it was the amount of soldiers America was sending over to fight a war that nobody understood. Between 1965 and 1967, the number of troops almost quadrupled in size leading to more extensive riots due to increasing draft. In a letter to President Johnson sent by student leaders from 100 American colleges and universities and published in Time, this problem was addressed: Significant and growing numbers of our contemporaries are deeply troubled about the posture of their Government in Viet Nam. Even more are torn-by reluctance to participate in a war whose toll keeps escalating, but about whose purpose and value to the U.S. they remain unclear. With the fear of being sent to Vietnam, many potential draftees looked for a place to run. Some went to Mexico, some went to Europe, some went to Canada, and some just burnt their draft-cards to resist the draft. For those who went to Canada, they received assistance from the Committee to Aid American War Objectors. The committee helped the young immigrants with advice and aid on the Canadian immigration laws. For those who didn't flee, life was full of harassment from the Government. Popular music and literature help display this message of repression. (hippy.com)

Jimmi Hendrix released a song titled "If 6 was 9" that described his oppression: "White collared conservative flashing down the street/Pointing their plastic finger at me/They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die...Go on Mr. business man/You can't dress like me." During Woodstock, the music festival in '69, Country Joe and the Fish sang lyrics that were both comical and intense: "What are we fighting for?/Don't ask me, I don't give a damn/Next stop is Vietnam...Whoopee we're all gonna die." Jerry Rubin illustrated his anger in the government, in the book he wrote while spending time in jail. "Since they can't get us back into their system, they try to destroy us through heroine". This repression of the elder generation sent the youth to accepting communities, particularly out west. (Rowan.edu)

Most of the people leaving their homes came from working-class families whose parents and communities had driven them out for simply for supporting the civil rights movement. Being alienated from their towns and considered communists, they found it easy to side with the anti-war movement. It was also easy for them to discover drugs and the free-love idea that was already being spread. The new culture identified themselves with the Native Americans and their unquestionable oppression, sacramental drugs, and true ties to America.

The style that they developed was true to this philosophy. Dope, hair, beads, easy sex, were all symbols of teenage difference or deviance at the time, which were soon transformed into signs of cultural dissidence...Boys with long and unkempt hair, pony tails, beards, old-time mustaches and sideburns; girls un-premed, without rollers, without curlers, stringy-haired, underarms and legs unshaven, free of makeup and bras...A beard could be understood as an attempt to leap into manhood...Clothes were a riot of costumes...India's beads, Indians' headbands , cowboy-style boots and hides, granny glasses, long dresses, working-class jeans and flannels; most tantalizingly, army jackets.

No movement in our history defines a cultural change more accurately than the hippie movement in the 60's. They had their own laws, music, clothes, and writings. The view of