The Effect of Music on The Hippie Culture
1.Hippie culture was very important for the development of free United States. It brought a lot of good and bad things into the life of Americans like changes in fashion and culture or greater acceptance of your religion and culture. Concerning hippie culture there is a concept called “hippie aesthetic” which relates to music and other fields of human activity. Musicians, especially during 1960s, experimented a lot with music form, style and variation of different instruments and it caused a dramatic change in music. Drugs, and especially LSD, contributed a lot in the development of music because they were considered as something that clears your conciseness and because music enhanced that experience hippies used to perform while on drugs. These factors influenced a lot music of 1970s and consequences of that revolution can be now traced all over the world. One can trace influence of hippie aesthetic on music in Eurhythmics’ song ‘Missionary Man’ from ‘Revenge’ album. Its use of musical forms and combination of different instruments is impressive. In seventies hippie rock expanded and evolved. After Summer of Love, Woodstock and People’s Park hippies spread all over the world due to their rising popularity. People wanted changes in the way we think and other perception of world, environment, and peace. It resulted in British Rock, American Blues, Progressive Rock, Southern Rock, and others music currents which all stemmed from ‘hippie aesthetic’. Lyrics became more philosophical, classical music was used, new techniques were implemented, more lighting and visual effects were used during performance- those are the result of psychedelic drugs and hippies. Without them we would not hear “Good vibration” by Brian Wilson which is believed to be his greatest achievement because of mixing different musical forms and techniques. The Beatles were greatly influenced by this culture and their album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is the best example of their growth and the change in music culture.
2. It is a difficult task to overestimate effect of hippie culture on music because it was mainly music through which hippies manifested their ideas. As mentioned, hippies put more philosophy into their music and in combination with new technologies sound became more smooth and warm and lyrics touchier. Musicians used bigger drum sets compared to 1960s, early synthesizers appeared and contributed an exotic feeling into sound, electric guitars were gradually becoming more popular and due to these factors music transformed. The Beatles had dissolved, Jimmy Hendrix and Louis Armstrong had died, and the era of hippie had gone, but new talents were born. Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Black Sabbath, Bee Gees, Marvin Gaye, David Bowie, Johnny Nash, and others- we are grateful to 70s for these phenomenon people. New styles appeared and each singer or band had something to offer for the people. FM radio developed and a new album-oriented-rock format dominated on the market. Elton John invaded US with his rock, Aerosmith became even more popular, Jackson …
