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Like all genres of music, Rock and Soul incorporates more than just the notes you hear: it represents a vast culture made up of not just fashion, dance, and art, but also shared dispositions and attitudes. And more often than not, it is these aspects of musical movements – not the music itself – that presents the greatest threat to the status quo, and those eager to maintain it.
As the first unit demonstrates, Rock and Soul were counter-cultural since their origins. In response to Rock and Soul music, young people began dancing, dressing, and acting in ways that shocked those in power. Many literally crossed racial and social boundaries as both an act of love for the music and an act of rebellion against those trying diminish it.
A decade later, Rock and Soul not only remained counter-cultural, but perhaps became even more confrontational. In festivals, events, and “happenings” like the Summer of Love and Woodstock, music fans openly started experimenting with other forms of living and communing. Musicians wrote increasingly political lyrics, exposing Americans to the horrors of the Vietnam War and the injustices faced by marginalized people at home. The response was harsh, culminating in McCarthyist witch hunts and blacklist campaigns against any artist perceived as speaking out a little to loudly against those in charge.
This unit examines the role Rock and Soul music played in various movements and campaigns in the 1960s – from Women’s Liberation to the American Indian Movement to the Anti-War movement – as well as more generally the countercultural spirit which Rock and Soul in the decade evoked.
lesson:
The San Francisco Scene, 1967
Why did nearly 100,000 young people descend upon San Francisco in 1967 for a “Summer of Love"?
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Artists Protest McCarthyism
How were musicians and artists affected by McCarthyism in 1950s America?
lesson:
The Impact of 1960s Antiwar Music
How did antiwar protest music provide a voice for those opposed to the Vietnam War?
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Protest as Event
Since the 1960s, how have artists used musical events to promote change?
lesson:
Music and Political Movements
How did Sixties Soul help give voice to the Civil Rights movement?
lesson:
The Music and Poetry Behind the Red Power Movement
What was the Red Power movement, and what role did Folk and Country music play within it?
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Musical Reactions to the Vietnam War
How were American’s divisive opinions over the Vietnam War articulated by musicians in the 1960s and early 1970s?
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Counterculture in the 1960s
How did the counterculture movement of the late 1960s challenge traditional American behaviors and values, and how did the Grateful Dead reflect these changing views of life and society?
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Second Wave: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1960s
What was second-wave feminism, and how did music contribute to the movement?