Celebrities like George Carlin (1937) and especially singers like Grace Slick (39) and Lennon (40) were obviously a huge part of the 60s counterculture era. You also had a few older hippie leaders like Allen Ginsberg, but I get the impression that "Don't trust anyone over 30!" wasn't just a slogan. From any of your experiences, were most Silent/Greatest Generation folks out of touch with pop culture once The British Invasion began?

I work at a senior living facility and most of the residents are born circa 1925 or 1930. The other week I was having a conversation with a few of them (which I do regularly) about music and even playing clips of songs from my phone. They were peripherally familiar with The Beatles and CCR (didn't hate them, but weren't fans per se) but like didn't know what The White Album was and stuff.

One of them actually even said "there's no good music anymore, it's all rock and roll now!"  ;D Inside I was laughing hysterically (I feel bad even saying that because they're really nice ladies I honestly enjoy spending time and talking with) and it shocked me how they sounded like 1910 born Elvis haters! Although I realized that's probably more typical of their age group, whereas people like Casey Kasem and Dick Clark were likely the occasional youthful exceptions.

Anything after the 50s is probably equally "the new crap" to them! But in a way its comforting to realize today's seniors are still like the "old fashioned old people" like I grew up with.

(It's gonna really trip me out when the 1947 born ex-potheads and Vietnam antiwar protesters, rockers and hippies who went to Woodstock get to be the true blue seniors! They truly seem like the first eternally cool generation where they're like just "old young people".)

Unfortunately, blame the people under 30 for their "don't trust anybody over 30" remark which I felt was deragatory toward the older generation. That said, there was still far more "over 30" friendly culture in the 1960s as opposed to the decades that followed, and were known as the "old squares". They would listen to John Gary, Ed Ames, watch the Lawrence Welk show and watch Westerns and Soap Operas, address people via honorifics rather by their given name (and still do today for the generation described above), attended relgious service regularly, and drove station wagons as opposed to muscle cars. But of course there was a periphery demographic for those who wanted adventure and followed their ideas (mostly those who liked Elvis and early Rock 'n' Roll), though it was just a minority. A 1966 article described the older generation though" as accepting them readily with a wistful envy". In reality, there was a wide variety of opinion, but generally speaking the pluarality of the 30+ felt the 1960s as beginning of the end of the promised days.

Unfortunately, blame the people under 30 for their "don't trust anybody over 30" remark which I felt was deragatory toward the older generation. That said, there was still far more "over 30" friendly culture in the 1960s as opposed to the decades that followed, and were known as the "old squares". They would listen to John Gary, Ed Ames, watch the Lawrence Welk show and watch Westerns and Soap Operas, address people via honorifics rather by their given name (and still do today for the generation described above), attended relgious service regularly, and drove station wagons as opposed to muscle cars. But of course there was a periphery demographic for those who wanted adventure and followed their ideas (mostly those who liked Elvis and early Rock 'n' Roll), though it was just a minority. A 1966 article described the older generation though" as accepting them readily with a wistful envy". In reality, there was a wide variety of opinion, but generally speaking the pluarality of the 30+ felt the 1960s as beginning of the end of the promised days.


Good points. I hadn't thought of all that...actually that article is interesting because I bet the early and even mid 60s were decent or at least tolerable enough to parents and adults, but the 1967+ time probably left alot of even the more easygoing ones in the dust. Psychedelia, potheads, the Summer of Love, loud hard rock/early metal like Jimi Hendrix and Zeppelin...I'm sure many of them couldn't keep up.

Interestingly, my maternal grandma (1926) kinda liked the Beatles or at least didn't mind them when they first came out (I've heard some parents also didn't mind, since their early songs were cute and catchy), and there was still a lot of mellow ballads like "Stand By Me" and "My Girl".

I honestly don't know, but I think maybe 40 or older, rather then 30 or older.

I honestly don't know, but I think maybe 40 or older, rather then 30 or older.


Yeah, even Dick Clark (1929) and Casey Kasem (1932) whom I always considered for years as these hip and eternally youthful old dudes, were only 35 or so in the Woodstock era. Even the oldest rockers like Chuck Berry were maybe 40 at most, so some of the more youthful ones who perhaps were raised on louder blues music could've still enjoyed it casually, but I imagine it really really alienated anyone born before 1925.

thirty is pretty young, now that I'm almost 26.  ;D

I believe that Elvis, who was 34 when Woodstock occurred, was quite against the new generation of rockers. He was rather conservative and saw them as no-good, draft-dodging, pot-smoking hippies. I can't help but see his disdain for their drug use as very hypocritical considering his own addiction to prescription drugs and his death at their hands. It's amazing how one mind-altering substance being legal and yet another (even if it is much less dangerous, like marijuana compared to... just about anything else) being illegal can so profoundly affect their social acceptability, even when rational considerations (such as whether there is a lethal dosage or how they affect your behavior when under the influence) ought to trump something so arbitrary as mere legality.

I believe that Elvis, who was 34 when Woodstock occurred, was quite against the new generation of rockers. He was rather conservative and saw them as no-good, draft-dodging, pot-smoking hippies. I can't help but see his disdain for their drug use as very hypocritical considering his own addiction to prescription drugs and his death at their hands. It's amazing how one mind-altering substance being illegal and yet another (even if it is much less dangerous, like marijuana compared to... just about anything else) being illegal can so profoundly affect their social acceptability, even when rational considerations (such as whether there is a lethal dosage or how they affect your behavior when under the influence) ought to trump something so arbitrary as mere legality.


Pot calls the kettle black, you know?  :-X

Still a huge Elvis fan though.

Pot calls the kettle black, you know?  :-X

Still a huge Elvis fan though.


Yeah, nothing against his music, I just don't care for his late-life pro-Nixonian politics.

As a slight side note, I wonder what Dustin Hoffman thought of 60's counterculture. He, like George Carlin, was born in 1937, making him unambiguously a member of the silent generation. However, at the age of thirty (though very young looking for his age), he played Benjamin in The Graduate and became an icon for many early boomers.

As a slight side note, I wonder what Dustin Hoffman thought of 60's counterculture. He, like George Carlin, was born in 1937, making him unambiguously a member of the silent generation. However, at the age of thirty (though very young looking for his age), he played Benjamin in The Graduate and became an icon for many early boomers.


I think many in the silent generation felt liberated in the late '60s and '70s, giving a new definition to middle age; the midlife crisis, they spear headed the divorce revolution and were among that era 's prominent black panthers, anti war activists, feminists, and new age gurus.

As a slight side note, I wonder what Dustin Hoffman thought of 60's counterculture. He, like George Carlin, was born in 1937, making him unambiguously a member of the silent generation. However, at the age of thirty (though very young looking for his age), he played Benjamin in The Graduate and became an icon for many early boomers.


I see a split in the silent generation. People born in the mid-late 20s often thought of the 60s music as "noise" and were complaining about the hippies.

As a slight side note, I wonder what Dustin Hoffman thought of 60's counterculture. He, like George Carlin, was born in 1937, making him unambiguously a member of the silent generation. However, at the age of thirty (though very young looking for his age), he played Benjamin in The Graduate and became an icon for many early boomers.

(I've been so busy and haven't been on here in a week but wanted to respond for sure. :) )

Yeah I think mid 1930s born can swing either way depending on the person. Youngish 30 year olds like Hoffman and Carlin could still identify with the hippies and current pop culture. I bet for regular joes, people who didn't yet have families and kids were more open to it, too.

It all depends on the year the person was over 30.

There was a clash between the "Greatest Generation" & the "Baby Boomers." The "Greatest Generation" were the ones who fought in WWII. It was a cause that the entire nation got behind. Everyone believed it was a just war. Everyone rationed for the war effort. Young men age 21 or older, who were drafted went into the service without question. Women went to work in the factories to replace the men who were fighting in Europe & Asia.

In the '60s, we were involved in Vietnam. Vietnam was not seen as a just war. And it was mainly the poorer kids who were 18 years or older ended up going to war. The richer kids got out of it by going to college. The young men protested by burning their draft cards, smoking pot, doing LSD, etc. The older generation was just appalled at how the younger generation was acting. Response to Vietnam created a mistrust between the generations.

As for the "Silent generation" or "Depression babies," they were in the middle. There were some (like my dad) who identified more with the younger generation, and others who identified more with the older generation.

In terms of pop culture, every generation had their own music that some from older generations didn't like or approved of. I'm sure my great-great grandparents probably wouldn't have approved or liked the big band sound.



Cat