My question..I was born in 1977 so I don't have a lot of firsthand experience, but I am curious as to how much late 60s/early 70s hippie/antiwar culture, including lifestyle, music, etc etc etc were still around  by say, 1978-79? From what I do know it seems that hippie culture was still alive and kicking as late as 74 but justa  few years later was totally gone. How did it change so fast? I mean, the difference was only a few years, 7 at most, but people say that 1980 and 1970 were light years apart culturally. Is it just a possibility or is that how it really happened? Did it gradually disippate or did the last hippie in existence just decide to cut his/her hair and put on a suit sometime in 1976?

My question..I was born in 1977 so I don't have a lot of firsthand experience, but I am curious as to how much late 60s/early 70s hippie/antiwar culture, including lifestyle, music, etc etc etc were still around  by say, 1978-79? From what I do know it seems that hippie culture was still alive and kicking as late as 74 but justa  few years later was totally gone. How did it change so fast? I mean, the difference was only a few years, 7 at most, but people say that 1980 and 1970 were light years apart culturally. Is it just a possibility or is that how it really happened? Did it gradually disippate or did the last hippie in existence just decide to cut his/her hair and put on a suit sometime in 1976?


This is a superb question!  But being the complex subject that it is, I don't know how many of us can give a succinct answer.  For what it's worth, I'll throw out a thought or two...

For one thing, it seems 60's youths were very tuned into the greater goings on.  Apathy, which took over the world in the 80's (until a few short years ago), was far less common.  For that reason, rapid culture changes as a response to U.S. and world events were normal through the early 70's.  (If you contrast 1969 vs. 1974, things are just as different).  Even though there were still hippie vestiges around in 74, by that time most were disillusioned with it and many who stuck with it bombed themselves outta their heads with drugs.  I'd say in the mid 70's there were a lot of disillusioned people - after watergate, the whole vietnam mess, the gasoline crisis, runaway inflation, and other global issues, folks were pretty burnt out feeling like we could fix "the establishment".  There's a lot more to it, but I think that's one of the generalities of the time.

As far as fashion itself, I would characterize the 70's, at least through the mid 70's, as the most rapidly changing decade in memory in terms of fashion.  And the most bizarre.  In how many other decades did we look at our one year old favorite outfits or shoes and say, "gosh - that outfit's so old and dated" (note, however, I was a teenage girl)  ::)

Personally, from what I know (and I was born in 1972 so was only 7 when the decade finished) I think a lot of changes had to do with cultural shifts.

The late 1960's had everyone feeling as though they could change the world. For the first time teenagers were seen as a demographic, and one to be listened to. One of the things that the teenage and early 20's demographic wanted was a complete withdrawal from Vietnam. Unfortunately, no matter how much protesting was done, nothing happened until 1974 or 1975, and then it only happened because the governments involved knew that they were fighting a losing battle. It became painfully obvious that 'hippies' had nothing to do with the changes.

The music also changed from being an freeing experience to being a commercially driven source of income for the big wigs at record companies. The music itself changed from the 'swaying in the breeze' type of sound to often heavier and/or beat driven peices. Woodstock had come, and gone. Only to turn up again as a money making film.

Disco was simply not something that translated well into the 'hippie' way of life, and neither did the heavier styles of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Even The Who, who tried to keep the psychadelic feel to some of their music couldnt be contained by the 'hippy' souunds. I think the music that was the hallmark of the 'hippy' movement became the singer songwriter style of the mid 1970's, and that died out pretty quick.

There was watergate, union problems, strikes, fuel crisis', unemployment and the drug culture simply became both old and dangerous. No longer were people taking drugs to find themselves, for the most part they were taking them to hide from themselves, and they became addicted.

I think that by 1975 it had become uncool to be a 'hippy' and those who took the 'mind expanding' drugs were seen as burnouts and bums. Recreational druugs such as pot were still in use but mainly by teenagers as part of their beer drinking 'party' attitude.


Personally, I think that the changes in music and in the way things became commercialised (and often over commercialised) were what ended the 'hippy' movement and brought about such rapid changes.
I think this is why I LOVE the culture of the 1970's because there were such major changes in music, fashion, movies and TV and in the way we lived that it is definately the most interesting decade to date.




AN

I've said this before, but in some ways, I think the '70s (the stereotypical "Disco, Starsky and Hutch, Polyesther" part of the decade - like 1974-80) were just a bridge between the "60s generation" and the "80s generation".

I get the impression the overall stuff from the '60s wasn't really backlashed or hated in that part of the '70s, it maybe wasn't as cool, but people probably acknowledged its merits. I imagine only the real "campy" things from the '60s were made fun of in, say 1977 - i.e. hippies. But both decades had a certain "freewheeling, wild" vibe to them, where things like smoking weed and drag racing were generally cool.

It wasn't until the 1982+ era that the '60s seemed to (very quickly) become "old".

Some very pertinent observations. From the vantage point of a GenXer (born in 1986) who wishes he were a Boomer (well, maybe that's wishful thinking), I felt people too quickly forget the sheer vastness of the chasm between the late 60s flower power scene and the early 70s. I used to think the early 70s was a psuedo-psychedelic period, but now I really it was as different from late 60s Acid Rock as it was from Disco/Punk.

As American Girl noted, the three main 'events' which sobered up all these washed out histories, and hailed in the 70s were:

A trio of rock star deaths, the last of the big rock festivals in 1970
The waning of anti-Vietnam protest by about 1972, and the emergence of totally new genres like Heavy Metal
The Oil Crisis in 1973 - this one hit hard

But more to the point...I do think many people looked back on the late 60s/early 70s with a bit of fondless and nostalgia even as early as 1976. It sounds hard to believe now, but there was already a huge hippie/nostalgia movement in the UK and US in the earliesh to mid 70s, that gave rise to semi-psych groups like Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer in Britain, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream.etc in Europe.etc, which tried their best to recreate a new dream, a new 'Age of Aquarius.' This movement gained more ground than is acknowledged by music historians, and would have likely dominated music even more if it weren't for Punk, which rudely shoved away the 'Old guard' of music by the late 70s. Make no bones about it, the Punk aesthetic derided the 'Dinosaurs' of rock liked Led Zep (which had become a bit slack and establishment by the late 70s), Sabbath.etc.

Interesting, the drug of choice in the late 70s was speed/barbituates (cocaine was still a rich peoples' drug) - which was popular during the Mod/Garage band days of the mid 60s. So one can see it as a 'turning of the wheel.' Heavy metal saw it's resurgence in New British Metal and AOR in the late 70s and early 80s, though this link was never really severed (though it was weak in the years 1974-1977ish).

Some very pertinent observations. From the vantage point of a GenXer (born in 1986)

1986 IS GEN Y DUDE. GEN X IS NO LATER THAN ABOUT 78

I've said this before, but in some ways, I think the '70s (the stereotypical "Disco, Starsky and Hutch, Polyesther" part of the decade - like 1974-80) were just a bridge between the "60s generation" and the "80s generation".


Well, eh, yeah the 70s were a bridge from the 60s and 80s, being right in between them and all...makes sense to me... ???

1986 IS GEN Y DUDE. GEN X IS NO LATER THAN ABOUT 78


Oh yeah, my mistake. I meant GenYer.

Hey, Trimac I am curious..why, as a gen Yer, do you wish you were a boomer? Your generation already has  a lot in common with them and as gen Y gradually enters the "eastablishment" will be even more like them. Or are you just interested in the 70s? Just curious here..

Personally, from what I know (and I was born in 1972 so was only 7 when the decade finished) I think a lot of changes had to do with cultural shifts.

The late 1960's had everyone feeling as though they could change the world. For the first time teenagers were seen as a demographic, and one to be listened to. One of the things that the teenage and early 20's demographic wanted was a complete withdrawal from Vietnam. Unfortunately, no matter how much protesting was done, nothing happened until 1974 or 1975, and then it only happened because the governments involved knew that they were fighting a losing battle. It became painfully obvious that 'hippies' had nothing to do with the changes.

The music also changed from being an freeing experience to being a commercially driven source of income for the big wigs at record companies. The music itself changed from the 'swaying in the breeze' type of sound to often heavier and/or beat driven pieces. Woodstock had come, and gone. Only to turn up again as a money making film.

Disco was simply not something that translated well into the 'hippie' way of life, and neither did the heavier styles of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Even The Who, who tried to keep the psychedelic feel to some of their music couldn't be contained by the 'hippy' sounds. I think the music that was the hallmark of the 'hippy' movement became the singer songwriter style of the mid 1970's, and that died out pretty quick.

There was watergate, union problems, strikes, fuel crisis', unemployment and the drug culture simply became both old and dangerous. No longer were people taking drugs to find themselves, for the most part they were taking them to hide from themselves, and they became addicted.

I think that by 1975 it had become uncool to be a 'hippy' and those who took the 'mind expanding' drugs were seen as burnouts and bums. Recreational drugs such as pot were still in use but mainly by teenagers as part of their beer drinking 'party' attitude.


Personally, I think that the changes in music and in the way things became commercialized (and often over commercialized) were what ended the 'hippy' movement and brought about such rapid changes.
I think this is why I LOVE the culture of the 1970's because there were such major changes in music, fashion, movies and TV and in the way we lived that it is definitely the most interesting decade to date.




AN





Also Vietnam was still going on. A lot of influence in the early 70's can be attributed to it. Plus Kent state and others places where people where gunned down by the guard. It took the wind out of a lot sails back then.  Kind of told people no more. The marches and prostesting the war,  was kind of fading out. But during the elections of 72 with tricky dick winning everystate but Mass and the District of Colombia. His major campaign was getting us out of Nam. Also at that time the burning of the Bra's and other events, the equal rights movement for women was just getting started. The theme I am woman was just getting under way in the early 70's. Which on the funny side it never got enough states to ratified it, to make it a amendment.

Plus the music scene went to more of a peaceful direction.  With more of the main stream groups started a softer side, like the Guess Who with Share the Land. Three Dog night with Black and White&Joy to The World. Chicago etc. Even the singer songwriters went to a softer side Like Cat Stevens, Jim Croce. I think everyone in the nation was getting tired of the violence like what happened at Kent state. Then also in the early 70's, we had another wounded Knee...I think all that violence helped to end a lot of the hippie movement. Oh ther anti war songs where still out there but on a softer side like Bo Donaldson's  Billy don't be a hero. Many of the music against the war went to the  tame side.

Also I want to add one more thing that is vital to way the changes came about. The 70's saw the end of the draft and that was a very good thing. Because most of the people in the war that where drafted came from middle to lower class.

...The 70's saw the end of the draft and that was a very good thing...


Good observation, that change was huge then, especially to guys in their teens-20s.  Getting drafted was a constant threat overhead if you were male.  When the draft was ended in the mid 70's a collective sigh of relief could be felt by just about every young man of high school age.  I remember how much relief I felt over that change, on behalf of my brother who I worried might have to deal with that.

Good observation, that change was huge then, especially to guys in their teens-20s.  Getting drafted was a constant threat overhead if you were male.  When the draft was ended in the mid 70's a collective sigh of relief could be felt by just about every young man of high school age.  I remember how much relief I felt over that change, on behalf of my brother who I worried might have to deal with that.


I can't say that I felt relief. Out of 6 family members 4 cousins 2 uncles only 1 came back. Out of them 4 where drafted. And I had the unlucky task of being in the USN helping out the boat people at that time.

Hey, Trimac I am curious..why, as a gen Yer, do you wish you were a boomer? Your generation already has  a lot in common with them and as gen Y gradually enters the "eastablishment" will be even more like them. Or are you just interested in the 70s? Just curious here..



Yeah, it's purely for nostalgia reasons. I don't add the socio-cultural implications into the equation. I don't particularly want to be part of the Boomer generation as such, I just wanted to have lived (preferably as a younger) person, during the late 60s and 70s. It doesn't necessarily mean I'd wind time back 35 years without a second thought (it's not that simple), but I definitely would like to go back and experience the times.