How The Music Of The 60’s Influenced The Differences And Beliefs Between The Older And Younger Generation
10 Pages 2539 Words
“How the music of the 60’s influenced the differences and beliefs between the older and younger generation”
During the Fifties, popular music was divided prominently along class and race lines. There were hardly any African Americans on the popular music scene. Popular music was thought to be very middle-class; the upper-classes were confined to opera and classical music. In the Sixties, however, those lines were blurred and a new one became more pronounced; one that divided society by age. This division caused two ‘sides’ to the opposition. The older generation, the "consensus era" of the 1950s, as John Davidson, author of Nation of Nations described them, "[the consensus era]…embraced the material benefits of prosperity as evidence of virtue of ‘the American way.’ And they opposed the spread of communism abroad…Ethnic lifestyles were less pronounced … Class distinctions were more pronounced." The younger generation, those of the "counterculture," as opposed to the "consensus era," embraced anti-commercialism, sexual freedom, drugs, and generally revolted against the conventions of society and politics as usual. Thus the society was divided, and this partition shone through in the music. Some musicians in the 1960s tried to unite the age-divided country, or at least tried to make those who opposed the counterculture movement understand it, but their songs ended up widening the rift even further. Some artists even went so far as to accuse the older generation through their lyrics. Whatever the intentions of the artist, music acted more as a social divisor then anything else during the 1960s.
Due to the consensus era’s fear of communism, people like Joseph McCarthy were able to gain control in the Fifties. McCarthy gained control during the Cold War, accusing anyone and everyone of being a communist menace. The government reacted by trying to counter McCarthy with communist investigation...