What Other Cultural Changes Were Occurring During The Music Revolution?
In 1966 The Beatles once said, “You say you want a revolution. Well, you know we all want to change the world” (Hill 49). These words were running through many minds of the 1960s generation. Change was everywhere; not only in the music, but also in the country they grew up in. From the Vietnam War to the Women’s Rights Movement to the use of illegal drugs throughout the country, The United States was experiencing major events that played straight into the music and American revolution.
The Vietnam War was one of the longest and most drastic wars America had ever participated in. Radical Times: The Antiwar Movement of the 1960s states that the Vietnam War started in 1965 and lasted until 1973, right in the middle of the rock and roll revolution. They also discuss how the United States first involved itself in Vietnam in the ‘50s with President Truman. It continued during the terms of Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy as America gained political and economic power in Indochina. By 1965, as these commitments became more prominent to the public, the war came out into the main stream as the United States launched its bomb attack on North Vietnam that year (Radical Times). As more Americans died, the public became increasingly conflicted with the war.
As many know today, the war was split into two parts: one being the fight in Vietnam and the other being the protest in America. The latter was mostly fought by college students on campus. The Children of the Counter Culture describes Vietnam in America: “The US military presence in Vietnam was losing strength. The White House
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continued to be plagued by two wars… Public opinion was shifting farther and farther away from supporting ‘our boys in Vietnam’” (Rothchild and Wolf 51). In addition, 1967 was witness to a number of city riots; the most deadly of which occurred in Detroit. It also states that the media was causing more anti-war feelings due to...
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