This Ish

Beat of Their Own Drum

How Music Shaped the Countercultural Movement of the Sixties

Music can be powerful. Like any art form, its power is derived from its ability to be manipulated, with each note and lyric being used as a mode of expression. It evokes a thought or emotion in its interpretation and it’s really our choice as the listener as to what we take from it, and to what music we subscribe. The music that the youth of the 1960’s countercultural movement subscribed to can be directly related to the popular drugs of the time, cultural ideals, and political views. The countercultural movement served to break from the traditions of the previous few decades and it’s amazing to think that such an intangible thing as music could play such a large role in that.

With Scott McKenzie’s 1967 rendition of “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”, nearly a hundred thousand young people flocked to San Francisco for The Monterey Pop Music Festival. The festival featured artists such as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, and served as a springboard to launch them to fame along with the counterculture they embodied. The festival later came to be known as the “summer of love”.

The youth in the audience brought with them their progressive ideas that shaped the counterculture of the 1960s. Besides a progressive view of women’s rights and sexuality, the youth also brought with them LSD – street named “acid” – the premier psychedelic at the time. First developed by Dr. Albert Hofmann, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide was later pioneered by intelligence organizations like the CIA as a truth serum, but the drug’s dissociative effects caused the trial to be a failure. Along with a disassociation from reality the drug had other effects too.

Approximately 30 to 90 minutes after taking LSD, or “dropping acid”, the user could expect to experience intense emotional changes that the youth used as a form of exploration. If a high enough dose is taken, the user can...