Term Paper on "Woodstock Music Festival of 69"

Term Paper 6 pages (1908 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Charles Dickens opens one of his novels with the idea that "it was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Times of transition can be troubling and unsettling, and the four day rock concert known as "Woodstock" occurred in unsettled times.

Music has reflected its culture and times during which it was written for as long as we have had ways to make a record of music. Because of that, looking at the music of an era can provide a valuable glimpse of what life was like during the time and place it developed. Music historians, for instance, have looked at the growth and development of jazz and can see African and Caribbean influences. Those influences come from the slaves who came to the United States from those places.

As the United States developed into a country more ready to embrace differences within subgroups in the population in the last half of the 20th century, a variety of musical styles developed from jazz and rock 'n roll. In the late sixties a wide variety of music was moving into widespread popularity, including rock and roll, "hard rock," country and Western, Jazz, and folk music. All of these musical elements came together at a three-day musical concert held in New York in August of 1969 called "Woodstock." The events that took place at Woodstock had a profound effect on the young people of the time, many of whom were opposed to the growing war in Viet Nam but not necessarily certain they could do anything to change the course of events there. At Woodstock, however, as more and more things went wrong and the attendants had to rely more and more on themselves and each other, it could be argued that those who attended Woodstock or followed its events realized that they had a powerful voice and an ability to organize in ways they had not recognized. The events at Woodstock validated some life choices being made by young people of the time. Woodstock contributed to major changes in American culture that changes the course of the country.

In retrospect, the Woodstock concert had an unlikely beginning. It was organized by John Robert, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang, four young men who weren't really part of the counterculture of hippie movement. Kornfeld always wore a suit, and Roberts was an heir to a fortune based on drugstores and toothpaste. He was also a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. The only concert he had ever attended was a performance by the Beach Boys (Woodstock Festival & Concert, PAGE), a group markedly different than the types of groups booked in for Woodstock.

TIME of OPPOSITES

Some writers about this era have noted the contradictory nature of some events. It was just before the event called "Woodstock," a group of nearly 500,000 people mostly working together and cooperatively to build a functional if temporary community that could deal with multiple significant problems, that some murders occurred in California. The murders of Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger and others by members of Charles Manson's gang occurred at the same time. Both groups -- both those at Woodstock and those living with Charles Manson -- viewed themselves as "hippies," free spirits ready to throw off the shackles of conventional society and help lead people to a better time. The press did not yet realize that those murders had been committed by a group of self-styled hippies, and for whatever reasons, never drew any connections between the movement that led to events at Woodstock and the notions that led to the actions of Charles Manson and his followers (Marcus, 1994).

The group at Woodstock were overwhelmingly opposed to the Viet Nam war, and one of the remarkable ironies of the event is that nearly as many Americans attended the Woodstock Concert as were currently in Vietnam (Marcus, 1994).

But Woodstock showed a lot of musical as well as cultural opposites. Some people went to the concert precisely because so many different kinds of bands would be playing within a short period of time (Marcus, 1994). For someone with wide-ranging tastes in music, Woodstock appeared to be the ultimate concert. Those who performed included solo artists such as Joan Baez and Jimi Hendrix; groups such as Sha-Na-Na and Creedence Clearwater Revival; and influences from other countries such as Ravi Shankar, who played music strongly influenced by the cultures of India.

These groups represented just how wide-ranging the musical choices at Woodstock really were. Joan Baez sang folk songs that often reflected some kind of protest, but with a sweet, gentle voice, while Jimi Hendrix did things both to melodies and to guitars that had never been seen before. His performance of the National Anthem startled people unaccustomed to his type of music and caused some people to speak out in outrage, believing tha he had shown the song great disrespect. However, others viewed his performance as a declaration that the United States was for all her citizens, not only those who lived within mainstream or conservative thought.

Sha-Na-Na and Creedence Clearwater Revival were two groups who were opposites in many ways. Sha-Na-Na played their late fifties hit "At the Hop," which had no message at all except "Let's go to the hop!" while Creedence Clearwater Revival sang songs about bullfrogs who shared their wine with others. In the song, it didn't matter that the two people sharing the wine couldn't communicate. They just enjoyed each other's company at whatever level they could. It was an interesting image for Woodstock, where people had to deal with rain and mud, and shared what they had with each other while actively ignoring differences such as race or class.

Most of the music at Woodstock reflected growing shifts within American culture. Protest songs had begun well before Woodstock. Groups like the Kingston Trio included protest songs in their repertoire even though their performance style was mainstream (Rodnitsky, PAGE). The growing Civil Rights movement contributed to popular music in the mid-sixties, and folk singers embraces the issue. New songs were written and popularized by these performers, such as "We Shall Overcome." Other songs protested the rash of assassinations that had swept the country in the sixties: first President Kennedy in 1963, and then both his brother Bobby and Martin Luther King in 1968, as well as other ones. Significant numbers of young people were outraged over the amount of violence used by people older than them to solve problems -- not only assassinations, but the Vietnam War as well (Rodnitsky, PAGE).

Of course, protest songs have always been a part of American music. Many Negro spirituals were protests to slavery. The protest songs of the sixties were somewhat like those spirituals in that they protested current events. The Chad Mitchell Trio wrote satiric songs such as "The John Birch Society" and "YourFriendly Neighborhood Ku Klux Klan (Rodnitsky, PAGE). Peter, Paul & Mary

Folk music led the way toward relevant 1960s music. Protest songs were always a part of American folk music, and showcasing them within the entire folk spectrum gave them a wholesome image. In this all-American guise, folksingers invaded the musical vacuum on college campuses during the late 1950s. While jazz had become increasingly complex and abstract and rock-and-roll had become more nonsensical and meaningless, folk songs were filled with meaning and integrity (Rodnitsky, PAGE)).

The Chad Mitchell Trio had earlier taken broad satiric swipes at the Right with their 1962 recording of "The John Birch Society" (the Chad Mitchell Trio at the Bitter End) and later with their 1965 ditty, "Your Friendly Neighborhood Ku Klux Klan. Peter, Paul & Mary recorded civil rights songs such as "If you Miss Me at the Back of the Bus," "Keep Your Eye on the Prize," and "I Ain't Scared of your Jail." (Rodnitsky, PAGE) While neither group performed at Woodstock, their songs preceding that event reflected a major shift among many young Americans: that some things about the status quo were very, very wrong and they were not willing to see them continue.

Such cultural shifts were also reflected at many universities. The Student Executive Board at Cornell University donated $1,000 to support the voter registration drive in the south to help black citizens be able to vote. Two students from Cornell, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered in Mississippi by locals because they had gone there to work for the civil rights of blacks (Strout, PAGE).

All of these issues: a dissatisfaction with the status quo, growing interest among young people for civil rights, and a rapidly growing peace movement, came together at Woodstock. When everything went wrong, they may have been more able to pull together and find ways to let the concert continue because they could so easily reject beliefs about what it took to be happy. There wasn't enough food, so people worked together to share what they had. There weren't enough toilets, and the rain made a giant, muddy quagmire that was nearly impossible… READ MORE

How to Reference "Woodstock Music Festival of 69" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Innovations and Developments in the Music Festival Industry Essay

business today, the music industry has seen rapid and extreme changes. Not least of these is the change towards the digital media and the Internet. These have changed the face… read more

Essay 12 pages (3992 words) Sources: 12 Style: Harvard Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Music and the Counterculture Thesis

Music and the Counterculture

Music has long been an expression of the society within which the particular kind or genre of music originated in. There is a distinct musical expression… read more

Thesis 12 pages (4510 words) Sources: 10 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Music Appreciation Essay

Music Appreciation

Describe the characteristics of the twentieth-century concept of melody. Refer to at least one listening example in your response. (Textbook p.301-302, 309-310)

Melody only seems to have taken… read more

Essay 15 pages (4564 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Connection Between Music and Politics Essay

Music and Politics -- the Connections

Music has been used to promote particular political and ideological messages for many years. In the 20th century and well before, there are myriad… read more

Essay 5 pages (1635 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Music Appreciation Stravinsky, the Rite of Spring Questionnaire

Music Appreciation

Stravinsky, the Rite of Spring

) the Rite of Spring was written and composed in year 1913. The musical period and the artistic movement that this piece of… read more

Questionnaire 5 pages (1420 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>