Texte d’exposé sur les hippies

The 1950s were a decade of rigid social conformity: people were expected to look, talk and think like everybody else. It was only a matter of time before that changes. In the 1960s, faced with an unpopular war that people were told to not criticize a significant segment of the younger generation rebelled against their parents, their communities and their government. Led by rock n roll , they became “hippies”.

Hippies felt alienated from middle-class society, which they saw as dominated by materialism and repression, and they developed their own distinctive lifestyle.

They were viewed as a real threat to the American way of life. In addition to opposing the war, the hippies advocated communal living at a time when communism was the country’s ideological enemy. They embraced eastern philosophies and religions that were alien to most Americans, they also took over whole neighborhoods most famously the San Francisco height-ashbury district were a hundred thousand hippies settled in for 1967s Summer of Love. Hippies advocated nonviolence and love, a popular phrase being “Make love, not war,” for which they were sometimes called “flower children.” They promoted openness and tolerance as alternatives to the restrictions and regimentation they saw in middle-class society. Hippies often practiced open sexual relationships and lived in various types of family groups. Hippies promoted the recreational use of hallucinogenic drugs, particularly marijuana and LSD, in so-called head trips, justifying the practice as a way of expanding consciousness. Their appearance remained having long hair, wearing casual outfits, sometimes in « psychedelic » colours, wearing beads in the air, having a grown beard for the men, wearing the must-have iconic bell-bottoms, and the essential peace sign and flower power.

One of the most iconic rock band in the hippie era was the Beatles : in the early Sixties, bands and artists wishing to sign a recording contract had to be professional and look presentable, while the company’s producers would select the songs for them. The Beatles did not meet these prerequisites for the simple reason that they sported long hair and were also known to be quite loud. Furthermore, The Beatles composed and played their own music, and this fact didn't go down well with the music critics of that period. Lennon and McCartney worked separately on songwriting, which was highly uncommon among other bands and artists that preceded them. In order to break away even more from the traditional structure of music, the band made use of exotic sounds, different scales and sound effects. The song Within You Without You, which was inspired by Harrison’s interest in Indian and Oriental culture, is a good example of the band’s versatility. As The Beatles acknowledged the effect they were having on people who championed liberal values, they continued to produce more songs that encouraged this cultural change.