Counterculture Kaleidoscope: Musical and Cultural Perspectives on Late Sixties San Francisco

Counterculture Kaleidoscope: Musical and Cultural Perspectives on Late Sixties San Francisco
ISBN-10
047202597X
ISBN-13
9780472025978
Category
Music
Pages
240
Language
English
Published
2010-02-11
Publisher
University of Michigan Press
Author
Nadya Zimmerman

Description

Forty years after the fact, 1960s counterculture—personified by hippies, protest, and the Summer of Love—basks in a nostalgic glow in the popular imagination as a turning point in modern American history and the end of the age of innocence. Yet, while the era has come to be synonymous with rebellion and opposition, its truth is much more complex. In a bold reconsideration of the late sixties San Francisco counterculture movement, Counterculture Kaleidoscope takes a close look at the cultural and musical practices of that era. Addressing the conventional wisdom that the movement was grounded in rebellion and opposition, the book exposes two myths: first, that the counterculture was an organized social and political movement of progressives with a shared agenda who opposed the mainstream (dubbed "hippies"); and second, that the counterculture was an innocent entity hijacked by commercialism and transformed over time into a vehicle of so-called "hip consumerism." Seeking an alternative to the now common narrative, Nadya Zimmerman examines primary source material including music, artwork, popular literature, personal narratives, and firsthand historical accounts. She reveals that the San Francisco counterculture wasn't interested in commitments to causes and made no association with divisive issues—that it embraced everything in general and nothing in particular.

Get the book

Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Search the book
eBay.com
eBay.com
Search the book

Other editions

Similar books