The American Counterculture
Christopher Gair
Abstract
The American Counterculture played a major role during a pivotal moment in American history. Post-War prosperity combined with the social and political repression characteristic of middle-class life to produce both widespread disobedience and artistic creativity in the Baby Boomer generation. This book explores the relationship between the counterculture and American popular culture. It looks at the ways in which Hollywood and corporate record labels commodified and adapted countercultural texts, and the extent to which countercultural artists and their texts were appropriated. It offers an in ... More
The American Counterculture played a major role during a pivotal moment in American history. Post-War prosperity combined with the social and political repression characteristic of middle-class life to produce both widespread disobedience and artistic creativity in the Baby Boomer generation. This book explores the relationship between the counterculture and American popular culture. It looks at the ways in which Hollywood and corporate record labels commodified and adapted countercultural texts, and the extent to which countercultural artists and their texts were appropriated. It offers an interdisciplinary account of the counterculture and an appraisal of the key literary, musical, political and visual texts that were seen to challenge dominant ideologies.
Keywords:
Counterculture,
Abstract Expressionism,
Beat Generation,
Baby Boomer,
Folk Music Revival,
Rock Music,
1950s,
1960s,
Haight-Ashbury,
Woodstock
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748619887 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: September 2012 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619887.001.0001 |
