Reply #71: It's very strange isn't it? I'll put forth the following thoughts... [View All]

...knowing that I know most here could care less what I think about anything.

1) The threads which are posted proclaiming the Glory and Godhead represented by "Woodstock" are over the top. It was, I think, a historical event, with plenty of noteworthy musical performances, and worthy of attention on its 40th anniversary, but it was not quite a moment of Paradise/Utopia realized. If nothing else, it opened up the idea of massive festivals to exploitation by corporate interests.

2) The threads that denounce "Woodstock" as "just another music festival, with highly overrated musical performances," or, as hedonistic/narcissistic drug-drenched sexcapades (including many, many rapes, as claimed by one poster in another thread) by a bunch of trendies/hippies-turned-republicans, who are later responsible for electing Reagan, are likewise over the top.

The "truth" is somewhere in between, I suspect. Or somewhere within the web of personal/societal events which unfurled within the cultural/political landscape of the last forty+ years. Meaning anything is possible, and no particular "generation" is any more or less guilty of anything, as a default setting.

ON "HIPPIES":
Hippies morphed out of the Beats. And the Beats were culturally/artistically related to the Dadaists and the Surrealists (circa 1915-1955), before them. Some (probably quite a few) "hippies" back in the day were pre-Boomer. People born in the 1930s or so, too young to be in the so-called "Greatest" Generation, but too old to be "Boomers." I'm not sure what they are called. But they may have been hippies too.

Myself, circa 1970, as a fifteen y.o., I was a Yippie! but never really a "hippie." In my high school, I was amongst a group of politically active, long-haired, dope-smoking radicals that numbered less than fifty, out of a student body of around three thousand. There were some (more than us) "hippies" too, but they were the trendy, fashion oriented version. They liked to party too, you betcha! They are what became known as "the stoners." The truth is, us yippies and hippies were in a distinct minority, so, yes, many "Boomers" voted for Reagan, because they were never "Hippies" to begin with, they were always right wing shits, from day one.

PUNK ROCK:
Punk rock was started by "Boomers." Generally speaking, the first two waves of punk rock in America (and elsewhere, like UK) were produced by bands whose members were born post WWII and 1960 or so. I think I saw somebody on another thread somewhere say that Gen Xers came up with the punk rock. Not true. Actually, the GenXers and all other subsequent "Generations" came along and fucked punk rock up beyond recognition. Real punk rock was dead by 1984. IMHO. (However, I am, admittedly, painting with the very broad brush, using my most opaque color saturation, cuz I know there are shining stellar examples to the contrary.)

IOW, somebody needs to make punk rock scary, and, do-it-yourself, again.

Edited for clarity.