FROM DIRTY HIPPIES TO DIRTY HARRY: After jumping ahead to the '80s and '90s with Susan Douglas, let's return to our regularly scheduled historical narrative. We left off in the mid-1960s, a moment when widening political and social rebellion -- civil rights activism, student protests, the antiwar movement -- was both reflected in and shaped by a vigorous "counterculture." Musically, this counterculture flourished on freeform FM radio stations and at sprawling concerts like Monterey Pop (1967) and Woodstock (1969), where traditional genres were blurred and traditional inhibitions erased. In movie theaters, the decline of the Production Code and the growing popularity of more adventurous foreign films helped spark a new cinema of alienation and revolt in features like The Graduate (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and Easy Rider (1969).
Yet even as the counterculture reached the apex of commercial success and social impact, the first hints of a cultural counter-revolution were appearing. In a broad sense, this reaction took the familiar form of corporate co-optation, as advertisers and marketers turned the imagery of cultural rebellion into the symbols of "hip consumerism". In music, the tragedy of Altamont (1969) and the deaths of Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison in 1970 and '71 were paralleled by a wave of mergers and acquisitions, as major labels devoured independents and multinationals bought up record companies. In early '70s movies, alienation and rebellion gave way to law and order, as tough-guy heroes like Popeye Doyle and Dirty Harry fought violently against sneering criminals and the system that coddled them.
All popular culture, of course, reflects its political and social context. But the pop culture of the late '60s and early '70s feels especially bound to its age, particularly shaped by the events of the moment. So how does it hold up today? Do you still enjoy the music and movies of this era? Or are they irretrievably dated, locked firmly into their original time, place, and mood?
Yet even as the counterculture reached the apex of commercial success and social impact, the first hints of a cultural counter-revolution were appearing. In a broad sense, this reaction took the familiar form of corporate co-optation, as advertisers and marketers turned the imagery of cultural rebellion into the symbols of "hip consumerism". In music, the tragedy of Altamont (1969) and the deaths of Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison in 1970 and '71 were paralleled by a wave of mergers and acquisitions, as major labels devoured independents and multinationals bought up record companies. In early '70s movies, alienation and rebellion gave way to law and order, as tough-guy heroes like Popeye Doyle and Dirty Harry fought violently against sneering criminals and the system that coddled them.
All popular culture, of course, reflects its political and social context. But the pop culture of the late '60s and early '70s feels especially bound to its age, particularly shaped by the events of the moment. So how does it hold up today? Do you still enjoy the music and movies of this era? Or are they irretrievably dated, locked firmly into their original time, place, and mood?
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