The Stylistic Significance of the “Hippie” Youth Subculture
—Using the Woodstock Festival as a Case Study ()
ABSTRACT
The article takes one of the most classic subcultural movements, the Woodstock Festival, as a case study to analyse the style and meaning of the “hippie” subculture. Woodstock created a cultural circle of hippies, bringing them together with “rock music” and “sex”. Through the methods of contextual research, individual behavioural analysis and literature research, the article concludes with the hippies’ subcultural pursuits, attitudes to life, and the dismantling of certain views or sexual stereotypes of the time. The “hippie” subculture was distinguished by its opposition to war, the pursuit of total emancipation and extreme expression of individuality. This cultural practice had a certain sense of ritual resistance, in which the stereotypes and traditional values that were present in the larger society were opposed, transgressed, and subverted by them, while at the same time, their own identity had been completely constructed. As this cultural practice devolved, some of it has been commercially incorporated and survived through mainstreaming, while others have been under cultural siege and gradually deteriorated and vanished. Despite the hippie movement’s brief existence in American history, its transgressions and rebellions still have learning values for people today.
Share and Cite:
Xu, Y. (2023) The Stylistic Significance of the “Hippie” Youth Subculture
—Using the Woodstock Festival as a Case Study.
Advances in Applied Sociology,
13, 410-421. doi:
10.4236/aasoci.2023.135025.
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