2005 Research Fair Archive - Sociology Abstracts

A Woodstock Compilation:  Yesterday's Music as Today's Sociology
by Lynnette A. Averill  (Faculty Sponsor:  Mark Rubinfeld)

The youth of the Sixties was an American anomaly. Rarely has there been a group of individuals so willing to rise up against authority and voice their opinion. From politics and anti-war demonstrations to free love and drugs, the voice of the picketing public was loud and clear. The largest and perhaps most significant aspect of this voice was its music. The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969 was composed of the most influential counterculture bands including: Country Joe and the Fish, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane; and they sang their hearts out telling the enormous crowd to fight for what they believe in, to protest what they don’t, to “make love, not war” and to “give peace a chance”. Educators can use music as a teaching tool to present a social and historical commentary of the era.