How Did Woodstock Break The Social Norm?

In 1969, an unforgettable event occurred in New York. Woodstock, a three-day music festival, changed the lives of thousands. The idea of Woodstock originally started with the idea to start a recording studio. That led to the idea of a music festival (Makower, 1989, p. 24). This festival was difficult to put together when trying to find a location and eventually took place in Bethel, New York. Most people who attended this festival were hippies and were part of the counterculture movement at the time. The anti-establishment and nonconformity group broke the social ‘norm’ in many ways. The issues people faced was the Vietnam war, racial and social tensions. The Vietnam War was one of the biggest debates going on at the time. Most believed that America had no purpose for fighting the Vietnam War, which that led to many protests and riots (Dessner, 1971, pp. …show more content…
Hippies were known for experimenting with drugs to help find their true self and to push physical and spiritual limitations (Wesson, 2011, p.155). Drugs such as marijuana and LSD were used to achieve these goals. Many people viewed hippies to be immoral for these same reasons. Woodstock was an event that brought the over whelming feeling of freedom to anyone who attended it. Woodstock is commonly said to be three days of sex, drugs, and great music (Makower, 1989, p. 20). People felt young and like they could do whatever they wanted, and it changed their points of view in ways they could not have imagined. In such a short amount of time, they were free to do anything and everything they could think of and not be judged for it. These three days had an effect on people that was so great that it is still discussed today. Although some argue that Woodstock had many big effects on society, the greatest effect is most likely the freedom that was given to people because of