Frank Zappa and the 1960s Counterculture

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Hippie movement
Summer of love
Frank Zappa and the hippie movement
Impact of the counterculture movement of 1960s
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

America’s music industry has been developed by the efforts applied by many people in different ways. Frank Zappa was a composer, guitarist, social critic and movie director. Frank Zappa is mostly recognized for his contribution in the rock, classical, avant-garde and jazz music genres. He was born in 1940 and lived in southern California but he died in 1993 in Los Angles at the age of 52 years.

Frank Zappa helped to introduce and lead several musical bands right from the time he was in high school. The first group he led was the mother of the invention which was performing rock music. It is reported that all the music that was composed by Zappa exhibited irony, incredible satire and always expressed Zappa’s disgust with the pop culture trends that were emerging by the time Zappa was developing in his career in music (Moya Para. 9)

Zappa’s contribution to music is mostly recognized for his perspectives on the superficial nature of the 1960s counterculture. During this period in time, the Hippie movement that embraced pop culture and championed the revolution of most social aspects in America was already rooted in the American people with a significant member population composed of young people. The term counterculture is used to describe the values and practices of a certain cultural group. It is used to indicate a phenomenon that has gone beyond the expectations and continues for a long period of time where other practices other than the traditional are adopted. This paper examines the ways Zappa responded to the counter culture of 1960 especially with the establishment of the Hippie movement through music.

Hippie movement

The decade of 1960 to 1970 saw a generation in America that had a lot of impact on the cultural foundation of the American people. It is reported that the generation that was composed mostly of the youth rejected the teaching of the elders and opted for alternative culture which was their own creation. The movement came to establish itself as the Hippie movement. This movement started in San Francisco California and spread to other parts of America and also into Europe. (Huber, Lemieux and Hollis Para. 1)

The hippies were young people between the ages of 15-25. It is reported that the hippie movement prompted young people to leave their homes and families due to ideological differences between them and their parents. It is also suggested that some young people left their homes since they could only fit in the hippies’ way of life. Hippies adopted the culture of wearing funny clothes or no clothes at all, listening to rock and blues music, singing, dancing, drinking beer and taking drugs like marijuana and LSD and making love. Mostly, the activities of the hippies entailed marveling now and then to show their unity. The Hippie movement was mostly composed of youths from wealthy and middle-class families. It is argued that most of these young people were spoiled and that by joining the movement, they were wasting their lives. However, the members always maintained their ways of life and no one could bar them from reaching their goals and achieving their ambitions.

Many hippies chose drugs and music as their way of life. Several festivals were held in different areas in America bringing hippies from different areas together to share their culture. It is reported that hippies used music to express their concerns to the surrounding community and the world as a whole Huber et al (Para 1). Actually many hippies were musicians. Some of the renowned musicians from the hippie community are Bob Dylan and Jimmy Hendrix. In an actual sense, Bob Dylan was referred to as the spokesperson of the Hippies’ beliefs. It is also reported that the movement’s popularity was amplified by the media through movies, music, and television shows that were dedicated to them. While the adults were conservative, hardworking, and concerned about life and their economies, hippies dint care about anything, theirs was a continuous pursuit for liberty and happiness. Many hippies never worked nor went to churches. Also, they never used to care about some social aspects like conserving their virginity even at a very young age.

The development of the Hippie movement was fueled by the political scene that was current in the 1960s in America. Amid the opposition of the Americans to the government’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights, a lot of Hippies contributed actively where they made their beliefs known to the whole world. This was through demonstrations and festivals that were focused on by the media. Although the practice and beliefs of the hippie’s lifestyle went contrary to the beliefs of adults in America, their political ideologies matched the views of the better portion of the population. It is reported that during the struggle for civil rights and the Vietnam War, Hippies organized a rally in Washington D.C that was joined by students and other adults in pushing the government to withdraw from the Vietnam War. In addition, the people used this demonstration to express their concerns regarding civil rights (Huber et al Para 1).

The way of life of the Hippies community had a huge impact on the lives of Americans. The effects of this counterculture movement have been felt for decades until today. The American lifestyle nowadays has a lot of similarities with the ideologies of the Hippies by the 1960s. Similarly, the effects of the hippie’s counterculture have spread to other parts of the world where the young generation is trying to imitate the American lifestyles.

By the early 1970s, the hippie styles and culture had entered the mainstream with children adopting their styles even though they did not belong to the movement. For a long time, the hippies had been attacked by the working class and members of other youth groups specifically due to their disgusting lifestyles that went contrary to the traditions. Its influence on youths was felt particularly in the second summer of love. It is argued that the hippie culture has not died out completely. The culture is nowadays found in some college and campus students and in festivals. Not all of the hippie culture and practices are bad. Many people admire some of their values like love, peace and community work.

The impression on San Francisco in the 1960s was characterized by youths dressed in psychedelic colors and second-hand clothes that were either too large or too dirty and stained. The youths had unkempt lengths of hairs in their heads, dreadlocks, colorful threads and straps around the heads, and flowers attached to the hairs. Other than using rock music as their identity music, the Hippie movement also embraced reggae and jam forms of music. It is reported that the reggae musician Bob Marley in his song “red and white” has expressed the attachment that hippies accorded to the power of marijuana. the practices of the Hippie movement were at some point demonstrated as religious-inspired by some religious beliefs where they performed some hourly rituals by gathering in circles and burning incense sticks. There are many explanations of the reasons why hippies performed these rituals. It is argued that the rituals were performed to please ancient Hippie spirits (Madhav Para 6)

The countercultural revolution that was witnessed in America in 1967 was largely due to the disillusionment with the involvement of the government in the Vietnam War which led to many American soldiers being killed. The motto of the Hippie movement as outlined in Madhav (Para 8) was “Tune in, Turn on and drop out”. It also reported that one of the Times Magazines cited in Madhav (Para 8) in 1967 described clearly the philosophy of the counterculture revolution group as “Do your thing, whenever you have to do it and whenever you want. Drop out. Leave society as you have known it. Leave it utterly. Blow the mind of every straight person you can reach. Turn them on, if not to drugs, then to beauty, love, honesty, fun”.

The concept of “free love” that was embraced by the Hippie movement opposed the traditional institution of marriage. This culture preached the power of love and viewed sex as a natural precept of life. This ideology was seeking sexual liberty where hippies needed the opportunities to experiment with open sex, contraception, homosexuality and interracial marriages.

The Hippie movement’s popularity started to fade away after the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s but some of the practices remained dominant among the American youths.

Summer of love

The summer of 1967 came to be known as the summer of love in America. At this time Frank Zappa had already acquired fame as one of the rock music artists. At this time the counterculture movement had already identified rock music as their preferred music. The Monterey international pop festival of June 1967 was the first major rock festival ever to be organized. Mother of Invention was the Zappa’s led rock band. Their song “absolutely free” was among the songs that made an impression during the summer of love.

The phenomena in Haight-Asbury in San Francisco which is termed as the origin of the Hippie movement by 1967 witnessed the very famous “summer of love”. This event which took several months was the focus of the world by 1967. The Hippie community organized the events to show new styles of music, art, literature and lifestyles making it popular across the western world.

The event was demonstrated by a series of dances in Golden Gate Park where people participating in the event wore colorful clothes with long hair flowing. Also, drugs like marijuana and LSD were abundant. During this event kids from all over the United States were wearing rainbow-colored clothes and psychedelic scarves around their necks. It is argued that the event became the epicenter of sexual liberation, political activism and beauty creativity, and psychedelic drug. In this event, food, love, sex, and drugs were made readily available for the youths. (Madhav Para 11).

Frank Zappa and the hippie movement

Frank Zappa grew in surrounded by the hippie community. It is argued that the initial contributions of Zappa towards rock music seemed more or less as support to the Hippie community. However, Zappa made it clear that he had nothing but hatred for the Hippies and their way of life. In many events, frank is reported to have opposed the ideologies of the Hippies especially in the fact that he supported the involvement of America in the Vietnam War. It is shown that Zappa worked in the Marines as a chemical warfare specialist assigned to the Edgewood Arsenal. (McGowan Para 8).

Zappa did not confer with the justification of the hippies in their pursuit of liberty and happiness. His discontent with the Hippie lifestyle is shown in his work in music that directly criticizes the Hippie community.

One of the remarkable pieces of music composed and performed by Zappa in rejection of the Hippie lifestyle is the song “we’re only in it for money” which is termed as his ultimate expression of the fact that he was mindful of the rise and spread of the counterculture of the hippies in 1960s. The song which is a rock genre satirizes many aspects of the counterculture in the 1960s. Being his third album Frank Zappa worked on this song with his band The Mother of Invention in late 1967. Zappa used this music to reveal how the conformists of the counterculture in America had become. This song expresses from within how Zappa feels regarding the superstructure and the reflection on the future economic realities. The song uses satire and jokes at the expense of hippies and all the conformists of the counterculture. Lowe (p 46) indicates that what Zappa was attacking in his song “we’re in it for money” is the failure of the hippie movement in the fact that it encouraged practices that would lead to many of them dropping out of society.

Zappa had maintained his rebelliousness toward the Hippie movement for a long time. He felt that the perceptions of the hippie lifestyle that was coupled with drug abuse had robbed the young conformists of the opportunity to actuate social revolution.

According to Lowe (p. 33), Zappa’s composition indicated that the people who were involved in the counterculture were unreal and involved themselves in that lifestyle not because they needed political changes but because they needed something to do. In his criticism of the counter-culture using music Zappa encountered a problem of balancing his critic and attracting the youths in listening to his music. At some moment Zappa saw the counterculture turn on him due to his criticism. It is reported that Zappa’s band which was known as Mothers invention had initially enjoyed the audience of people in the counterculture and who were involved in drug-taking. In his message to the people, Zappa was totally against drugs even in his own band. The use of drugs had been propagated by the counter-culture hence in rejecting the drugs Zappa was firm on his displeasure with the group Lowe (p. 44).

When Frank Zappa produced the song “you are what you is” where he demonstrates the main character as a person who has no place to go, no love left and this prompts the character to have no meaning for life. This song criticizes the counterculture by demonstrating that the conformists of the Hippie movements were fake and involved themselves with a kind of a lifestyle not because they wanted political revolution but because they needed something to do that was different from the norms of the traditions of the adult conservatives.

Another song done by Frank Zappa is the song “I ain’t got no heart’ Zappa refers to this song as the love lyrics and is out to demonstrate his perception of the situation with the youths in the counterculture regarding lovemaking. As mentioned earlier, the Hippies advocated for free love. Zappa creates a situation of antilove that expresses most of his expectations. The song is termed as a direct attack on the standard love conventions. In this song words like “I sit and laugh at fools in love”, and “there ain’t nothing like love”, are designed out to ridicule the teenage love relationships that were emerging with Hippies and the counterculture. In this song, Zappa shows his conservativeness by advocating for the traditional courtship practices that saw boys buy flowers and hold hands with girls, unlike the teenager’s behavior that was being witnessed in counterculture as a life of love and happiness.

Despite his involvement in the music in criticizing the counterculture, his practices as an individual in his social life illustrate a point of the opposition of the hippie’s ideologies. It has been reported that Zappa hated drugs and even wanted to recruit straight people in his musical band who were not involved in drugs. In addition, Zappa had married only one wife and had a daughter. Having been raised in a catholic family, Zappa showed conservatism in most of his social life despite engaging himself in rock music which was mostly associated with the counterculture.

Impact of the counterculture movement of 1960s

The impact of the counterculture movement of 1960 touched on the very aspect of life including the political, social, economic as well as cultural aspects. Some opponents of the Hippie movement like Frank Zappa expressed their discontent in the impacts that the hippie movement was making on society.

The counterculture movement started as a means of the youths expressing their rebellion against the conservative norms of the time by detaching from mainstream liberalism. The counterculture eventually changed to a social revolution throughout much of the western world. The revolution called for a sexual revolution, questioning the existing authority and government policies, demands freedom and rights for women and the minority e.g. the homosexuals. The spread of the hippie culture was accelerated by the constant and in-depth analysis of their practices and culture by media across every part of the world.

The events of the 1960s had a lasting impact not only in America but also in other places of the world regarding the social revolution. Hippie culture influenced politics, music, family norms, etc. The current American culture borrows heavily from the practices of the Hippie movement in 1960. The decade of 1960 to 1970 is described as the Hippie’s decade because it had a lot of impact on the cultural aspects of many people both in America and in other parts of the world.

Conclusion

Frank Zappa made an impact in the music industry in the United States of America. Having been brought up at a time that America was experiencing an era of revolutions ranging from political, social, and cultural Frank was positively moved by the events and responded to them through his career in music as a composer, producer, and film director.

Frank who has been described as a genius in music demonstrated his competence in the music industry by being able to use music to criticize the events that were going on during his times. As mentioned earlier the counterculture movement adopted rock music as their music of identity. Also, most rock musicians in Zappa’s environment were conformists of the counterculture movement. Zappa was able to use rock music to attack its lovers and still maintained a high position in the rock music industry. This is demonstrated particularly during the summer of love in 1967 where despite him criticizing the Hippie lifestyle, his song “absolutely free” was featured significantly.

Frank Zappa was able to use rock music in a different way from other musicians like Bob Dylan who supported the movements for revolution. Although not all the ideologies of the hippies and counterculture were negative, a lot of their practices had detrimental effects on the life of the youths. The main reasons for the composition of the Hippie movement were to oppose the government’s involvement in the Vietnam War and social liberation. Frank Zappa responds to all these activities by the counterculture. In his song “trouble every day” Zappa demonstrates the agony that people in the movements were facing especially due to the opposition offered by the policemen when they engaged in riots.

Zappa chose to use music as a tool to communicate his message to both the conformists of the Hippie movement and those who could have been potentially influenced. Several of his songs show the negatives of being involved in the activities that the hippies did. In this way, Zappa was wanted to discourage those who had not yet joined the movements not to join and at the same time try to win those who were already in the movements to abandon the practices.

Although most of the practices of the counterculture in the 1960s have faded with time, a lot of practices have found their way into the current generation. Some of the ideologies of the counterculture have been positively implemented to bring change in the society especially in the struggle for freedom of women and the minority in the society.

Works Cited

Huber, Adam et al. Hippie generation. Hippie generation: A brief look into the hippie culture. 2009. Web.

Lowe, Kelly F. The words and music of Frank Zappa. Westport: U of Nebraska Press. 2006.

Madhav, Tushar. “Hippie: The new cultural order.” Hippie: The new cultural order. 2008. Web.

McGowan, David. “The birth of the hippie movement.” The birth of the hippie movement: a CIA military operation. Quinto do. 2009. Web.

Moya, Nathaniel. “Frank Zappa’s biography: prolific composer and social critic.” Frank Zappa’s biography: prolific composer and social critic. 2009. Web.

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