The Sixties Essays - Counterculture Of The 1960s, Hippie

The Sixties Essays - Counterculture Of The 1960s, Hippie The Sixties The Sixties split the skies. Only Civil and two world wars so neatly divided our history into a Before and After. And the Sixties were more divisive than World War II, which drew more people for the war effort. The Sixties drove people apart husbands from wives, children from parents, students from teachers, citizens from their government. Authority was strengthened by World War II. It was challenged by the sixties. Relatively few Americans in 1960 would have predicted that the decade ahead was to be among the most turbulent of the century. Despite the growing restiveness of the nations African American population, and despite undercurrents of protest and discontent from many other groups, most Americans faced the future with optimism. The civil rights movement spawned social activism. Among the many effects of the civil rights movement as it gained momentum in the early 1960s was its impact on Greensboro sit-ins in 1960, accelerating with the 1961 Freedom Rides, and with the Mississippi Summer project. These movements opened up some eyes to Americans so they could see what was going on in the country at this time. Most of the things that went on in the sixties dealt with the War. The Cold war in which included the Korean War, but mostly dealt with our little rivalry the Soviet Union. There was a lot of division between people because of the War. Many people couldnt handle the thought of War. They were just scared that they had to be in a country that was involve in the War. Others thought that it was the perfect time to start their own groups. Some were Ethnic groups in which gained more power. Though much of American history, most of the nations dominant institutions had been controlled by middle-class, Protestan t, white males. Nonetheless, throughout those same years, American society was extraordinarily diverse. It included may groups whose political economic, and social outlook was very different from those of the controlling white male population. African American, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and members of other ethnic groups were largely excluded from the mainstream of American life. Women lived within sharply defined boundaries. People in the South and the West had different interests from those in the Northeast. The Existence of racial, ethnic, and religious diversity had been the source of many conflicts and adjustments for more than three centuries. In the 1960s, perhaps more than at any other moment in American history, that diversity erupted and helped redefine the nations life. African Americans, students and women all raised challenges to traditional practices and institutions. So did other groups who felt excluded from the centers of American life. The Counterculture rejected traditional standards and styles. The rise of political radicalism on college campuses occurred alongside an even larger change in the character of American youth: the emergence of what became known as the counterculture. Among the conspicuous features of this was a general contempt among young people for traditional standards. Youths displayed that contempt by wearing long hair, shabby or outrageous clothing, using unconventional speech, and acting in conventional standards of behavior. They also were attracted to drugs, particularly to weed(marijuana) and hallucinogens. In addition, they adopted a new and more permissive view of sexual behavior. Rock music was an increasingly important part of the counterculture. Lying behind these open challenges to traditional lifestyles were the outlines of a philosophy. Like members of the student left (with which it in many ways over lapped, the counterculture challenged the nature of modern American society for its hollowness and artificiality. It called for a more natural world in which men and women would live in closer harmony nature and would have greater freedom to vent their instincts and emotions. This was, in the end, a search for personal fulfillment. Popular phrases of the 1960s expressed something of it s character. Do your own thing or if it feels good, do it. So did the communities created by the so-called hippies. Adherents of the counterculture who attempted to withdraw from the conventional world and the live among people who shared their beliefs. Such communities emerged in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and then spread to other large cities. The hippies

German Influence in Mexican Music

German Influence in Mexican Music Could an instrumental German polka band piece, or what seems to be one, may in fact not be a German song at all but a Mexican one? Wait for the words...Yes it could! The music you hear is a Mexican polka style of music known as norteà ±o. Mexican Music Style Influenced by Germans Music from the northern part of Mexico, norteà ±o, meaning  northern, or  mà ºsica norteà ±a, northern music, was influenced by German settlers in Texas around 1830. It is no coincidence that some types of Mexican music have the German polka oom-pah-pah influence. Migration Phenomenon There was a large migration of Germans to southern Texas from the 1830s to the 1840s. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the largest ethnic group in Texas born in Europe or whose parents came from Europe hailed from Germany. By 1850, Germans made up more than 5 percent of the entire population of Texas. This part of Texas  became known as the German Belt. At that time, as it is now, the Rà ­o Grande marked a political and geographical divide more than a cultural one. The musical style and even the instruments of the German immigrants were adopted and became popular among those of Mexican heritage. One of the most influential musical instruments of the Germans musical style, the accordion, became especially popular and was frequently used in dance music such as waltzes and polkas. Modernization of Norteà ±o The popularity of norteà ±o  among Mexican-Americans spread in the 1950s and overlapped with popular American styles of rock and roll and swing. This overlapping of musical styles became known as tejano, literally the Spanish word for Texan, or more appropriately, Tex-Mex, a blending of the two cultures. A conjunto norteà ±o, or norteà ±o  ensemble, features the accordion along with the bajo sexto, which is a Mexican instrument similar to a 12-string guitar. Over time, norteà ±o  mixed with other music styles to form unique Mexican music styles, including  quebradita, which is a style that is heavy on the horns, banda, a  style  similar to the polka, and  ranchera, a traditional Mexican music genre. Influence on Mariachi  and Mainstream Music The norteà ±o  musical style influenced music from other regions of Mexico, such as what is probably the most widely-recognizable form of Mexican music, the mariachi music from the Guadalajara region. Norteà ±o or  tejano-style music is nearly always performed in Spanish, even by Mexican-Americans who speak primarily English. For example, native Texan and Spanish-English crossover artist Selena sang in Spanish before she could properly speak Spanish. For Selena, later known as the Queen of Tejano Music, the competition was less fierce in the Mexican music market compared to the American music market. She rode  the Mexican music market to fame and ranks as one of the most influential Latin musicians of all time. The norteà ±o or  tejano-style genre in the United States is often erroneously viewed as synonymous with Hispanic music, but it is just a type of Spanish-language music and represents only one genre of Mexican music. Mexican music is incredibly diverse and Spanish-language music is even more diverse, spanning many continents and representing different nationalities around the world.