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Rock and Roll changed in many ways during the hippie era. Though it always ways a sensuous music form since its formation in the 1950s, it tended to hide its sexuality behind euphemisms. It was never political, and seemed to express contentment with middle class American values. Even if Middle America didn’t always like it, their kids loved it. Masked with behind its playful, happy veil, Rock and Roll in the Fifties subtly thumbed its nose at Middle America. During the hippie era, a generation of young people threw off the conventions of their parents and their music followed. The Civil Rights Movement, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Vietnam and Watergate all proved to this generation that the old morays no longer functioned, and indeed, had never functioned for large segments of the population. Their music followed after them. Rock and Roll left it’s just for fun veil. It became political, taking on social issues, it became more frank about sexuality. Rock went from Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire” to Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady”. Women like Janis Joplin also played a larger role, though the music form remained a male-dominated business. Rock and Roll was and is the music of the Hippie Generation. It evolved as they evolved. As they became sexually free, and politically jaded Rock and Roll did too. Rock chronicles the entire culture of a generation of Americans.
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