Certainly one of the most commemorated and analyzed aspects of the decade, the Hippies (or counterculture movement) have become a part of the American lexicon.
This week, please listen to this song. Do some research on the history of the song.
For the comment section, answer the following questions...
1) Which phrase (or phrases) from the lyrics best represent the hippie culture to you?
2) Why could this song be considered the Hippie Anthem?
"This song was one of the most popular songs of 1969 worldwide, and in the United States it reached the number one position on both the Billboard Hot 100 (for six weeks in April and May) and the Billboard Adult Contemporaries Chart. The song won both the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group for the Grammy Awards of 1970, after being published on the album The Age of Aquarius by the 5th Dimension, and also being released as a vinyl single record. The lyrics of this song were based on the astrological belief that the world would soon be entering the "Age of Aquarius", an age of love, light, and humanity, unlike the current "Age of Pisces". The exact circumstances for the change are "When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars." This change was presumed to occur at the end of the 20th century; however, astrologers differ extremely widely as to when. Their proposed dates range from 2062 to 2680."
ReplyDeleteThe part of the song that stood out to me was "Harmony and understanding/Sympathy and trust abounding/
No more falsehoods or derisions/Golden living dreams of visions/Mystic crystal revelation/And the mind's true liberation/Aquarius" mostly because it was really clinging to the widespread that hippies are tree huggers and being focused on nature and being peaceful, but also that it said 'no more falsehoods or derisions" and then later in "liberation" when I think of a hippie I think of people who's name is willow and has a dress made of wheat, so again the living in harmony and golden dreams really plays into that illustration.
If you look up what the "astronomical traits" of the sign, Aquarius it says "The Aquarius-born people are humanitarians to the core. They are a progressive and modern lot. Broad-minded and creative, they are the real truth-seekers. ... Positive Qualities of Aquarius : Truthfulness, Just, Curious, Affectionate Personality, Frank and Imaginative."
Also, "Aquarians have a rebellious nature, and are eccentric, spontaneous and original. They are forward thinking and detached, and can seem conservative though they really are not very much so. They are scientifically minded and logical, and confident in manner. Aquarians are likely to be years ahead of their time in the way they think. They can also appear to be more involved with work than with other people, although they truly value social contact. Aquarians are intuitive, imaginative and inventive, and inclined to take chances, especially in the service of their goals. They can be quite noble in their deepest nature, but also may come across as critical and demanding. Their highest purpose is found in aligning themselves with the advancement of social and humanitarian ideals."
This could be the "hippie anthem" because it talks about being at peace and happiness and sympathy and the planets and nature. It basically screams the definition of today's idea of a hippie. (497)
It considers to be the hippie anthem because it shows how in the song to show that they wanted to let the sunshine which can make a way for love and peace which is good but they took it a little bit over the edge especially with the use of drugs and alcohol to have every one taking drugs left and right and the type of music the had was promoting the use of substances and all the guys who led the charge of the 1960s was all promoting the use of drugs. The Woodstock concerts was a prime example of the movement when they put all the bands on a farm and it backed up all the highways to listen to the bands and party hard when there was barely any clothing at all. This song can be considered the hippie anthem beacuse the way it showed and promoted all the peace in the world and with the go with the flow type of personality to show how much they didn't care about the rules or structure of every one else but they showed they were in their own element and world. It showed on how much money and drugs that were coming in and they their own way of life.
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What stood out to me the most was when the song started saying "Let the sunshine in". I feel that a hippie is all about nature and almost like a tree hugger and so this is just an example of what the hippies liked. Also in the song it talks about peace and when we think of a modern day hippie or what hippies look like to us know the one word that comes to my mind and many others is Peace. Hippies just want to chill, have some fun, and ultimately have world peace and not have any drama or conflict like there is today. This could be considered the hippie national anthem for the same reasons. This song basically describes the hippies. In the song there are some lines that don't make to much sense for example, "when the moon is in the seventh house". Like to me that sounds like some creepy stuff that would only be said or thought of by a hippie. So basically this song could be the national anthem for the random lines it has in it and all the weird things it talks about along with the mentioning of peace and relaxing. (200) AVERY
ReplyDeleteThe song about the age of aquarius was ranked the number 2 song in the year 1969 overall by billboard hot 100. It was also at one point during that year number 1 on the hot billboard 100 and won the grammy award for best record of the year in 1970 as well as best vocal performance by a group. I find this song to be more closer to the hippie movement because of how it sounds personally. I hear lyric lines like, "The peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars. Well that and drugs were huge in the involvement of the hippie movement and culture. Peace is the first thing anyone thinks of when they hear of like a hippie or hippie culture. This song could be a song for the hippie national anthem for the fact of what the age of aquarius was. It was to be an age of peace and love and harmony amongst everyone and everyone would be peaceful and happy. So this song could also be a part of the hippie national anthem because the song's meaning basically describes the hippie culture and movement's end result of the world becoming a full and peaceful place to live and that everyone would be in harmony forever. (215 words)
ReplyDeleteWhat really spoke out to me the most and made me feel the hippie nature is when it was talking about letting the sunshine in and the song repeatedly kept talking about the loving atmosphere. It literally talks about love steering the stars and you get a hippie vibe not only off of those words but how 5th dimension sang the lyrics to them. It also talks about peace guiding the planet which is essentially what hippies are all about. This song could be the hippie national anthem because it describes the hippie culture and the way hippies carried themselves in the movement. I also googled Aquarius born people because it talks about the "Aquarius generation" and it means to be a humanitarian at your core, so when the song keeps repeating "Aquarius" its talking about humanitarians which hippies can classify under without debate. This was a song that got the nations attention and actually ended up ranking second nationwide in 1969. It won many accolades including a Grammy in 1970, and the song also won the band best vocal performance as a group.(180)
ReplyDeleteInstead of answering these two questions separately, I feel it is necessary to combine them. To me, when I think of a hippie, and the hippie movement, I think of bright colors, laughter, and serenity. For me, these characteristics are hard to have. But when I read the simple line, "let the sunshine in", it struck me not only because it reminded me of the people of its time, but because it's something we all need to be reminded of. When life seems hard, and things aren't going the way we'd like them to, we need to remind ourselves to "let the sunshine in". Sunshine has always been a symbolic meaning of joy, happiness, and prosperity. What better way to represent the carefree, happy-go-lucky attitudes of the generation other than sunshine? Even though I don't personally agree with some of the lifestyle choices of hippies, I admire their desire to be happy, and love others. As Christians, we should strive to love everyone, even those who don't believe what we do. Because we are called to be the light, or might I say, the "sunshine", people should catch on to our joy and light since we are believers. Even though the point wasn't to spread any kind of religion, what it did was show that love needs to be given to everyone everywhere, just as the sun is seen and felt by everyone everywhere. (234)
ReplyDeleteFirst off, you could say this is the hippie anthem for a few obvious reasons: it topped the charts for multiple consecutive weeks and it won all kinds of awards (including a Grammy). This was one of the most popular songs of it's time. The song talks about astrological things like the moon and the planets aligning which I thought was pretty truly and a crazy thing to think about if you're high so that would fit with hippies well. But in the next few lines it talks about peace, sympathy, understanding and the liberation of the mind. The peaceful stuff I expected but I never really thought about the movement trying to reshape their minds and the way they think, in a sense. They wanted to be separate from the world they were living in so they would try to give their mind sort of a "rebirth". As if they were trying to set themselves free from all the conflict, poverty, war, struggles, and weight of the world. They tried to revolutionize themselves as a community that helped each other and was all about love. As good as that may sound, the movement mosly died, but this particular song was probably their anthem. (204)
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of hippies I think of laughter colorful sunshine and love. In this song was stuck out to me the most was how it was saying to let the sunshine in. When you think of hippies most people think of sunshine and love. Letting the sunshine in to me mostly mean like loving people and making peace with the world and everyone around you. Another part that stuck out to me a lot in this song was how it was talking about love steering the stars and that is a very hippie thing in my opinion. This song defanintaly could be considered a hippie song because everything it is talking about in the song is hippie. Especially the sunshine and making peace with everyone. This was definitely a time for peace and love but mostly for peace. Everyone always thinks of peace when it comes to hippies so this song defanetly could be a hippie national anthem. The meaning and purpose of the whole song was to make peace with everyone and to show everyone what hippies where and who they were during this time. Also to be right with people. It is always good to have peace with people. 201
ReplyDeleteThere were obviously a bunch of different phrases through this song that was shouting the hippie culture, to me the one that stood out to me was "Golden living dreams of vision". the hippie movement was all about feeling comfortable and safe and having worldwide peace. If they think that there can be no conflict and everything will be fine if they just do what makes them happy, that creates a small society of individuals who don't want to do anything at all. I'm sure many people were conflicted with liking this culture since those who are working may have found hippies to be lazy. From class we saw that when the hippies wanted to help nature they were actually making worse for everyone no matter how much they thought it was helping. I think we can learn from hippies that being lazy and doing nothing doesn't solve our problems. I think that people were trying to escape the issues that war brought and though their methods were extreme such as being high all the time and doing nothing productive, people did what they wanted to do and that's a dangerous way to live. (200)
ReplyDeleteLet the sunshine in. That is so hippie. They literally are completely pro nature and completely pro people and sunshine keeps nature and people alive. But besides that they want everyone to be free they want everyone to do what they want and have what they want and love what they want and just be free they want you to be able to do whatever you want they want the world to be your happy place and they want you to be perfect. They want the world to be your running ground they want life to be how you want it. Ok so this song has all things hippies like. It was talking about the stars the sun the moon. It was talking about people being free the song takes you into the days where they would just be together forever and it was all hope love and joy and everything there was. It made it be perfect they loved weed they loved everything. They had people doing things that was just to keep them happy they didn't have any violence and they didn't have anything wrong. They loved it and had a perfect life in there eyes. (201)
ReplyDeleteAquarius/Let the sunshine in is a melody of two songs originally sung by a ban called Hair. The song is a collection of feel-good hippie phrases that are ment to sound pretty and be catchy, but really don't mean anything. The line that stood out to me the most was "Now everybody just sing along" on its own, its pretty, inconspicuous, and pretty inconspicuous. But in the context of the song, I feel that expresses the wish of the hippie culture. For everybody to *just* "get along". Don't argue, don't fight, don't disagree, *just* love, peace, and understanding. Its the "just" that does it for me. Its a wish, a statement, not unlike that of a child in that it is both sincere and baseless. If only people could *just* get along. If only they could *just* understand. Just live together. Just talk. Just be. Ultimately, this is futile, for as long as people are people, sinful yes, there will be discord. It is the inevitability of people who work together for any period of time to eventually disagree. The cause behind it is breathtakingly simple. People are people. For people to *just* get along, without Godly help, they would have to stop being people. Personalities clash, Agendas differ, some enjoy causing trouble, others accidentally cause it. Some might genuinely believe they are helping, when they are actually hurting. To sum it up, the idea that the song is based on is flat and shallow with no deeper meaning or truth behind it.
ReplyDeleteDisregarding the above, how could this song could be considered the hippie anthem? Well, an anthem is defined as 'a rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause.' This song definitely fits that criteria. It is an rousing song about how the world could be at peace with 'harmony and understanding' which is much of what the hippie culture stood for. As a side note, hippies put great stock in astrological and spiritual signs, which helps a person identify this song with the hippies. So yes, buy the definition laid out above, this song fufiles the criteria of a hippie anthem.
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Harmony and understanding, sympathy trust abounding. I feel like this is the best one because of the words and it explains. Because that was a time of peace and love and everyone just tried and wanted to love one another with no complaints and anything against anyone. They trusted each other and just wanted to be one big family and always get along. I feel this could be the anthem because it was number two in the nation and got everyone's attention and everyone was singing it. They got tons of awards for this song won the Grammys and many other things. Also in this song this wasn't the most influential to me but it was speaking of let the sunshine in and that kinda just reminded me because in that day it was kinda like just free do what u want day and age and let's face it people got high all the time were on drugs and just wanted to be happy and this gave them the feeling of happiness even if it was temporary and when it says let the sunshine in it reminded me because sunshine reminds me of happiness and a bright time and somethings that made everyone happy. (204)
ReplyDeleteEithan B.
ReplyDeleteSo the song talks about letting the sunshine in and being happier with yourself and other people. I think that this pertains to out chapter because the Reconstruction Era was not a time of peace, happiness, or letting the sunshine it at all. It was the opposite. This song would have definitely helped people back in those days. About no matter the circumstances we all should happy with ourselves an one another. The next item a song like this will be published will be 2448 which will then be currently the age of the pices. I think of this and the racism arguement. As in another's big segragation or racist outburst will come again and come against. Unless our country comes together to wipe this "disease" out for the best of the country. That's what I think this songs means in our chapter. (119 words)