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Esteemed Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

[ Edited ]

The title of a program on PBS tonight. 

 

Do you agree?

 

I don’t think it was anything more than a music festival. And a pretty muddy one at that.  I don’t know that it defined anything. 

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Re: Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

Esteemed Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

@SilleeMee  Same subject but different slant.  It may be a nice documentary.  I’m asking if anyone agrees that it...the three days of Wwdstock...defined the generation. 

 

I can’t believe how oblivious I was to the whole event at the time. 

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Re: Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

[ Edited ]

@esmerelda  I agree with you. I don't think Woodstock 'defined' a generation. I think it had extensive influence on the music most listened to by a generation and I think that music did, indeed, influence that generation, but neither of them 'defined' it. The interaction of a multiplicity of factors 'defines' generations, to the extent that they can actually be said to be 'defined' in the first place.


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Re: Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

It didn't define anything for me at the time.  People just pretty much thought of it as a big music festival with a lot of weed and bad weather.

 

I remember the press kept trying to push the "scandal and shock" angle with picture to sell their newspapers. None of us cared about the "scandalous!" behaviour.

 

In hindsight I've come to appreciate the spectacular musical creativity that was unreleased there. It was a launching pad for so much.

 

While it was a pivotal point in music, it didn't "define" me or anyone else I knew. That was just the press again, trying to hang a label on a whole age group (which annoyed me) for their convenience.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,577
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

I think so as much as the Summer of 69 was a period in which many events that changed and affected America happened

 

depends on how old you were at the time 

 

 

Honored Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-14-2010

Re: Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

I went away to college in New York a month after Woodstock. One of the girl's in our house went to Woodstock.

 

She said that there were so many people, they did not get near the stage. So did not get to see the performers and rarely got to hear any of the music. She said it was a mess and muddy.

 

In fact she didn't enjoy the experience and rarely talked about it. I am still friends with her. So in all these years, I only heard her talk about it maybe twice. Woodstock as you said was a muddy music festival. There were quite a few good groups but not everyone got to hear them.

Respected Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-13-2010

Re: Woodstock:Three Days That Defined a Generation

I watched the PBS shows on Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock.  I cringed.  It was really strange looking back.  I never bought into tune in, turn on, and drop out philosophy.  I was in college trying to get an education and a job.  I had fun but that type of fun never appealed to me.  I think some people try to romanticize that era and the culture at the time.  That's about it.