Questions about Hippie
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who coined the term hippie and when was it first used in print?
The term hippie was popularized by San Francisco journalist Michael Fallon in an article titled 'A New Paradise for Beatniks', published in the San Francisco Examiner on the 5th of September 1965. Fallon used the word to describe the new generation of beatniks who had moved into the Haight-Ashbury district, writing about the Blue Unicorn Cafe at 1927 Hayes Street. Earlier isolated uses appeared in the early 1960s, including in the 27th of April 1961 issue of The Village Voice by Norman Mailer.
What was the Summer of Love and how many people went to San Francisco in 1967?
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon in the summer of 1967 centered on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Around 100,000 people traveled to San Francisco that summer, drawn in part by Scott McKenzie's hit rendition of John Phillips' song 'San Francisco'. The Human Be-In on the 14th of January 1967 in Golden Gate Park, which drew 20,000 to 30,000 hippies, helped set the stage for the season.
What happened at the Altamont Free Concert and why is it significant to hippie history?
The Altamont Free Concert took place in December 1969 in Altamont, California, about 45 km east of San Francisco, and drew about 300,000 people. During the Rolling Stones' performance, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter was stabbed and killed by a Hells Angels security member after he brandished a gun toward the stage. The event, which had been billed as 'Woodstock West', shocked many who had identified with hippie culture and is widely seen as marking the end of the movement's optimistic peak.
What were the German Wandervogel and how did they influence hippie culture?
Der Wandervogel, meaning 'wandering bird', was a German youth movement that arose in the late 1890s as a countercultural reaction to formal social clubs. Inspired by Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Hermann Hesse, it emphasized folk music, creative dress, hiking, and a back-to-nature spirituality. German emigrants brought these values to the United States in the early 20th century; some opened the first health food stores and many settled in southern California, where a group called the 'Nature Boys' lived by similar principles.
Who was Timothy Leary and what phrase did he coin at the 1967 Human Be-In?
Timothy Leary was an American psychologist and writer known for advocating psychedelic drugs. On the 19th of September 1966, he founded the League for Spiritual Discovery, declaring LSD its holy sacrament. At the Human Be-In in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on the 14th of January 1967, he coined the phrase 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' while speaking to a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 hippies.
How did hippie culture influence music genres beyond the 1960s?
Hippie music evolved from folk rock and psychedelic rock into acid rock, world beat, heavy metal, and eventually psychedelic trance. The Grateful Dead toured almost continuously from 1965 to 1995, and Phish followed the same touring model from 1983 to 2004. The goa trance and psychedelic trance genres developed in the Indian state of Goa, seeded by hippies who had traveled the overland Hippie Trail, and were exported worldwide in the 1990s and 2000s. The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which premiered in 2002, became the largest of the ongoing summer festivals in the jam band tradition.