Cluster 60B Final Review (Music, lit and visual IDs)

"A Journey Into the Mind of Watts" by Thomas Pynchon

Explores the racial inequality in LA --> the divide between "white fantasy" and the lived realities of black communities. Significant to the civil rights movement, the more violent aspects of the movement. The riots were in response to the injustice they faced, even though white people assumed things had/were getting better. They were tired of being told to wait, it was easy for whites to ignore what was happening in Watts, they set up their agencies and assume it fixes everything (new journalism)

"Khesanh" by Michael Herr

Part of New Journalism (journalism that reads like a novel), used alternative/organic sources instead of the official ones. Focused on the mental toll of the war on the soldiers and the brutality of war. Connections to the anti-war movement (highlighting the difficulties, not glamorizing or covering it up), coverage like this helped people form their own opinions on the war rather than just following the mainstream media

"The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe

Follows Kesey and co as they travel around the U.S. trying psychedelics and as they explore new ways of thinking, documents the start of the counterculture movement in the early 60s. Modernist elements to show the experience of psychedelics, and its connected to New Journalism, the beatnik movement and the psychedelic counterculture movement

"The Hippie Generation: Slouching Toward Bethlehem" by Joan Didion

Follows Didion and her interaction with hippies on Haight St. Part of New Journalism, with some modernist references in her references to poetry. Critique of the psychedelia and counterculture movements, portrays them not as cohesive or idealist, but as a reflection of the era's breakdown of traditional values and what it looks like to search for meaning without direction

KNXT Big News (1965)

Evening news coverage of the Watts riots, highlights tensions between police, protestors and the media (rioters not allowing media in, police critiquing media for not being fair), reflection of overall tensions of the time

Hell in the City of Angels (1965)

First to use a helicopter to get sound and find people and record audio. Came out right after the riots, emphasizes the distance between the white (top down) perspective and the black lived reality. KTLA made the police look like heroes and used terms like "hoodlum" to portray them as simply troublemakers with little to no recognition of the systemic violence that led to this point

Are we ethnic? (1972)

Published by the New Yorker (marketed to more educated, but also more satired towards them bc they wouldn't be considered ethnic, WASP family). Reference to the many ethnic movements of the 60s, especially the white ethnic movements (Greeks, Italians...etc) who organized to fight against urban renewal/slum clearance, industrial pollution and putting an end to white flight and segregation, not all white being treated equally

Patriotism--an interpretation (1970)

Depiction of the clash between the counterculture and traditional values, mocking both sides and their extremes

Hearts and Minds (1970)

Vietnam war documentary with an emphasis on the toll it took on both the Vietnamese and American soldiers, reflected the broader anti-war movement as it focused on the detrimental impacts of war. Also connected to New Hollywood, directors getting more control, show don't tell, scene splicing and more real depiction of the war vs a voiceover (top down view)

CBS Evening News (1967)

Journalist and colonel talking about kill counts, relevant to the trend of TV, more and more people getting their news from TV, more free press during the war as well (more explicit coverage) meant the war was beamed into people's homes (called the living room war), this meant more awareness and more capacity for criticism of the war

All in the Family (1971)

Sitcom about a working class family that reflected the division of the times, of one of the only shows to be able to discuss the topics usually avoided (race, women's rights), originally intended for the conservative father Archie to be the butt of the joke, but many fans enjoyed the show bc they related to him

The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1971)

Single woman moves to Minneapolis to start a new life, connection to the women's movement, portrayed as thriving while single and focused on work, normalizes going against traditional expectations for women

The Graduate (1967)

MC returns home from college with no direction and starts partaking in an affair with a family friend and then her daughter -- shows the growing dissatisfaction young people had with conformity and middle class values as they started to reject these norms

The Godfather (1972)

New Hollywood (director > producer), reflected the times in the combination of conservative and counterculture values so everyone could enjoy it. Conservative --> family values, being a good American, America making character's fortunes. Counterculture --> critique of the family, embrace of outlaw, the American system not actually working

Alice's Restaurant (1969)

Counterculture film, depicts an exaggerated version of a real story where someone's arrest for littering saves him from the draft, anti-war sentiment, particularly around protesting the draft, uses humor to bring down authority figures

American Graffiti (1973)

Takes place in 1962, before the peak of counterculture and the war, uses escapism, an idealization of the past and a nostalgia for a time before all this division, with its usage of signifiers for small town American it is similar to Disneyland -- these ideologies that helped give rise to the New Right

Florence Reece - Which side are you on?

Written to inspire miners on the picket line protesting layoffs, use of the folk process she used the tune of a song everyone in the area already new (connection to folk becoming associated with the left)

The Almanac Singers - Which side are you on?

Members knew Reece personally having organized together, she taught them the song which they then recorded their own version of (folk process)

SNCC Freedom Singers - Which side are you on?

Pete Seeger (continuing the folk process) passes the song onto the Civil Rights movement, SNCC puts their own spin on it and it becomes the song of the movement. folk now heavily associated with left wing politics

Dave van Rock - Please see that my grave is kept clean

Heard Blind Lemon Jefferson's song and copied it, folk process, authenticity > originality, some controversy over cultural appropriation

Bob Dylan - See that my grave is kept clean

His version focused more on originality than authenticity -- questions of was he fake? or hip? played a big role in folk revival, but was more art than folk now

Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone

Released after everything w/ Mr. Tambourine Man, experimenting more with non-folk genres and sounds, signifiers of the church, specifically Black church, marked by Dylan's shift to electric sounds, copied the spirit of the counterculture, lyrics speak to a loss of illusion, being stripped of everything and building yourself back up (aligns with counterculture and general turmoil in the 60s)

Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man

Very quintessential folk, he's playing nice with expectations of the genre, the song is about themes that resonate with the counterculture movement (freedom, escape, search for meaning) the lyrics also reference drugs

The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man

They take Dylan's song and record their own more pop/rock version, combines folk revival with electric instrumentation and becomes a #1 hit, helped determine the sound of the 60s -- captured themes that resonate with counterculture movement, not just through lyrics (like Dylan's version) but through what they were doing with the instrumentation - breaking free of convention - also its a distortion of the folk process

The Isley Brothers - Shout

Soul music! High energy w/ lyrics that herald to what you do in church (Black church) when the spirit moves you. Inspiration from Black Pentecostal church (also where gospel music comes from) song is full of drive and the popularity of it helped bring gospel music into the mainstream

The Supremes - Come see about me

Motown's most glamorous girl group, covered in the signs of black economic power, a nonthreatening symbol of success, they were able to cross the color line and play in all white spaces, took a lot of work to make them look that way, repackaged soul and drive w/ signifiers of economic success

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel - Ain't no mountain high enough

Glamour and gospel drive foundation, lyrics are full of drive, it's constant and never stops, the epitome of the the American dream. significant to the 60s bc those signifiers were controlled by a Black man and his employees

Babatunde Olatunji - Oya

Usage of African drums -- one of the only recordings of African drums white people had access to, connections to the pan-African movement, the desire to find symbol of power and independence from Africa not America, transition from civil rights to Black power and separation from America

James Brown - I can't stand myself (when you touch me)

pan-African, usage of African drumming via American drumset, connected to the growing pan-African and Black power movements, also funk!

James Brown - Say it loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)

The music is also pan-African, connected to Black Power movement, states clearly that they are black and proud, no longer trying to assimilate into whiteness. children saying it makes it less threatening and children are the future, and the future is proud of their blackness

Sly and the Family Stone - Thank you (Falletinme be mice elf agin)

Fusion of funk and rock, the lyrics depict a traffic stop and a fight with a cop but the Black man is on top, the message is that as a Black man, he now knows where he stands in America again, political violence in the song is a reflection of the tumultuous times and alignment with Black power and the profound political disillusionment many felt - formerly a colorblind music group (changed after the election of Nixon) integrated

Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys - Careless love

Example of country music starting to get uptempo during a makeover as it starts to move to industrial cities in the South (if Motown is the sound of New America, this could be the sound of Old America)

Eddie Arnold - The Cattle Call

Effort to change hillbilly stereotype to a cowboy one, marked the start of mainstream country-politan music

Buck Owens - Act Naturally

Combination of up to date electric instruments and drums but also he was a hillbilly and authentic about it, figure of hard-core country, against the gentrification of country (country-politan which would become associated with old America, traditional values and the right)

Merle Haggard - Okie from Musokogee

Reclamation of white identity, white pride, fantasy of the past, the good old America associated with the new Right, not intentional but it became an anti-counterculture song, focus on old fashioned values and the idea that the past has none of the problems of the present, captured the social issue of the 60s and spoke to those who identified themselves as the silent majority