Three days of peace and MUSIC
The most important part of a music festival is the music, of course. It breathes life into the festival and attracts people from across the country together to share in a unique musical experience. Woodstock 1969 was a festival located in New York state at the tail end of the 60's, highlighting the fading counterculture of the era. The musical acts at the festival included Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, and many more all within the span of three days. The festival took place during the Vietnam War, a war that the youth subculture at the time was strongly opposed to. The purpose of Woodstock was for people, regardless of gender or ethnicity, to come together in peace and enjoy the music. Today music festivals are attempting to recreate what Woodstock was. Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo are three popular music festivals that many of the youth today attend. At these festivals, the youth of today are not out to make a political statement like those at Woodstock did. The youth of today are more fond of using social media to express their political opinions, rather than getting out physically and gathering like the past. The take over of the music industry by large corporations curb the use of music to make a statement. The focus of these corporations is making money, and artists with radical ideas today are not likely to sell records.
Youth and Music
Popular music choices are great indicators of the ideals, culture and moral values of young people in their respective generations. Teenagers often want to copy those they see on T.V. and hear on the radio. The ideals that popular musicians send through their music are those that the youth of that time period hold onto. According to Professor Donald Roberts of Stanford University, author of the book It's Not Only Rock and Roll "Music alters and intensifies their [the youth] moods, furnishes much of their slang, dominates their conversations and provides the ambiance at their social gatherings. Music styles define the crowds and cliques they run in. Music personalities provide models for how they act and dress (O'Toole) .