Still in progress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatnik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie
http://all-that-is-interesting.com/a-brief-history-of-hippies
http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Modern-Hippie
http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Hippie-%28Not-the-Stereotype%29
http://www.hippy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=87
Hippies, probably the most idealized group of people in history. Live in harmony with nature and neighbor. They lived peacefully together in communions, where they played the guitar, smoked weed en took care of sick animals. Nowadays many young people are attracted to this way of life. Mainly in their clothing style they try to mimic the hippies from the sixties. They wear big necklaces with the peace-sign around their necks, their hear is long and wavy and in the weekends they smoke weed to get high. Hippies from the sixties had several ideals, they wanted to create a better world. Nowadays it looks like young people are only interested in the drugs and music from earlier. The ideal to make this world a better place to live seems to be completely forgotten.
Around 1960 a new youth culture arose in the United States. These young people were agains’t the participation of the US in the Vietnam War and they wanted civil rights for all American. They were called hippies, which originally comes from the word hipster. Men and women both wore jeans with a kaftan, had long hair en walked bare-feet or wore sandals. Nowadays hippies are mainly recognized because of their alternative clothing style. They often wear colored t-shirts, jeans and very often thy wear little bands around their head. But different from the sixties, boys and girls no longer wear the same clothes. This style can be characterized as nonchalant. Besides that hippies in the sixties distinguish themselves in their clothes they also had a very own vision at life and how you should live it. Such as previously mentioned they demonstrated passively against the Vietnam War. Make love, not war was one of their favorite quotes. Making love was another thing the hippes liked and also did a lot. In a time where the sexual revolution was almost at his highest and for the first time in history people freely spoke about sex hippies also opened themselves for sex . They looked at sex as a way of life. They wanted to experiment freely without feeling any guilt or jealousy. A well-known quote about seks is ‘if it feels good, do it!’ For Hippies sex was equal to bread. If you were married but if you saw someone you wanted to have sex with it was no problem at all. You can only give your to one man, but your body is intended for much more men, they said
Although hippies demonstrated a lot, every demonstration happened quite peacefully. Peace was and is one of their most important points in life. You have to overcome your anger, says the guide ‘how to be a hippy’. They advise to close your eyes and think of the fact that however this issue may seem important at the moment, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. If you have overcome your anger you may be proud of yourself, because you didn’t lose control over yourself. In these guide there are more concrete tips to be a modern hippy. There are a few appearences you have to full fil tob e one. Both boys and girls wear long hair, you have to try to just let it flow naturally over your shoulders. So don’t use a flat iron or a curl iron. Girls try to go all natural without no make- up. But if you don’t feel comfortable with that you can use a little make-up as well. Boys often have facial hair. Besides that it is very important to listen to old music, such as The Beatles. And you have to get in touch with nature. Spending the whole day inside the house playing games or something like that doesn’t fit in a hippie life. They also have to live green. That means, recycle as much as possible and never throw rubbish jus at the street. Furthermore it is very important to accept everyone as they are even though some ideas of ways of life don’t fit in the way hippies live. But maybe the most important of all is to be yourself and have your own vision. Don’t just do what everyone does, that’s not how hippies are.
All these tips seems to be a good guide to become a hippe. But still these quide misses the real point of being a hippie. Young people in the sixties decided to become a hippie because they thought this world needed changes. They were full of ideas off how to create a better life. They wanted to protect the earth and live peacefully together. That brings us to the point what happened to all these ideals. Are the hippies from the sixties still the same? What happened to them and to their ideas and thoughts. Nowadays the hippyscene mostly exist of people as described in the paragraph above. Where are the pioneers, the diehards. It seems like they just dissapeared, like they have lost all their ideals. Maybe that ideals just flew away while they were busy living their life. Maybe they forgot what they wanted to change in this world. A man from Glasgow once gave a fantastic quote about this. He said:’ Their point being to accept everyone… they accepted everyone, and thus became everyone. Or everyone became them. There was no definition of hippy any more, and they vanished into their own kaftans.’ In our society we are all so busy to be original, to be different from the rest. Because we are so busy being different we often don’t see we are all just the same, being different. Being a modern hippy has nothing to do with ideals, it has everything to do with being different. To feel like you stand above others because your living ‘green’. Being different and not noticing that because of that you become part of a bigger whole.
Hippes. Yes they still do exist. Young people that cruise around the world in ther selfpainted busses. But the real hippies, the pioneers from the sixties who wanted to protect the earth from destroying itself, they are no more. Not visible, but maybe some of their ideals is still in the hearts of the men and women who once lived a life full of love and peace.
Long article
Wikipedia (w.d.), Working class, consulted on 12-06-2013,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_class
Wikipedia (w.d.), The Beatles, consulted on 12-06-2013,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles
Wikipedia (w.d.), John Lennon, consulted on 12-06-2013,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon
Lyrics007 (2012), John Lennon – Working Class Hero, consulted on 12-06-2013
from http://www.lyrics007.com/John%20Lennon%20Lyrics/Working%20Class%20Hero%20Lyrics.html
Youtube (2006), John Lennon – Working Class Hero, consulted on 12-06-2013
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU
Short article
Wikipedia (w.d.), Cold War, consulted on 12-06-2013,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War
Wikipedia (w.d.), Queen (band), consulted on 12-06-2013,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(band)
Sing365 (2004), Hammer To Fall Lyrics – Queen, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Hammer-To-Fall-lyrics-Queen/34A97E66304422FA4825689400042619
Youtube (2009), Queen – Hammer To Fall, consulted on 12-06-2013,
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU5LMG3WFBw
Interview with Jeremy Pine (1955) about his experiences with music during the Cultural Revolution and the effects of the Cultural Revolution on the acceptance of certain kinds of music.
Jeremy Pine was born in The Netherlands, but moved to England when he was twelve years old. He is still bilingual, but his Dutch isn’t what it used to be.
In the early 1980’s, the tension between the USSR and the West grew bigger and bigger. The entire world was holding their breath, because not only the Soviet Union, but also Europe and the US, had their nuclear weapons pointed at the sky. This constant fear of ‘who would push the red button first’ lead to enormous protests of anti-nuclear-weapons movements. For some, it was a safe feeling to know that their country had the ability to fire a nuclear weapon, but many more thought it was a matter of time before the east and the west would start firing and destroy the world as we knew it. Everybody was waiting for the ‘hammer to fall’.
The members of British rock band Queen, weren’t really into writing songs about society, the world and world peace. But that changed in 1984, when Queen released the song ‘Hammer To Fall’. On the same album, there is ‘Is This The World We Created’, also written with the wellbeing of the world on the writers’ mind.
Hammer To Fall focuses mainly on the cold war conflict between the Soviet Union and the US. The nuclear bombs were so immensely destructive, if they were dropped, an enormous area would be completed destroyed and life would be made impossible in that area. In Hammer To Fall, Queen guitarist Brian May writes ‘Rich or poor or famous, for your truth it’s all the same. Lock your door but rain is pouring through your window pane. Baby now your struggle’s all vain’. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor or famous, the bombs would destroy you anyway. May also seems to unify the world’s citizens in this verse. They’re all in it together, but only the men at the top can decide their fate.
‘For we who grew up tall and proud in the shadow of the mushroom cloud, convinced our voices can’t be heard, we just wanna scream it louder and louder and louder’, seems to tell the story of the protesters. Especially the youth of the early 1980’s protested against the nuclear bombs. They ‘grew up tall and proud in the shadow of the mushroom cloud’, they were born in a society that had a constant fear of a mushroom cloud, the bomb. When they started their vast amount of protests, they still had the idea that nobody was listening to them, making them ‘scream louder and louder’.
The last verse of the song shows the pointlessness of the cold war and the constant threat of a nuclear bomb: ‘What the hell we fighting for, just surrender and it won’t hurt at all. You just got time to say your prayers, while you’re waiting for the hammer to fall.’ For the common people, there wasn’t really an obvious reason to keep this cold war situation going. But even though there wasn’t, everybody just had to keep waiting and fear for the ‘hammer to fall’.
Short Article:
Wikipedia (w.d.), The Troubles, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
Wikipedia (w.d), Timeline of the Northern Ireland Troubles and peace process, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Troubles_and_peace_process
Wikipedia (w.d), U2, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2
Wikipedia (w.d), U2 discography, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_discography
Wikipedia (w.d), Irish rebel music, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_rebel_music
Wikipedia (w.d), The Cranberries, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cranberries
Wikipedia (w.d), Sinêad O’Connor, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin%C3%A9ad_O%27Connor
Lyrics 007 (2012), The Cranberries – Zombie Lyrics, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://www.lyrics007.com/Cranberries%20Lyrics/Zombie%20Lyrics.html
La Major Musica (2011), Zombie, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://lamejormusica-ares418.blogspot.nl/2011_06_01_archive.html
Long Article:
Timewarp memories (w.d), Slang terms during the seventies, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://www.timewarpmemories.com/70slang.html
Jonathan McKee (2011), Top Ten 70’s Slang Words That We Need To Bring Back!, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://www.jonathanmckeewrites.com/archive/2011/08/23/top-ten-70s-slang-words-bring-back.aspx
Multilingual Books (2012), Best Slang Terms for 2013 and from 2012, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://multilingualbooks.com/wp/languagenews/best-slang-terms-for-2013-and-from-2012/
Wiki Answers (w.d), Origin of the word awesome, consulted on 12-06-2013, from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Origin_of_the_word_Awesome
Youtube (2008), SIRE – Optieven ouwe graftak, consulted on 12-06-2013, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcvnZpTFrDs
A song of opportunities and revolution for the middle class
The song Working Class Hero by John Lennon, had often been misunderstood. A lot of people think it’s a song about socialism and Lennon didn’t have the right to sing about the working class, because he wasn’t from the working class himself. Lennon actually was raised in the upper working class, so he pretty much knew what he was singing about. And it’s also, according to Lennon, not a song about socialism, but about ambition and hope for the working class people.
It was the year 1970, the Beatles had just split up and John Lennon was starting to build up a solo career. The Beatles had progressed from a group of young boys making cheesy music, into a group of revolutionaries, using LSD and singing about deeper states of mind and more complicating matters. The times were changing and the Beatles played their part. John Lennon took off where he had stopped with the Beatles, focusing more on society and all the problems society faced in his eyes. Not only society, but also religion is addressed in many of Lennon’s 70’s songs, think of songs like Imagine and God. Popular artists like Lennon had already reached the masses with their more superficial songs and used the fact that they had gained a lot of publicity with those songs to send out a message about society through their more ‘complicated’ songs.
Some fifty years ago, the children of the ‘working class’ were commonly treated like useless people at school. Middle class teachers were ‘imprisoned’ in their class and didn’t believe in opportunities to break away from their class. You just had to accept the fact that you were born in the working class and you would have to make the best out of living in that class. Children who were fantasizing about achieving more than their lives in the working class, were silenced and their dreams were shattered by adults, but mostly by their teachers.
John Lennon addresses those issues in Working Class Hero; ‘They tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years’ and ‘…they hit you at school’, referring to the teachers.
Not only the children of the working class, but also the adults were oppressed. Even though they didn’t always realize it, the adults in the working class were sort of brainwashed by society. Their secret dreams of achieving something big in their lives, were put away to a subconscious level. Easy satisfaction was just a few steps away, ‘doped with religion and sex and TV’ is a sentence in the song that tells that story. The fact that Lennon uses the word ‘doped’, illustrates the fact that the adults in the working class used those things to reach a higher level of satisfaction and therefore hiding away their misery, just like using drugs. For the working class people, it creates the idea that they’re actually free. Lennon sings: ‘You think you’re so careless and classless and free.’ But it’s just an illusion, because the working class people are actually just parts of a big machine, the country. They live to work and to keep the country running. ‘But you’re still f*cking peasants, as far as I can see’, is the way Lennon describes this bitter truth.
After describing the way the children and adults have been imprisoned in their own class, but also keeping their class intact by not accepting ambitious and smart children to develop any plans of getting out of the working class, Lennon starts to explain the way out of that system. ‘There’s room at the top they’re telling you still. But first you must learn how to smile as you kill. If you want to be like the folks on the hill’. What Lennon seems to say is; if you’re from the working class and you want to reach greater heights in the class-system, there should be room at the top. The only thing is, to be able to really fit in at the top, you’ll have to ‘learn how to smile as you kill,’ like when you are the owner of a big factory and you have to fire some employees, you shouldn’t really care. Or like a president who sends thousands of soldiers towards the danger, like it doesn’t matter at all. The ‘folks on the hill’ also illustrates Lennon’s disrespect towards those high at the top. They’re high and dry on a hill, but especially; they’re looking down on the lower classes, especially the working class.
Lennon wants to clarify that there is a way to get out of the working class, but it comes at a prize. It’s a difficult choice, both situations have got their pro’s and con’s. It requires a big change of mind to develop into someone who is no longer a working class man. But if you join the ‘folks on the hill’, that doesn’t make you a ‘working class hero’. It’s more like you’re a deserter who starts to help the high class, pressing down on the working class. Not really a hero. But there’s also an other way to work your way up. John doesn’t literally mention it in the song, but it’s clear at the end of the song: ‘if you want to be a hero, well just follow me,’
which refers to the way Lennon got ‘out of the working class’. It seems like Lennon wants to give hope to the working class by showing them it’s possible to make your way up, as long as you think ‘outside the box’ and cling on to your dreams and ambitions, as Lennon did. It may seem a bit arrogant of Lennon to sort of show off his achievements, but it seems like he did it to inspire those who are in the same situation as Lennon was in once.
Inspired by the SIRE commercial we saw at Philosophy I thought why not. The commercial was about a story that is being told in ”Nijntje”-style about a elderly woman that asks if she can take a seat in a streetcar on which a teenage girl responds with ”Optiefen ouwe graftak”, which is freely translated as ”Get the typhoid, you old hag ”. So what is the difference between swearing and slang in the sixties/seventies and now?
Nowadays you can hear people swear and use slang words that are a derivative from diseases or have something to do with sexual subjects. Also racial slang is used very often. Words like nigger and chink for instance are used to describe a person from afro-American and Asian descent. It’s also very normal to swear with god. Who hasn’t come across the words damn or goddamn? During the sixties and seventies swearing was very ”polite” compared to nowadays. It didn’t go much further than pansy and pig, which are words to describe a coward and a cop. Back in those days, there wasn’t much swearing with God either. In fact there wasn’t much swearing at all.
Slang is generally something else than swearing. Slang is nowadays better known under the synonym street language. Street language now is often strong and foul, so the boundary with swearing is really thin. That’s why most people misjudge slang for swearing. A common example of slang that we all know is the word awesome. Awesome, believe it or not, dates back to 1598! In this Early Modern English era they put the words awe and some together, meaning something that inspires awe.
But what were the popular slang words in the sixties/seventies? This top 10 of seventies slang words are so popular, people want to bring them back.
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Creep—The noun, not the verb. As in, “Hey you creep, get away from my Trans Am!” Out of sight—if something is better than good, but not quite dy-no-mite, it might just be “out of sight!.” “Those new threads are out of site!” Heavy—When something is so powerful or amazing that you just need to contemplate it for a moment, it’s “Heavy man!” Sit on it—a great insult when someone is messing with you. “Sit on it, creep!” Shucks—a term that any spas might use when something goes wrong! “Awe shucks. Where is my Shaun Cassidy album?” Crib—This term is deserving of a special nod because of its longevity. Even MTV (the creator and sustainer of pop-culture) had the show MTV Cribs running some 40-plus years after the term’s introduction to mainstream popularity! Far out—much like it’s cousin, “heavy,” “far out “is a term that people say when something is really amazing. But “far out” implies more good. Basically, replace “cool” with “far out” and you’ll be fine. Right on—we need more term like this to express agreement. “Right on, man!” Bananas—if something is bewildering or perplexing, it’s bananas. In the same way, if someone is acting a little odd, they might be bananas. “Woah man, that jive turkey was acting bananas! Let’s book!” Split—speaking of speedy exits, you gotta love the term “split.” “Hey man, mellow out or I’m going to split!” Source: Jonathan McKee |
As you can see, most slang is outdated and isn´t used anymore. The exception is crib because of the evenly named MTV show. What I find striking is that you can tell from the words that they´re from the seventies. If I hadn´t told they are seventies slang, you would have guessed it anyway.
So we have seen some seventies slang, but what are the slang words to use in 2013? Here’s a small, but funny top 12.
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In Slang Terms for 2013 1. Spranqles 2. Wavy 3. Let’s Bounce 4. Super-Sweet 5. Fo Shizzle (ad “my nizzle” when appropriate) 6. Mreoow 7. Legit 8. Chilling 9. Noob 10. Qrackling 11. Bumping 12. Stylin Source: Multilingual Books |
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, some words don’t make any sense at all. But know you have the full picture, you can clearly see the differences between the seventies and now. So not only clothing, technology and sexual freedom has changed but also the use of words.
But where lies the difference? I don’t think that you can tell. You need to look at the words each in it’s own period. Surely words that are now ”in” look and sound different form words that were ”in” during the seventies, but so are many things. I believe you have to see it like this: Words from the seventies and now are the same, because in both era’s these slang words were used by youth in order to be different from their older generations of parents and grandparents. And now you think about it, isn’t the generation that used those seventies words the same generation we now call mum and dad?
The SIRE commercial in question.
A interview with Bert Christiaans about the cultural revolution in the sixties and seventies. Bert Christiaans is a English teacher at the Ichthus College in Veenendaal.
Revolusic 
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