Introduction and the 60's

Throughout the numerous decades in society the perception of coolness has constantly been changing. This is evident through how certain fashion trends, forms of media, and a plethora of many other things come and go. I believe certain world events, influential people, as well the emergence of new technology drastically affect one’s perception of what is cool and what is trending. We will start off in the 60’s where the emergence of hippie culture occurred. During the 1960’s The Cold War was happening and people were very tense and scared due to the threat of nuclear warfare. This tension led to people trying to relax and be less worried, which allowed hippie culture to rapidly expand and become mainstream. The laid back nature of hippie culture allowed people to find peace and solace during this time of stress. This led to something many people wanted to be a part of. So you could argue hippie culture becoming cool and the Cold War, which was a world event has a massive correlation. One may argue that the reason hippie culture emerged was due to Counter Culture a concept mentioned by Klosterman in his pop manifesto titled Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, however the logic behind it is quite flawed. Maragaret C. Campbell states “Cool means departing from norms”. (The Atlantic) this statement unfortunately lacks a lot of evidence and scientific backing, since there is a lack of testing as well research. In addition to the previous statements the trends that were projected to be cool in the 1960’s were also very prevalent in the 1950’s thus making the argument invalid, since many of these trends were considered the norm. The fad of Rock and Roll as well the fad of more action packed movie were both present in the 50’s and 60’s making it quite normal thus going against the claim of counter culture.

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http://www.hungerresourcenetwork.org/annual-event-2015/