The 1960s was a dynamic decade. Not only was it a time of classic fashion, beauty, and music, it was also a time when social culture changed dramatically. The introduction of the contraceptive pill changed so much as far as what women were able to do. It was a time of free love, hippies, and peace.
It was also a time of war - the Vietnam war, a war that many people protested. It was opposed in art quite beautifully. Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, even the Beatles sang "Give peace a chance." Joni Mitchell's most famous song, Big Yellow Taxi, is about paving paradise and putting up a car lot. They knew back then that we were destructive, that war was pointless, and that progress was hurting the environment. They knew and they sang about it. In the early 90s, Julian Lennon, son of John from the Beatles had a hit with a song called Salt Water - about forests, oceans, and basically, the whole world dying. People knew then.
Here we are in 2019 and it seems we still have the same world problems, war, and a damaged environment. There is a sense of doom when we watch the news. It seems that scientists and politicians are the most vocal about world problems. What happened to an artist's views? Hit songs today are mostly about love and partying. Perhaps this generation of artists has decided to just go out dancing.
Seriously what did happen to the revolutionary hippy movement? The peace movement? War in this day and age is now quite different because bombs can be remotely sent in with drones. The environmental problem gets bigger and bigger along with our population. Where is the responsive art from musicians and writers? Maybe artists don't want to be 'Debbie Downers' by bringing up our world problems or maybe artists are just not hippies anymore.
