Musicians of Woodstock

The counterculture of the 1960s was a defining time for socio-politically conscious music. Building off the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement and further fueled by rising tensions concerning the Vietnam war, widespread social unrest was brought to the forefront of American consciousness.

The Woodstock Rock Festival was emblematic of the counterculture movement. The organization of the event was a disaster – supplies were planned for 50,000 attendees, but 400,000 showed up over the course of the weekend of August 15, 1969. However, the event remained free of violence or serious trouble, a symbol of a generation looking for peace in a violent point of history.

While Woodstock itself was not an overtly political event, there were performances by artists that defined themselves by their relation to political causes, like Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie’s son, Arlo Guthrie. There were also performances of strong political music like Country Joe & The Fish’s “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.”