Music and Counterculture

This week, we continue our Black History Month tribute in the 1960s with a rallying call for harmony and love in the face of disparity. Here is "Everyday People" by Sly and the Family Stone." Sly and the Family Stone, formed in 1966, was a representation of the socially conscious counterculture movement. The band consisted of both black and white, men and women, all working together to share their message using a driving union of rock and soul. In this, they practically became an embodiment of the change-seeking youth and became a voice for their beliefs. The band's album Stand (1969) came at a vital time, at an hour of turbulence in America. This was an era of racial struggles, violence, voices unheard, and pushes for equality that seemed at times to go nowhere despite laws passed years before (how times never change, I must say...). Amidst this, Stand delivered an array of messages, all important and timely, from comfort in times of trial to calls to action to pl...

 Here at MusicandCounterculture.com, we strive to embrace the diversity of the individuals within the alternative communities. Thus, this month, Black History Month, we raise a toast to the African Americans who have influenced and shaped the music of subcultures and countercultures. We start off the tribute this week in the Beat Generation with "Shaw 'Nuff," composed and performed by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, two important fathers of bebop. But what is bebop? in the 1940s, a new form of jazz sprouted as a reaction against the formulaic, commercial jazz that dominated the airways. This innovative and experimental new genre - onomatopoeically named bebop - sets itself apart with much faster tempos, freer improvisation with a wider range of notes, asymmetrical phrasings, and virtuosic solos. Partly due to its less danceable rhythms, dissonance, and its drastic break from tradition, it faced skepticism from the broader public, critics, and oth...