Woodstock Rock And Roll's Influence On American Culture

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I. Overview Forty years after the Woodstock music festival glorified and exacerbated the generational fractures in American life, the public today says there are big differences between younger and older adults in their values, use of technology, work ethic, and respect and tolerance for others. [pic]But this modern generation gap is a much more subdued affair than the one that raged in the 1960s, for relatively few Americans of any age see it as a source of conflict — either in society at large or in their own families. Moreover, there’s now broad agreement across the generations about one realm of American culture that had been an intense battlefield in the 1960s: the music. In the four decades since Woodstock, rock and roll has…show more content…
Forty years ago, in an era of far more overt conflict between the generations than there is now, a slightly smaller share (74%) of the public said yes to the same question.2 What could explain the similarities in the two numbers in the face of such differences in the two eras? This latest survey appears to solve the mystery. Yes, there are big differences between young and old today in their values, attitudes and behaviors, but no, these differences haven’t created conflicts between the generations. To borrow a phrase, the generations appear to have found a way to disagree without being disagreeable. [pic]Moreover, where perceived generational differences exist today about moral values, work ethic and respect for others, today’s young adults — by heavy margins — believe that these differences have arisen because their generation hasn’t lived up to standards set by older adults. Some key findings from the…show more content…
• By lopsided margins, the public says that older adults are superior to younger adults when it comes to their moral values, work ethic and respect for others. Even younger adults share in these assessments. The only exception to this pattern has to do with attitudes toward people of difference races. Here, a plurality of the public says that younger adults have the upper hand. • Just as people don’t see much generational conflict today in society at large, they don’t see much generational conflict in their own families — at least not as much as there had been a generation ago. Only 10% of parents of older children say they often have major disagreements with a teenage or young adult child. By contrast, nearly twice as many adult respondents (19%) say that when they themselves were in their late teens and early 20s, they often had major disagreements with their
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