Despite the profound impact psychedelics had on the anti-war movement, civil rights activism and the counterculture ethos epitomized by festivals like Woodstock, their growing popularity also attracted significant scrutiny. As more people began using these substances to reject mainstream values and explore new realms of consciousness, the media increasingly portrayed psychedelics as dangerous and destabilizing. Many hippies insisted that it was an essential part of their rejection of the “establishment” and no worse, in any case, than the widespread use of tobacco, alcohol, and prescription drugs among mainstream adults. Ironically, the drug so much a part of hippie culture, lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD, was available legally until 1966 in California and until 1967 in the rest of the United States.

• Later in the 1960s, members of the New Left dedicated themselves almost solely to the anti-Vietnam War movement.
• Invented in 1938 by a Swiss scientist, it was thought to have potential as a treatment for mental illness, and both the federal government and many universities conducted studies with the drug in the 1950s.
• These songs would appear on the Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 album, Surrealist Pillow, each becoming Top Ten hits.
• Richard Alpert, originally a prominent Harvard psychologist, transitioned from academia to spiritual guru after profound experiences with psychedelics alongside Leary.
• Psychedelics played a significant role in the anti-war movement and civil rights activism of the 1960s, acting as catalysts for radical thinking and social change.

The Pop History Dig

The hippies sympathized with the political positions of their fellow dissenters yet rarely used politics as a means of expressing their rejection mainstream values. Politics, they claimed, was the game played by conventional adults, and they wanted no part of elections, lobbying, protests, and other common ways to bring about social change. In fact, they wanted no part of what they called “establishment” culture at all, believing that permanent legal and civil organizations were too concerned with material goods, too competitive, and too dominated by anxiety and corruption. Members of the hippie counter-culture expressed their dissent through personal expression—they dressed differently, wore their hair differently, listened to different music, talked differently, and used different drugs than their parents. Some hippies formed small groups and lived together in various kinds of small, self-supporting communities called communes. This is a question that looks at drug culture and music in the 60s and compares that to music today.

Abandoning “straight” society, the hippie joined others who believed in peace, love, and togetherness. Unlike organized religions, there was no central rulemaking body and no book of religious teachings, but many hippies claimed that nature was their church and all the world their holy book. Music festivals like Woodstock became epicenters of psychedelic culture, drawing hundreds of thousands of young people seeking to experience freedom, music and mind-expanding substances. Woodstock, held in 1969, was a concert, a collective cathartic moment and a demonstration of the counterculture ethos, where LSD and other psychedelics were ubiquitous. Iconic performances by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who encapsulated the spirit of the era, blending music with the transformative power of psychedelics.

Music of the hippies: Psychedelic rock

At this session, Art Linkletter – a popular TV personality known throughout the nation for his “Kids Say Anything” TV shows and a staunch Nixon campaign supporter – was one of those addressing the group. In April 1970, Grace Slick had designs on “slipping a mickey” into President Richard Nixon’s tea at a White House reception – the mickey, in this case, a tiny pill of LSD. The President’s daughter, Tricia Nixon, had planned a tea party for alumni of Finch College, the New York girls’ finishing school she had attended. Tricia had invited all of the Finch alumni to the White House tea party, and Grace Slick received an invitation. Grace Slick, for one, was no shrinking violet (no Alice pun intended) — an independent soul who spoke her mind. In fact, Slick would revel in her anti-authority role with the Jefferson Airplane, made larger by the group’s rising fame.

And as the group’s songs rose on the charts, Jefferson Airplane’s fortunes began to soar. Psychedelic research began in the early 20th century, with substances like psilocybin and LSD capturing the interest of scientists for their profound effects on consciousness. Albert Hofmann’s 1938 synthesis of LSD-25 led to the first documented acid trip when he inadvertently absorbed a small amount through his skin. This discovery prompted further investigation into LSD’s psychological effects, with Hofmann recognizing its potential for profound therapeutic applications.

This knowledge gap — a direct consequence of prohibition brought on, in part, by the music industry — continues to hinder our understanding of how these substances can be harnessed to address today’s pressing mental health challenges. President Nixon, dogged by the increasing unpopularity of the Vietnam War, was all too happy to find a zeitgeist culprit. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 lumped LSD and psilocybin with heroin and cocaine, effectively shutting down legitimate research. With counterculture movements scapegoated and psychedelics seen as a societal menace, the scientific community’s promising exploration of these substances became an afterthought.

Partial list of songs referencing drug use

• Social, cultural, legal, and economic challenges to the existence of music referring to recreational drugs have prompted several studies on the link between such references and increased usage among teens and young adults.
• In the Lewis Carroll story, as well as popularized film versions — there were more than a dozen of these films by the time of the 1967 song, including a popular 1951 Walt Disney film — the White Rabbit character appears at the very beginning.
• Psychedelic music and its ideals of peace, love and expanded consciousness continue to inspire new generations.
• One of the defining moments of the year was the “Human Be-In,” a strange festival of the hippie experience.
• But the 1960s countercultural rejection of adult values went well beyond the norm.

Grace Slick, however, was asked to join the Jefferson Airplane, bringing with her two songs she had used with her former group – “White Rabbit” and “Somebody To Love” (the latter written by brother-in-law Darby Slick at Great Society). These songs would appear on the Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 album, Surrealist Pillow, each becoming Top Ten hits. At the opening of Lewis Carroll’s story, Alice and her sister are sitting along a river bank one summer day reading when a rabbit happens by. He was attired in a waistcoat, talking to himself, and looking at his pocket watch. Curiosity got the better of Alice and she followed him down a rabbit hole, where her other-worldly adventures soon began.

Despite facing backlash, they continued to assert their sexuality through iconic songs like “You Don’t Own Me” and “Heat Wave.” While societal double standards persisted, these artists paved the way for future generations, empowering women in the music industry. By the mid-1960s, researchers were investigating psychedelics for their ability to treat mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and addiction. Influential figures like Dr. Timothy Leary and Dr. Stanislav Grof emerged, advocating for the transformative potential of these substances, with initial results suggesting deep psychological breakthroughs and lasting behavioral changes. Richard Alpert, originally a prominent Harvard psychologist, transitioned from academia to spiritual guru after profound experiences with psychedelics alongside Leary. He renamed himself Ram Dass, embraced Eastern spirituality and became a renowned teacher, author and countercultural icon, especially for psychonauts. Another organization, Weatherman, later known as Weather Underground, made up of young white militants, advocated communism and the overthrow of the U.S. government through violent revolution.

psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock music was the first element of hippie culture to be mass marketed to the rest of the United States and then to the world. Thanks perhaps to the influence of the Beatles and their enormous fan base, rock music radio stations played psychedelic music and fans loved it. The music could be played on the radio because the references to drug use were always coded in obscure language. When the Beatles, for example, sang about “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” the innocent could enjoy the lovely image while drug users knew that the initials of the song title stood for LSD. Similarly, Jefferson Airplane’s song “White Rabbit”—with its lyric “one pill makes you larger, one pill makes you small”—could be an interpretation of the children’s story Alice in Wonderland or a description of a drug trip.

Cultural influence

Invented in 1938 by a Swiss scientist, it was thought to have potential as a treatment for mental illness, and both the federal government and many universities conducted studies with the drug in the 1950s. Participants in these experiments reported on the powerful hallucinations they experienced while on the drug. Others were willing to experiment with a drug that was said to expand a person’s consciousness.

In a September 1970 speech before Republicans in Las Vegas, Agnew echoed the concerns of Linkletter and other drug critics, and took special aim at the music and film industries, charging them with encouraging drug use. Agnew stated that certain rock songs and their lyrics, along with some Hollywood films, books, and underground newspapers, were among the chief culprits in the rising national drug problem. Sensationalized media portrayals, hyper-enthusiastic musicians and high-profile incidents fueled public concern, overshadowing the therapeutic potential that early psychedelic research had begun to uncover.

His widely publicized accounts introduced these sacred fungi to a global audience, but the resulting tourism — including famous musicians like John Lennon and Bob Dylan — had devastating consequences for the Mazatec tribe, leading to exploitation and cultural erosion. There are many music types and locations that may have an immediate association with drugs. For example, ” there was also a perceived association between EDM (electronic dance music) and drug culture,…”.46 There are very heavy stigma and stereotypes surrounding music like this, mainly at the locations they are held, such as a club or concert venue. Hoffman had been cleaned up a bit, dressed in a respectable suit and tie with well groomed hair. Grace too, appeared reasonably dressed, though sporting a see-through fish net blouse beneath her coat. The tea party, however, was billed as an “all ladies” event, which made Hoffman, waiting on line that day, immediately suspect.

Other people joined together and lived in communes, self-supporting rural communities that sometimes had spiritual components. Still others—especially those who were more easily persuaded—joined religious or seemingly religious cults, such as the Hare Krishnas and the Moonies (also called the 1960s Music and Drugs Unification Church), and a fewdecided to follow Charles Manson (see sidebar). A cult is a group of people who believe in a religion or set of beliefs that appears to be very different from established religions. Not surprisingly, hippies did so outside the conventional channels of family life and mainstream religions. LSD users said that the drug “blew their mind,” and many wanted to constantly return to the altered state that it offered. In Leary’s memorable phrase for his Playboy interview, they wanted to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” Leary and others promoted this “dropping out,” or leaving one’s job, school, or family, as a positive thing, pointing to the great creativity and happiness of those who took hallucinogenic drugs regularly.

Moreover, psychedelic rock’s influence was evident in later genres, from punk to rap to trip-hop, a 1990s mixture of hip-hop and contemporary psychedelia. Still, the Agnew-Linkletter-Nixon attack on rock music had a bit of a chilling effect on the airing of songs perceived to be lauding drug use. It is not uncommon for young people in the United States, or elsewhere, to question and criticize the values of their parents. In fact, rejection of parents’ values is widely understood to be an ordinary developmental stage in maturing toward adulthood.