Fifties Flashback: The Beat Generation
âGreat things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.â â Jack Kerouac.
The Beat Generation was a revolutionary counterculture movement formed in the late 1940s and which then transpired as a mainstream symbol of youth and rebellion during the 1950s.
Founded by a group of subversive and intellectual poets and writers, the original âBeatsâ included the likes of Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and the now iconic Jack Kerouac. Kerouac himself coined the movementâs name âbeatâ to mean a non-conformist group of tired, warn-out youths; exhausted by war, oppression and social expectations. The Beats were, for want of a better word, the original hippies.
The origin of the movement started primarily in Greenwich Village, New York, with the members meeting in bars and coffee shops to discuss art, poetry, literature, society and sexuality. This young group of bohemians were recovering from the devastation of WW2 and were very much uninspired by the standard American expectations of working a 9-5, getting married, having a mortgage and raising children. They wanted more from life. They wanted to travel, experiment with drugs and sexuality, to study Eastern religions, write, paint and most of all; to be free.
By 1955, the movement had advanced to other areas of the U.S such as Washington D.C and San Francisco. The Beats had gained wide-spread popularity through their writings, most of which was considered subversive and controversial for its time. The founding members often toured the U.S and Mexico performing readings of their work to students and fellow bohemians. Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs never particularly set out to form a social revolution, they themselves just wanted to live by their own accord and liberate themselves. They considered themselves as outsiders, but soon came to realise that their progressive desires were quietly gnawing away in the minds of many young Americans.
Although laced with controversy and often dubbed communists and radicals, the movement coursed rapidly through the veins of popular culture, heavily-influencing the rising Rock N Roll stars of the 1950s such as Elvis Presley, and later Buddy Holly and The Beatles. The misspelling of the latterâs name being no coincidence.
The Beats are widely credited with being the quiet rebels who gave birth to the 1960s cultural revolution, which expanded so diversely into other areas such as music, cinema and most importantly, political shifts such as the Civil Rights and the Feminist Movements.
Post-Beat youths of the last four generations who believe in artistic expression, human rights, liberation, freedom of speech, equality and individualism owe it all the Beat Generation.
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