U.S. postage stamp with the Woodstock Music and Art Festival logo
The year 1969 saw a major upheaval in American culture and society, one that found a corresponding reflection in pop music. A glance at the charts shows the transition: carefree bops like “Sugar, Sugar” and “Build Me Up, Buttercup” are there, but so are psychedelic tunes like “Aquarius” and “Crystal Blue Persuasion.” The Allman Brothers, Blind Faith, Judas Priest, Mountain, and ZZ Top all debuted, while the Beatles recorded their final album. On the 50th anniversary of that tumultuous year, join Dave Price, D.C.-based author of the upcoming What’s That Sound: Song Lists and Stories to Help You Better Understand the Music of the Baby Boom Era, to explore the music of 1969 and why it endures.
SESSION TOPIC
The Music of Protest
America was founded in protest, and few times capture the nature of public dissent better than the 1960s and 1970s. Price explores several of the era’s massive marches and rallies held in Washington, connecting them to classic protest songs that provided the soundtracks for the civil rights and peace movements, from Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” to John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
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