The Beatles released their groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was quickly embraced by the hippie movement with its colorful psychedelic sonic imagery.

The hippie movement felt that our world should be shared and that the rich shouldn’t have everything while other members of society starved. To make sure no one went hungry or homeless, hippies formed communities, often called communes. These communes grew their own food and also had a looser style of child-rearing and more casual attitudes about sex. 

Because many of these communes were in the country and not connected to utilities, hippies were one of the first groups to move toward solar energy. Northern California hippie communes were the first to install solar panels in 1970. They did it because they needed some hot water for washing dishes.

While many hippies made a long-term commitment to the lifestyle, some people argue that hippies “sold out” during the 1980s and became part of the materialist, self-centered consumer “yuppie” culture. This is discussed in this week’s article, “My Generation Was Supposed to Level America’s Playing Field: Instead We Rigged it for Ourselves.”

Today, the income inequality the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s were worried about has become even worse. The environment the hippies wanted to protect is at risk, but some hope for a resurgence of the hippie belief in natural health, environmental protections, and people before profits.

Below is a video I made on literary analysis. This may help you read your article—or other reading assignments—more effectively.

Video on Literary Analysis