Communicatheo

Woodstock Memorial. By Heinrich und Friedl Winter, Wikipedia.

Traducción Oficial

Was it merely an isolated case or a loud outcry in the process of systematic change?

In 1969 no one talked about the Web, Microsoft, or Twitter; they simply did not exist. Ideas sought channels of expression beyond the mere industry of mass communication; alternative channels that would generate enough force to provide recognition by mass media and/or propose their own paths to expel ideas and concepts. Perhaps  Woodstock, besides being a festival, was a non-traditional method of expression that today the youth can carry out through the Web. The participants of this rock tsunami, which flooded the Western world, were men and women who today are between the ages of 55 and 75 years old, mature adults whose own thoughts and interactions possibly launched the world’s rapid transition to post modernity and a more diverse society.

60s ALIVE ! - By http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_hippie/

HIPPIE RAINBOW. By http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_hippie/

Woodstock consisted of four days of music and art in which, according to various sources, between 450 thousand to one million people congregated, and thousands more gathered within miles outside, unable to enter. The festival occurred from August 15th to the 18th in 1969, in the middle of the Cold War, and only one year after the Soviet invasion of Dubcek’s Czechoslovakia on August 20th, 1968. Perhaps others will situate it at the peak of the Vietnam War and the negative reaction in large part by the U.S. population, or by the student revolts that impregnated the Western world with the aroma of possibilities and liberal expression to come. One can estimate that when this rock tsunami exploded that it was during a period of time, or lapse, that marked a turning point in systematic communication.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975; during this interval, university reforms developed throughout much of the Western world; and just one year before, the Communist party of Czechoslovakia broke apart because of a new socialist humanistic approach that anticipated the Soviet crisis. These were years of forceful interactions and the messages of Woodstock pointed towards non-violence and peace. The image of Baez, Joplin, Hendrix, Cocker, and other musicians singing successively explains why Woodstock is considered one of the best music and art festivals in history. Or why Wadleigth and Scorese won an Oscar with a documentary that was declared historically and culturally significant by the Library of Congress.

Over the years, Woodstock has become an icon of a global generation that praised peace, love, non-violence, environmentalism, and development of the arts. A media tsunami with a profound and sweeping impact in multiple countries and its rainbow flag used as a skirt by many of the women has been used on multiple and different occasions by many other types of campaigns.

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Volunteer translation by Ashley R. Gonzalez

Ashley R. Gonzalez currently attends the Ohio State University in the United States and will graduate with two majors in Spanish and World Literature next summer, 2010. She has academic experience in Mexico and the United States. Furthermore, because of her Mexican heritage, she has been exposed to the Spanish language from an early age. If you want to contact her for work, please write to joboard@communicatheo.com

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