HOW SOCIETY SUCKED.

“...woe unto those who spit on the Beat Generation, the wind’ll blow it back.” A statement from Jack Kerouac in the 50’s that has indeed travelled through the winds of time into 2010. The Beat Generation, an philosophical movement in the late 40’s made up of people sick of the conservatism and academia that demonised modern poetry, and beatnik culture. The Beat Generation cleared the way for today’s music and arts journalists to report on the arts with relative freedom. In fact the Beat Generation could be said to have revolutionised music culture itself with the introduction of rhythm and blues into rock and roll, as exemplified by the Beatles, and Bob Dylan. “Nobody knows whether we were catalysts or invented something, or just the froth riding on a wave of its own. We were all three, I suppose.” Said Allen Ginsberg. They were all three things and more, without them, rock’n’roll music would still be classed as demonic and we would now, not be able to report on it as an art-form in itself. The Beat Generation, not only paved the way for rock’n’roll but for all other styles of music. This meant that as each genre of music made its way into popular culture, people were free to enjoy it and report on it, without fear of discrimination or even punishment. Without the influence of people like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, how could people now and back then, have true freedom to express their personality and opinion? Amiri Baraka said “The so-called Beat Generation was a whole bunch of people, of all different nationalities, who came to the conclusion that society sucked.” As budding journalist and music lovers now, we can quite easily come to the conclusion that society no longer sucks.
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