The Music of Counterculture Cinema

<p> Films produced in late 1960s and early 1970s America--along with later films focusing on that period--continue to frame our understanding of the counterculture era. The popular and experimental music of the day is central to the counterculture narrative on film from the utopian <I>Monterey Pop</I> (1968) to the disenchantment of <I>Gimme Shelter</I> (1970). But the musical side of the movement was not monolithic and a study of contemporary film soundtracks reveals a great deal of complexity. The coinciding struggles to define collective and individual identities based on race class gender and generation are well documented in the music of counterculture cinema.</p>