Barba, I am curious what your age is. Did you reach this conclusion after speaking to a few hippies? Meanwhile, how come you drew the conclusion that I was talking about flower boys?

It is evident that we are talking about a subject about which you know just about nothing.

Though I am not a 70´s guy myself, I have lived through the transition from one generation into another. Amy Whinehouse is a product of this society. She is not even a proper hippy. You probably associate her with the 70´s because she sounds a bit more intellectual than Britney Spears. Why don´t you realize that in addition to the junkies, there is a whole generation of 70´s musicians who set the standards for others. Ever heard Miles Davis or Leonard Cohen? Pink Floyd had their most productive period in the 70´s. 

Ultimately, we could talk about the presence of  Eurepean and American literatures, artists etc. Almost all the great names were already great back in the 70´s.

I have always found that to enquire of a woman´s age can lead to difficulties vineyards but I always associated the Hippies and the Flower People with the 60´s. As to the intellectual superiority of Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears that is open to debate.

Well, you are the boss when it comes to the 60´s. My biggest contribution to the sixties was being born in that decade. The emphasis here is not on Barba´s age. I was just trying to draw people´s attention to the caricaturized image of the 70´s.

In a nutshell, although certain aspects of society was considerably less developed compared to the present time, the 70´s people were a lot more interested in philosophy, poetry, literature and they used to get involved in a lot of different social organizations. Despite the obvious lack of infrastructure and means, they travelled more and with a purpose other than business or relaxation. These people were in pursuit of knowledge and they are in contrast with today´s new generation in these regards. Try asking a 24 year, what he thinks about the social problems of our day. You would hear a lengthy lecture did you ask that question in the 70´s.

As for Amy Whinehouse and Britney Spears comparison. I still think Amy is a bit more informed, at least her genre is more difficult to master and there is less room for hi-tech gimmickry. Also while seemingly childish and selfish, she expresses herself not like a baby doll but as who actually she is; someone whose life doesn´t go the way it should. I hope she will overcome these problems.

Ah the great ´70s. The only good thing there was my birth in 1978 What Vineyards says might be true for America and western Europe, but in Poland these were hard times when people had to queue for 2 days to get food, buying toilet paper was a blessing and a rare occassion. That´s what communism does to you. Also, when people are too busy wondering how to provide for their basic needs, the supreme thought, the Arts are in neglect. Art functioned only in the dimension approved of by the Party (Polish United Workers´ Party). And hippies were the people who made their own drugs from poppy flowers. There was hardly any diversity in the nation.

I´m glad I spent just 2 years in the ´70s and that I was still in primary school when communism was taken down. Had I lived in the US at that time, I might be of a totally different opinion, though

The point I was trying to make is NOT that Amy Whinehouse is a hippy, but that she would have been called a hippy if she was alive and kicking in the 1970s. Most of the artists from that decade would have been called giant junkies by now, and kicked into rehab. Even the golden oldies who were alive those days admit that they can hardly remember those decades, what they did and what they said because they were stoned out of their minds back than. We like to view the past in rose coloured glasses. If people complain about something today they are spoiled little brats, who don´t appreciate what they have. If people don´t complain they are uninterested consumerists from generation "me".

I don´t understand how you can take a news article about horrible things that happened in the 1970s, and twist it into a complaint about society today!

By the way, don´t try to patronize me by saying "ever heard of Miles Davis?" ... If you want to try and impress me by naming artists from the 1970s, you shouldn´t name Miles Davis. He did his most influential work before the 1970s, (yes, I´m a jazz enthouasiast, so I know this stuff) so naming him as an artist of the 70s is very strange. Pink Floyd was productive in the 1970s, not because it was the 1970s but because of their age at that point. Just like Prince didn´t have his most productive period in the 1970s, because he was a kid! He is an amazing artist, and he was most productive in the 80s/90s. There have been amazing artists after the 1960s and 1970s period, and naming musical bands as evidence for superiority of society during those decades is short sighted.

I am not patronizing you. There is something wrong with your choice of vocabulary here. You are also not completely correct about Miles Davis, the correct wording must be: a timeless musician. He continued being productive for nearly five decades. All his periods were worth listening to.

I am also a keen Jazz enthusiast. My favourite musicians are Theolonious Monk, Miles Davis, C. Parker, Duke Ellington among others. I have about 200 LP´s in my collection. They call me Mr. Jazz man.

I listen to all kind of music if I find it good. But my jazz taste is limited. I remember listening to Miles Davis few times on the radio when they played it, yes I think his music is good. I have over 200 CDs in my music colection and the only one I would call Jazz is Nina Simone which I had listened to and liked in a CD store before buying.

People like to simplify things by calling names. What is/was a Hippie? I actually found Wikipedia has the best definition I´ve seen thus far. The term Hippie came from hip...that is being aware of things....it evolved from the Beats.

It has been wrongly associated with drugs and wanton sex, however great social movements came out of it. Civil Rights, Anti-War, the Femminist movement really took on steam as a result of the freedom to choose to have children via the birth control pill, Ecology movements sprung forth during this time as a response to the book Silent Spring in 1962, Adele Davis was an early pioneer in the natural unprocessed food movement whose book " Eat Right to Keep Fit" was a major key in making people aware of what was going on with their food and the consequent movement we see today. 

This was the time when the children from WWII who were the first to grow up with the threat of world destruction came of age.  This is the generation that grew up after the Nurenberg Trials where I was just following orders would no longer be used as a defense. This is when the term "Make Love Not War" was coined. It did not mean go XXXX your head off....it meant love one another....don´t hate and kill each other....

This led to a rejection of sensless wars and the large anti-war protests. ..........I could go on.......but my point is........To reduce this time to being identified with drugs and sex shows ignorance of historic events that actually happened.

...............BTW Pink Floyd was a 60s band...Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, the Beattles were known for good music, not drugs. There have always been drug users......