Beatniks

The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they wrote about. Central elements of "Beat" culture include a rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality, and an interest in Eastern spirituality.

Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat generation originally released on LP January 1960.

Since 1958, the term, Beatnik has been used to describe an anti-materialistic literary movement that began with Kerouac in 1948, stretching on into the 1960's. Many historians have asserted that the beatnik philosophy of anti-materialism, combined with its fundamental soul-searching ethos, may have influenced some of the lyrics of popular 1960's musical groups such as The Beatles, and was the precursor of the Hippie generation.


A charter member of beat generation.1959 Southern California.



Beat Generation & Counterculture members Peter Orlovski,Robbie Robertson, and Bob Dylan in City Lights Bookstore basement,San Francisco 1965(detail)Photo by Larry Keenan.William Smith,a beatnik candidate for president at Ninth Circle Bar,1960.Photo by Fred W.McDarrah

Emblematic of this new stereotype were men wearing goatees and berets,dark sunglasses indoors, rolling their own cigarettes, and playing bongos. Fashions for women included black leotards and wearing their hair long, straight, and unadorned. This was a rebellion against the middle-class standards of the time which expected women to get permanent treatments for their hair.

Marc by Marc Jacobs Fall 2008










BCBG Max Azria Fall 2006.