Communication and Pop Culture

“Purple Haze” was a song written in 1966 by Jimi Hendrix. It was first performed in 1967 (Wenner 1). When Hendrix performed this song at Woodstock in 1969, he was wearing earrings, tight, blue bellbottom pants, and a white jacket that had a lot of fringe and showed his stomach. He also had an afro with a hot pink scarf wrapped around his head. He played the electric guitar throughout the entire song and he had his eyes closed the majority of the time. It seemed as if he was really trying to feel the music as he played and he appeared to be really into it. He only opened his eyes occasionally when he actually sang the lyrics. He swayed back and forth and did an occasional kick as he played the guitar and he also made strange facial expressions when he hit high chords. It honestly appeared as if he wasn’t really trying to connect with his audience because he was so into his own music (Woodstock.com 1).

“Purple Haze” fits into the rock and roll category. I feel that it fits here because it’s lyrics were based on drug use. These lyrics, “Purple haze all in my eyes, don't know if it's day or night. You've got me blowin', blowin' my mind. Is it tomorrow or just the end of time,“ clearly represent drug use (Metrolyrics.com 1). Due to this aspect of the song, “hippies” would have been the most prominent listeners that would have enjoyed this type of music. Hippies were those who were involved in the countercultures or the 1960’s. This mainly included young people who were interested in the sexual revolution and/or drug use. That was their motto; “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.”

Although this song was produced near the end of the 60’s, many aspects of it came from the 1950’s where rock n roll began. This type of rock was just a little less upbeat than that of Elvis or Bill Haley and His Comets and seemed to have a deeper meaning. Also, the songs in the 60’s were a lot more counterhegemonic