In an attempt to greedily reproduce a time that no longer existed, the 99 festival proved the failure of a generation: bare breasts were an invitation to brutal sex and the rock of ideological affection became a platform for the expression of the outbreak.
A dream that entrepreneurs wanted to relive 30 years after the most iconic rock festival in history took place, 1999’s Woodstock became a tragedy. At least four young people were raped and many others were injured in the crowd that formed during the three days of concerts. Under a non-negotiable sun and a thermal sensation of almost 40 degrees, the only free water that came out of the pipes to cool those who fought for any strip of shade was contaminated with feces. Stomach inflammation was common as early as the second day. To earn more from sales within the event, the directors ordered security guards to remove any liquids or food from the bags of those who entered the venue. With an audience of 200,000 confined to the site – many slept in tents for a “legitimate experience” – the organizers were able to load as much as they wanted.
On the third day, with the fans exhausted, hungry and angry, the bomb went off. Michael Lang, the man who made history in 1969, managed to come up with the one idea he couldn’t have at the time. He ordered that three thousand candles be distributed so that young people could light them in the name of peace: there was no cell phone with today’s lights. Lit candles – to recap – in the hands of young people crazed and altered by all the alcohol, mushrooms and drugs their bodies had accumulated over the past couple of days. At the beginning of the evening shows, shortly after the lighting of the candles, huge bonfires were seen from the stage. The kids started tearing down fences, smashing tents and knocking down sound towers to feed the fire, and everything, which they no longer had any control over, became hell as soon as the screens showed the image of Jimi Hendrix. that sounded the Anthem of the United States.
The series Big Failures: Woodstock 99, directed by Tim Wardle, very easy to find on Netflix, has three episodes of just over 40 minutes each that are impossible to leave until all the misfortune happens. It is electrically tense from the start, and of increasing tension, as if it were a script. Hand. It all really happened, inspired by the sacred aura of the first Woodstock, in 1969, when 400,000 young people who wanted free love, an end to prejudice, guilt-free lysergic deliveries and troop withdrawals from Vietnam gathered, including for three days, on a farm in Bethel, New York, to watch shows by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Canned Heat, Santana, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and many more. Despite the lack of structure, there were no records of assaults either. But between 1969 and 1999, the United States, young people and rock became very different things.
United States: Bill Clinton has swung into the presidency since 1998, and possibly his marriage to Hillary Clinton, after allegations of having extramarital affairs with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. And all this, in the White House itself. It wasn’t quite the free love that the people of ’69 were referring to. But the worst news came a month before the festival, April 20: two students, aged 17 and 18, arrived at Columbine High School ready to annihilate anyone. come on. With machine guns, explosives, car bombs and a carefully devised plan, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 21 people. After an exchange of fire with the police, they shot themselves in the head in the school library. Something was going very wrong.
Young people: when they arrived at the Woodstock facility at Griffiss Air Force Base in 1999 – and there is already an ideological conflict there: an air base hosting an event against all soldiers and bases in the world -, all of this that the young people had in mind about 69 was not the stone that had been made there, but some images reproduced by the media. Women and men naked, muddy and wildly dancing. This was basically what they wanted to reproduce in their private Woodstock. But nothing is reproduced without the essence of the past, and everything that has been tried on the basis of these images has exposed the failure of a generation. When they took off their shirts to show their breasts, as mothers did, the girls were immediately attacked by men who, unlike in 1969, saw the female body exposed as a permit to have sex. And brutal sex. The girls were lifted from the crowd with their breasts out to be raped. Four of them were raped.
Rock: when we put the artists of 1969 and 1999 side by side, we see that the problem is not the greater or lesser quality of the music of those eras – a pertinent discussion, but do not try to pull the thread that leads to the new social relations proposed. from post 90 rock. What becomes clearer is the transfer of the creative axis from the collective ideological affection of the 60s to the individual anger against the outside world of the 90s. . And more powerful than the punk anger of the 1980s – a legitimate and poignant anger, but still political and controlled – the anger is the outbreak. For a generation that has had to be controlled with drugs and therapies since childhood, freedom from the epidemic has become free speech.
The relief of this dark, empty soul and the promise of living this explosion together, not isolated in a world that doesn’t understand them, have ended up becoming a home context for bands like Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Korn and Limp Bizkit. , all in the 1999 Woodstock lineup. At the Korn show, children started jumping over protective fences; in Limp Biskit, they started dropping towers and attacking MTV broadcasts; and in the scorching heat, burning everything. So, would bands and fans be to blame for the ferocious news? Not only that, despite all the alleged incitement to break up made by the letters. The groups do other shows in the same rage register and these scenes do not repeat themselves systematically.
As much as destroying a world by listening blindfrom Korn, or Kill in the name, by Rage Against The Machine, has an indescribable flavor, the 1999 Woodstock problem wasn’t that simple. The sounds of the bands and the wild behavior of the fans were a heightened response to the greed of adults. Michael Lang, the principal, spoke to the series three months before he died of cancer at the age of 77 in January 2022. His gaze was sad and his voice seemed to recognize his biggest mistake: wanting go back to a place where there is more using people who will never be the same again.
Source: Terra
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
