The Origins of the Hippies.

The hippies originated around 1965. Members of this countercultural movement were one of the three dissenting groups of the 1960’s. Hippies were part of the youth movement. They consisted mostly of white teenagers and young adults between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.

The beatniks coined the term “hippy”. These young countercultural movers idolized and emulated the beatniks. The beatniks began to call this young group of people the hippies. The media and society popularized the term. The hippies rarely referred to themselves as such, but rather “freaks” or “freeks”.






“The 1960’s Hippies, Who Were the Hippies?” ArikiArt Official Web site. 6 April 2010.

McCleary, J. The Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s. Sex, drugs,
rock ‘n’ roll, civil rights, religion and antiwar protest. New York: The Crown Publishing Group, 2004. Web.
6 April 2010.