JUST BEFORE
EXTREMELY HIGH INCOME TAXES
WERE SLASHED BY PRESIDENT JOHN KENNEDY,
JUST BEFORE THE 1963
BRITISH INVASION OF THE U. S. MUSIC SCENE,
JUST BEFORE THE VIETNAM WAR DISASTER,
AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC and a WEEKLY "HOOTENANNY"
ON ABC-TV DOMINATED THE USA.
The New Christie Minstrels Singing a Common "Hootenanny" Song.
The "Hootenanny" Era Doesn't Fit Into the
Narrow Historical Distortions We Currently Live Under. This
YouTube video documents the Hootenanny/college-kid fad connection.
The Seekers Singing a Common "Hootenanny" Song. (Australian invasion.)
Johnny Cash Singing a Common "Hootenanny" Song.
NOTE: if we don't watch or enjoy any of the movies or TV shows produced by persons who had blacklisted various artists for idealogical or political reasons, we wouldn't be able to watch or listen to much of anything at all from the American TV and music industry produced during the 1950's and 1960's. Therefore, I present the following information knowing full well that the producers of the ABC TV show, "Hootenanny", had blacklisted various people for political reasons. That was a mistake to blacklist anyone, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I was only a child at the time, and remember the TV program vaguely. To black-out historical information or material for such political reasons, seems to me to be an excuse to "burn books", which was a Nazi trait. Let's not go down that road at all, OK?
This music at the time was not called, "protest music", since there was nothing much to protest against at the time. College was inexpensive and easy to attain by blue-collar familes and rich families alike, plus those in between the two. Most of the folk-music performers were actually clean cut conservative college students. At the time, the USA was the most prosperous nation on earth, by far, despite having extremely high income taxes. The taxes were very high due mainly to the exreme national debt caused by World War II, and latter day obligations caused by that war.
Note that two out of three of the Wikipedia articles about the "Hootenanny" phenomenon totally ignore the "college craze" aspect of it that occurred approx. 1959-1964, just before the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, etc., were added to the mix. It appears that this latter day "Hootenanny" era was primarily a college student fueled phenomenon, just as the anti-Vietnam war movement was to be mostly centered in the colleges and universities of the U.S.A.
Just before color TV became dominant, just before the widespread usage of videotape by American TV networks, just before John F. Kennedy somewhat helped reduce extremely high income taxes in the USA, just before the Beatles, just before the Rolling Stones, just before the "mop-heads", just before the resurgence of "rock and roll" music led by the British invaders, there was the latter-day Hootenanny period in the USA dominated by American folk music, with some other influences.
America's most innovative TV network among the three major TV-networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) at the time, ABC, aired a weekly live TV show titled, "Hootenanny" which was very popular for a while. (This Wikipedia article documents very well the college-connection to the TV show, which reflected the perception then that collge kids were very into folk music, just before the "British invasion".)
The most recent "Hootenanny period" is not very well documented since the phenomenon was led mostly by live-music performances. There were some records sold due to this mass-media TV phenomenon, but there were quite a few more a few years later after the British invasion. Due to the slightly less commercial angle, this entire period has been nearly forgotten, but it was dominant just before the "hippie" period.
Some of the main artists and groups who later became very well known, and who were associated with the late 1950's/early 1960's folk music revival originally: Judy Collins, the New Christie Minstrels, the Kingston Trio, Joan Baez, (early) Bob Dylan, (early) Peter Paul and Mary, plus many countless others.
Nearly everyone in the USA watched them every week on live TV!
Some of the main folk music groups from the Hootenanny period became even more famous a few years later (1966-1975) when they morphed into the "hippies". Think Bob Dylan, Joan Boaz, Peter Paul and Mary, etc.
But before the "hippie era", they mostly dressed conservatively, wore very short hair, sported coats and ties, and looked "clean-cut". This was before the "mod-period" in the USA, before "op art", before long haired young people, before the Vietnam War became the focus of the "protest movement". (The "mod" era in the USA does not conform to the British period; otherwise, why did there have to be a British Invasion?)
This was when school children all over the USA sang, "This Land is Your Land", etc., as if it were the national anthem, and no one was disturbed about it at the time. No one became perturbed by the Hootenanny phenomenon. It seemed to be mostly devoid of what is called, "extremism" despite the obvious connection to some left-wing thoughts and philosophies from the 1930's. (I wrote this before I found evidence to the contrary. However, let's say that mainstream America did NOT know of the behind-the-scenes extremist political conflicts concerning Hootenanny, let's say in 1963-1964.)
But the USA at this time was much stronger economically. There were no homeless people to speak of. Income taxes were still extremely high ever since WWII and just afterwards. The Hootenanny culture was much more retrospective and historically oriented, rather than being futuristic. The folk-music "Hootenanny" era celebrated the path our country had already taken, so it was not about overthrowing the establishment. It was actually a conservative phenomenon, not a radical one.
Now we can see why the Beverly Hillbillies was such a popular TV show in the USA a few years later, but that was on another TV Network: CBS. CBS later became well known for airing most of these "countrified" TV shows such as "Petticoat Junction", "the Andy Griffith Show", "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.", and others, even more than ABC.
But the CBS Dobie Gillis TV show was also about the new intellectual world of college education (and high school) and youth "enlightenment".
This means that Maynard G. Krebs was the first hippie. Just note that the mindless insanity of the Vietnam War is what created all the trouble. There was no major trouble in the USA before the Vietnam war era.
Louisiana Hayride was another strong cultural influence on the USA with country/western roots.
Why Book-Burning is Stupid, Counterproductive, and Helps Ignorance Prevail:
NOTE: when I started this article about the latter-day Hootenanny era (approx. 1960-1964), I had no idea there were extremist political arguments concerning it. What surprised me was the nearly total ignorance in the USA today that such a music fad had ever occurred. The U.S. media today is totally ignorant about it; and ignorance is shameful and embarrassing. I wanted to alleviate some of that shame and ignorance.
I have always found it odd that no one seems to remember "Hootenanny".
What I remember as a child from watching the TV show was the "collegiate" quality surrounding it, and the idealism from most of the music. I personally had no knowledge of the political arguments going on behind the scenes until April 19, 2020, such as the blacklisting of Pete Seeger, and the boycotting of the ABC TV show by many muscicians such as by Bob Dylan and others. This is all news to me.
But broadcasting those facts about the political conflicts was not my goal, as I didn't even know about them until today, April 19, 2020.
I think most people are intelligent and mature enough to easily deal with such political arguments, without loosing sight of the "lost history" of the latter-day Hootenanny era. Historically, extreme Marxism generally has not worked; so let's get on with a success oriented world where the insurance premiums are actually being paid, and the benefits are actually being enjoyed by the policy-holders.
If someone wants to cover up all cultural history, then there's a trillion more things and books that should be burned besides the one about Hootenanny. I don't see that happening, nor do I think it would help anything to get rid of history that shows that Marxism doesn't work.
If we burn the books which show the failures of Marxism, that's actually a boost to the noveau-Marxists!! Keep on teaching all of history so that the lessons learned from history can be known by current generations; otherwise, we are all doomed to repeat the same idiotic mistakes.
Those who want to erase the history of the demise of the USSR are helping to revive communist totalitarianism. Communist totalitarianism has inherent flaws, some of which were clearly illuminated by recent events in Communist China.
The Western media who wish to not fully report all events from China are helping to revive their own brand of totalitarianism with the same inherent and deadly defects. To help communist totalitarianism die naturally as it did in the USSR, the free flow of information is part of that process.
FACT: the black market and Russian mafia are what kept the USSR alive and somewhat prosperous, until it ended Dec. 25, 1991. This is why the Russian mafia was so well positioned to take over valuable corporate assets after the demise of the USSR; they were already in control.
The same thing is happening in Venezuela today; the black market and organized crime are keeping communist Venezuela alive. This flawed situation can only end when the foolishness and poverty of communism dies out completely in Venezuela, and intelligence, plentifulness, and free markets are again dominant.
As Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman once stated words to the effect, that black markets are free and healthy markets in comparison to over-regulation and control practiced by flawed totalitarian regimes.