1970–1973

"Whoever marries the zeitgeist will be a widower soon." – August Everding

By 1970, the 1960s zeitgeist that had spawned hippie culture seemed to be on the wane. The events at Altamont shocked many Americans, including those who had strongly identified with hippie culture. Another shock came in the form of the Tate and LaBianca murders committed in August 1969 by Charles Manson and his "family" of followers.

Carles Manson

Charles Manson was a hard-core, institutionalized criminal who had been released from prison just in time for San Francisco's Summer of Love. With his long hair and the ability to charm a crowd with his guitar playing, his singing, and his rhetoric, Manson exhibited many of the outward manifestations of hippie identity. Yet Manson hardly exemplified the hippie ideals of peace, love, compassion and human fellowship; through twisted logic and psychological manipulation, he inspired his followers to commit murder.

Manson's highly publicized 1970 trial and subsequent conviction in January 1971 irrevocably tarnished the hippie image in the eyes of the American public. Other factors--for instance, the proliferation of hard drugs and their associated dependency--also contributed to the decline.

Mainstream

By the early 1970s much of hippie style had been integrated into mainstream American society; hippie music and fashion had become mainstream —large rock concerts that originated with the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and the 1968 Isle of Wight Festival became the norm; mustaches, beards and longer hair abounded; colorful, multi-ethnic clothing dominated the fashion world.

In the mid-seventies, the media lost interest in the hippie counterculture as it went out of fashion. The Vietnam War came to an end, and hippies became targets for ridicule with the advent of punk rock and disco.

Outside the United States, hippie culture has remained visible as a counter cultural movement, especially in Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia.