The Republic of Rock

The Republic of Rock uncovers the lost story of rock music and citizenship in the sixties counterculture. Tracing the way people in two key places--San Francisco and Vietnam--used rock to make sense of their lives and the world around them, the book helps us to understand more vividly how rock became a medium for participants in the counterculture to think about what it meant to be an American citizen, a world citizen, a citizen-consumer, or a citizen-soldier. The music became a resource for grappling with the nature of democracy in larger systems of American power both domestically and globally. From the Acid Tests of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters to hippie disc jockeys on strike, from the airwaves of Vietnam to the forgotten tale of a South Vietnamese rock band, The Republic of Rock shows how the musical connections between the City of the Summer of Love to the country in which the United States waged war were crucial to the making of the sixties counterculture-and why the legacy of rock music in the sixties continues to matter to the meaning of citizenship in a global society today.