“There were a variety of social movements occurring that radically transformed society,” Hoppenstand said. “Woodstock was one of the great symbols of that era.”

Changing over time

The 1960s was a time of political upheaval in the U.S., he said, with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement all contributing to growing discontent among the younger generations that strived to break apart from mainstream culture.

“It was an expression of independence,” Hoppenstand said. “Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll … were expressions of people who said, ‘We don’t believe in your system; we don’t believe in such things as the Vietnam War.’”

Mark Grebner, an East Lansing-based political consultant and Ingham County commissioner, said Woodstock was the culmination of a series of events of a much larger movement called “the ’60s.”

“(The ’60s) marked a break with the social order that had preceded it,” he said. “The sense that America was a controlled society where the authorities had more or less unlimited power to control peoples’ lives … that attitude was destroyed by the ’60s.”

Less ‘white bread’

That break from society, he said, was enough to set America on a course that completely changed the face of society, namely from a predominantly white, patriarchal one to one in which freedom of choice and the open opposition of government became more prevalent.

“There’s this tendency to reduce this all to an event … but Woodstock was just a little piece of this larger flood,” Grebner said. “It was like a piece of wood in a rushing river. The big news is the river, not the piece of wood.”

Matthew Milia, an MSU alumnus and lead singer of Michigan folk band Frontier Ruckus, said one of the problems presented by Woodstock was part of what made the festival such a big deal to both traditionalists and the counterculture — its popularity.

“It’s an iconic, momentous occasion to represent (the movement),” he said. “But I also think it turned it into something that mainstream American could see it becoming so large that it was almost corporate.”

Above all, the importance of Woodstock is the fact that it was part of a movement that transformed society in ways that still can be seen today, Hoppenstand said.

“I think that Woodstock was a symbol of the kinds of social revolution that, in essence, improved American society,” he said, citing the civil rights movement as a specific example. “It was about improving America and I think, 40 years later, we’re still on that path (but) things have improved.”

The significance of Woodstock and its part in the counterculture movement of the 1960s is in the eye of the beholder, he said, because at the time, those on the other end of the spectrum viewed it as a remarkably terrible thing.

“The older generation thought of it as a bunch of young people who were out of control,” he said. “It reflected the divisions of American society in that time.”

One of a kind

The anniversary of the festival serves as a remembrance of how far the U.S. has come, Hoppenstand said.

“Any society that fails to remember its history is fated to repeat it,” he said. “It’s important to remember what happened and where we were and why we were that way.”

He said modern festivals such as Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza have tried to emulate the spirit of Woodstock but cannot fully attain such an impact because of how times have changed.

Eric Schmidt, a telecommunication, information studies and media and English senior, said Woodstock was one of a kind.

“Woodstock just seems like it was cooler,” he said. “Everyone just busted in. … People were having a good time, jamming.”