al feeling of The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob Dylan) and began to apply it to their actions. Instead of wishing that the government would solve problems, the mostly-college age students took matters into their own hands. Complaints turned into protests and protests turned into marches. Society's view of its government would never be the same.As students and other young adults started expressing their opinions on the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, America's drug policy, and other assorted issues of relevance to American young adults, students used folk music to guide their views. Also, folk musicians used the feelings of the youth culture to help shape their music to form an accelerated cycle. However, as the counter cultural movement began to grow not in number but in visibility and media accessibility, the outspoken Americans began to see little response from a government that paid them no heed. So, the tone of the language started to change. Coupled with, but not necessarily as a result of, the rise of rock and roll to replace folk music in popularity, the vocal protests took on harsher, more severe words. Artists like Credence Clearwater Revival and Barry McGuire, who spoke of an Eve of Destruction openly talked of angst at the government and about taking matters into their own hands. While such music played in the background, the college riots of 1968, among countless other examples, disrupted the nations unconscious move toward the conformity that was shown in the 1950s. While a large portion of the counter culture was pushing for a change in the system, many of even the most ardent counter culturalists changed their focus from creating a revolution to their desire just to be left alone. A common viewpoint was that if no one were going to make progress, "leave me alone and don't worry about what I do to myself," according to Dr. Fred Rapoport. With this backdrop, much of the feelings of the young adults shifted from trying...
