gs and religion that went against the norm into their movement. Musicians such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Dexter Gordon were considered extremely revolutionary at the time. "The Beat writers found artists who had broken away from mainstream art forms with original, spontaneous expressions that challenged their audiences emotionally and intellectually" (Encarta, 2001). The beat writers also studied a great deal of Eastern philosophy which was very rare for Americans at that time. Jack Kerouac became fascinated by Buddhism and even tried to adopt the lifestyle of a monk. Religion was an important part of the Beat Generation. The beats were particularly interested in meditation and achieving a higher consciousness. They focused on this in their writing, causing it to eventually spread to their followers as well. The use of drugs and alcohol was another way the beats rebelled against society. Through the heavy use of drugs, from marijuana to acid, the beat writers believed they could achieve a higher consciousness or a more creative mental process for writing. This also influenced the followers and increased the popularity of drugs among the youth.When the small group of writers that began the beat subculture eventually gained the fame they had been searching for, the happiness that success brought was ephemeral. Their vision of the beat generation soon mutated into a stale tool for commercialism as most subcultures eventually do. The media embraced the beat generation, but they avoided the more controversial aspects of it. They wanted to present a non-threatening image of the subculture so that it would appeal to the general public. In 1959 MGM released a movie called the Beat Generation while Jack Kerouac appeared on many television shows. He began to represent the beat generation and his novel On the Road was thought of as a bible for followers of the movement. "As rebelliousness ...
