Counterculture within a Counter-Culture: New Zealand, Psychedelic Rock, and the Moral Guardians of the 60s and 70s
Rock Music Studies September 2, 2018 Andrew J. Sepie
New Zealand's unique history as a conservative British colony with state-controlled broadcasting and strict drug laws meant its 1960s counterculture developed differently from elsewhere. Psychedelic rock struggled there due to multiple factors: many experimenting artists moved overseas for success, music festivals and hippie culture arrived late, and the 1980s seemed to begin before the 1960s had fully ended. The country's own counter-cultural origins, youth delinquency, and drug issues shaped this distinct trajectory, leaving psychedelic rock as the genre that fared worst in this period of accelerated cultural change.