Jimi Hendrix Impact On Society

Steven Sullivan
D. Rosales
English 7 P5
1 Jan 17
SR Final Draft The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Over the past 100 years, people have changed our world in numerous ways. Musicians are a big influence on different aspects of our world such as social, cultural, and musical. Some of the musicians throughout the mid to late 20th century have left impacts that are still relevant today. During one artist's time as a musician, he was responsible for more than just a musical impact, and that artist is Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix, one of the best musicians to ever live, not only revolutionized the act of guitar playing, but he also had a tremendous impact of the cultural, social, and musical aspect of each of our lives in the world today.

Jimi Hendrix
During a movement of love, peace, music, and sex, Jimi Hendrix was a key figure that played a role of both a rebel and a revolutionary. (Sophia) Jimi Hendrix was one of the biggest cultural figures of the sixties, a psychedelic voodoo child who spewed clouds of distortion and pot smoke.(Stones) Again, with Jimi Hendrix a part of Woodstock, that goes to show the cultural figure that he was. Although, not just with the hippie culture, but maybe even one a bit closer to him. Culturally, Jimi Hendrix gave the black community a boost in the field of music. Not a single african american had ever played like him before. He felt bad for his minority brothers, but never considered himself to be one, which is another reason many blacks turned there back on him. A big part of that has to do with the fact that Jimi Hendrix wasn’t considered a black artist. In fact, many people didn’t even know he was black before seeing him. He stuck with the music he performed and never changed, eventually luring more and more members of the black community. It took Jimi a bit to get as many black fans as he had white, because they didn’t like the fact that he sounded white. And that’s exactly why the whites like him. Crossing this racial divide is what brings us into his social
Traditionally, rock was a white man's music genre, but to Jimi Hendrix it was his, and he made sure to make that clear. Moving to Europe, he made sure his music could be more popularized and well-known.(Bio.com Editors) To many, it was a surprise that Hendrix was black. In fact, some people who heard some of his new music, thought that it was a “black knock off” of Jimi Hendrix. (Amber) Working with people such as Paul McCartney from the Beatles, he was able to become the greatest artists of all time.

Over the past 100 years, our world has been changed beyond what we can even imagine. Jimi Hendrix, who was in military, left the military to create music, and little did we know to change our lives. He was a musical prodigy, he was able to create sounds that nobody thought possible, inspiring many while he was doing it.
Culturally, he was a proud hippie who led the counterculture movement, and also impacted the black community. He also impacted the social aspect of our lives by crossing the racial border in our music of the time. The pot smoking, free love, anti war musician we all knew and loved was responsible for changing our lives in the areas of culture, social, and