ABSTRACT
This chapter, excerpts from a larger work, interrogates the genesis of the powerlessness and lack of direction that rock crowds represent. While concert-goers at Lollapalooza and other large festivals invariably define themselves as rebellious, countercultural and liberal, they are in fact largely docile, passive and conservative. In this chapter the author argues that this misperception stems in part from earlier misperceptions formed through specific discursive rhetorics and constructions circulated in the film documentaries about Woodstock and Altamont. The film Woodstock opened one year after the festival, in 1970. The film Gimme Shelter, which chronicles another free concert of 1969, did not receive nearly as much love. As Richard Barsam has pointed out, Gimme Shelter is Woodstock's Manichean rival, both in popularity and in spirit. Woodstock both assumes news documentary techniques, while Gimme Shelter attempted to 'live' the film: at the concert's height, the filmmakers deployed 35 camera people in the field to capture crowd moments.
