The post war period was a very prosperous time. Having lived through World War Two (and the depression before it) people were very glad to have work and have things improving all the time. They trusted and respected their National institutions - the laws and the government. People were also very conservative in terms of moral values - they had almost the same values as their parents before them. The new generation, growing up in the fifties, had more free time, access to better education and more information from new sources like television. This led them to begin to question their parents' values. Questions such as "why do I have to dress this way?" or "why I have to listen to this style of music?" or "why does men's hair have to be short, and why does women's hair have to be long?," "why are blacks hated and pushed around?" and "why is the women's place is in the home?" arose. The new generation began to question the lifestyle of their parents, and the national institutions.
They began to rebel against society, at first just by dressing differently and listening to different music. Anything that was different to what their parents' did seemed attractive. Some of them also became interested in different forms of government, such as communism. They wondered why there were poor people in the world when they were so prosperous. They wanted the world to be better. They believed that society was to blame for all the things that were wrong in the world. So they wanted to change society and rebelled against all things from the older generation.
The Beatniks or "Beat Generation" were one of the first groups to visually rebel against society in the fifties. They mainly looked at new forms of literature, music and art, though they also questioned the values of society at the time. One of the major authors of the Beat Generation was Jack Kerouac. His book "On the Road", written in three weeks in an unpolished, flamboyant style, captured the imagination of the younger generation. The poet Allen Ginsberg >also was very influential with poems like "Howl", which criticised the materialism of contemporary US society.
Many musicians such as Elvis Presley also influenced the beginning of the counter-culture. During the 50s, Rock and Roll became a form of youth rebellion, since it was seen as the 'Devil's Music' because of it's Negro origins.