By the 1970s, the 1960s zeitgeist that had spawned hippie culture seemed to be on the wane. The events at Altamont shocked many Americans, including those who had strongly identified with hippie culture. Another shock came in the form of the Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murders committed in August 1969 by Charles Manson and his “family” of followers. Nevertheless, the turbulent political atmosphere that featured the bombing of Cambodia and shootings by National Guardsmen at Jackson State University and Kent State University still brought people together. These shootings inspired the May 1970 song by Quicksilver Messenger Service “What About Me?”, where they sang, “You keep adding to my numbers as you shoot my people down”, as well as Neil Young’s “Ohio”, recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Much of hippie style had been integrated into mainstream American society by the early 1970s. Large rock concerts that originated with the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and the 1968 Isle of Wight Festival became the norm. In the mid-1970s, with the end of the draft and the Vietnam War, a renewal of patriotic sentiment associated with the approach of the United States Bicentennial and the emergence of punk in London and New York, the mainstream media lost interest in the hippie counterculture. Acid rock gave way to heavy metal, disco, and punk rock.

Starting in the late 1960s, some working class skinheads have attacked hippies. Hippies were also villified and sometimes attacked by punks, revivalist mods, greasers, football casuals, Teddy boys and members of other youth cultures in the 1970s and 1980s. Hippie ideals were a marked influence on anarcho-punk and some post-punk youth cultures, such as the second summer of love.

While many hippies made a long-term commitment to the lifestyle, some younger people argue that hippies “sold out” during the 1980s and became part of the materialist, consumer culture. Although not as visible as it once was, hippie culture has never died out completely: hippies and neo-hippies can still be found on college campuses, on communes, and at gatherings and festivals. Many embrace the hippie values of peace, love, and community, and hippies may still be found in bohemian enclaves around the world.