The Rhetorical Situation and Kairos of the 1960's Environmental Movement

The 1960's were a time of birth for many movements that affected and changed the ways and mindsets of society. Among those movements was the environmental movement. This movement became increasingly popular in the 1960's when people became more and more ecologically minded. During the 1960's there was major concern for air and water pollution that gave rise to this movement. In many cases, the music scene provided all of the different perspectives on issues. Music played a very crucial role in the expansion of ideas and thoughts; it addressed many controversial topics and some songs provided solutions to the issues at hand. This is the case for the Beach Boys' song "Don't Go Near the Water". The Beach Boys, like many other artists of the time such as Bob Dylan and The Beatles, were attuned to the rhetorical situation of the 1960's and used Kairos to make their music effective. In Greek, Kairos refers to the "right time" or "opportunity." It is measured by sensing the "opportune time" and attentiveness to the total context of a situation and correlates to the rhetorical situation.  Putting Kairos into perspective, the 1960's was the "opportune time" for artists to publicize their views through their media because it was a time when social and economic movements were on the rise. The Beach Boys used their music to address the environmental movement by explaining their environmental opinion to their audience through their lyrics and ballads.