Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a striking example of new journalism, as the author calls his writing style. He named it because he invented an innovative way of describing events, posing as a man who has insight into rock concerts. The article itself is not extensive and can be found in The Rock History Reader on pages 99-102. These few pages describe the activities of The Merry Pranksters but occasionally use hyperbolism to describe the band’s experiments with LSD during festival performances. Details are given of the scenery and stage effects that were present during the concerts, and this is done so brightly that it immediately attracts the reader’s attention.
The article mentions the so-called “media nugget”, which is the film The Frogmen and is almost at the end. The author used it to describe the feelings of musicians who took drugs. Tom Woolf writes that under the influence of such substances, the film’s meaning became more profound, and every picture, whether an ocean or a swamp, began to look fabulous and, at most, three-dimensional (Wolfe 101). Thus, the author, who has never taken drugs, describes in detail the impact that other people have had during the movie.
Tom Wolfe’s article is an experimental genre in journalism that has attracted readers. Using vivid hyperbolism and epithets for the narrative, the author obtained a detailed description of the experience during LSD, taking as an example the bands’ performances at festivals. Woolf acts in some way as an impostor who claims to be aware of the insights behind the scenes, a feature of his work. The author introduced the world to new journalism, distinguished by the audacity and brightness of the language, and this style is ideal for describing rock culture in general.
Work Cited
Wolfe, Tom. “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”. The Rock History Reader, edited by Theo Cateforis, Taylor & Francis Group, 2012, pp. 99–102. Web.