Beat Generation

All I know about the beat generation is that it was a movement in the 1950s that basically coincided with the hippie movement... before there were hippies. It included all aspects of the arts, including writing, music, visual arts, and film. I believe that this movement was primarily a New York movement, and was carried out by many Columbia University students, but I'm not sure. 

As far as its practice goes, it was really a time where young people wanted to escape society and find themselves in special endeavors alone or with their friends, and it involved using a lot of drugs in the process. All in all, it was a very invigorating and exciting time, and it planted the seeds for some of the trends that existed in the 1960s hippie era.