The Beat Generation was a literary movement that began in the United States in the 1950s and influenced the counterculture movement of the 1960s. The Beat Generation was an artistic movement that rejected traditional values and embraced experimentation and individuality as an expression of freedom and a form of political expression. The Beat Generation inspired the counterculture movement of the 1960s, which was also characterized by a rejection of traditional values and an embrace of experimentation and individuality.