Music in the 1960s

Does it get any better than music in the 1960s? It was a time where it seemed no one could write a bad song.

Think of all the unbelievable musicians that captured our imaginations. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The
Doors, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, King Crimson,
we could go on for days.

It cannot be understated that the 1960s completely revolutionized music forever. It was by far the most
influential musical decade in modern history.

Our goal is to capture the essence of the decade and try to let you feel what was going on. We are still in the
process of building this site, but you can check out some of the years of the sixties in more detail below.

We will also be uploading a ton of pictures of 1960s musical artists. Read below for more in-depth information
about a certain year in the 1960s.

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Music in 1963
Barbara Streisand exploded into popularity, dramatically singing herself to the top of the charts. Andy Williams,
a preexisting favorite, made a few new albums that ranked quite high on the charts.

Folk music peaked with Peter, Paul, and Mary, who at one point had created three of the top-six albums in the
United States. A folk festival in Newport attracted over 47,000 fans, over 10 thousand more than the famed
Newport Jazz Festival, in the same city.

Pop gospel enjoyed very brief popularity in cafes and on albums, but after a few months, the religious music
was gone from nightclubs.

Jazz received a surge in popularity with adolescents and young adults. Organist Jimmy Smith attracted a
majority of the attention, but shared the spotlight with Orchestra USA, a third stream jazz group.

Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderly, and Cal Tjader also made popular jazz music. Count Basie achieved
newfound success, becoming a best-seller by making albums with Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

Music in 1964
The music scene had never been so dominated by a single group as it was in 1964. The year is now and forever
known as the Year of the Beatles.

A group of four young mop-tops from Liverpool, England, made teenage girls scream and faint across the
globe. Wherever they went, police were under pressure to keep the thronging thousands away from the Beatles.
The group was often afraid to leave their aircraft.

Millions of records were sold, and their movie Hard Days Night made over $5.5 million in under two
months. Over $56 million were made from Beatlemania.
The group started playing in Liverpool clubs as the Quarrymen Skiffle Group, then the Moondogs. From 1955
on, they would be permanently known as The Beatles. After the release of I Want to Hold Your Hand in
1963, their fame increased exponentially.

Japan held wonders for jazz artists like Duke Ellington, Gerry Mulligan, and Harry James. A majority of fans
weer young people. Avant-garde jazz was still controversial, and generally frowned upon. The Berlin Jazz
Festival attracted many, inspiring similar performances in France and other Scandanavian countries.

Music in 1965
The Beach Boys, an American group, helped popularize the surfing sound, selling albums all over the United
States with the help of Help Me, Rhonda.

The Beatles, continued (if not improved) their already stratospheric popularity. Other British groups were less
successful, but still somewhat popular. These included: Hermans Hermits, Gary and the Pacemakers, and the
Dave Clark Five.

The Supremes, of Detroit, Michigan, enjoyed their fair share of sales, with the hit song Stop! In the Name of
Love.

Sonny and Cher were adored by teenagers across the country, winning their hearts, and their cash. The most
popular female artist was Petula Clark, famous for Downtown.

Folk rock was established as a musical genre, led by artists such as P.F. Sloane, The Spokesman, and the Byrds.
Bob Dylan joined in with a hit song, Like a Rolling Stone.

Andy Williams, Barbara Streisand, and Frank Sinatra were still going strong, writing songs for the older group
of listeners. Country artists added to this collection with men like Buck Owens, George Jones, Jim Reeves, and
Johnny Cash.

Jazz music suffered, struggling to keep a steady beat in the world of changing music. Even the famous Birdland
jazz club in New York City was forced to close its doors. Ramsey Lewis was the most popular artist, with a
bluesy style appealing to both old and young.

The tragic losses of Sam Cooke and Nat King Cole brought a sudden upsurge in sales, ensuring that their legacy
would live on in vinyl collections across the world.

Music in 1966
Though the Beatles maintained their popularity in the United States with Rubber Soul, pop music leaned toward
more homegrown talent.

The Monkees, from California, were one of the most popular of these groups, along with Gary Lewis and the
Playboys, and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Though many popular rock groups got louder, a majority turned
down the volume with softer, easier listening. Some of these quieter groups included Simon and Garfunkel, The
Sandpipers, and The Mamas and the Papas.

Since popular music was quieter, the blues became more and more recognized. There were fewer band groups,
and artists began to be known by name. Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Jimmy Smith, and Otis Redding were a
few of these blues men.
Selling millions of records, Herb Alperts Tijuana Brass was very popular with both young and old, introducing
a Mexican-inspired sound to popular music.

Jazz was more listened to than usual, especially at colleges offering courses on the subject. Jazz was spread
farther into foreign countries. Earl Hines and Clea Bradford went on a six-week tour in the USSR.

The Stan Getz Quartet played jazz for the king and queen of Thailand at a state dinner in Bangkok. Young
people were encouraged to try their hand at jazz in the International Competition for Modern Jazz in Vienna,
Austria, where scholarships and money were awarded to most successful.

Music in 1967
Aretha Franklin came back strong, singing loud and proud in her hit songs Respect and I Never Loved a
Man the Way I Love You.

Other similar artists making similar breakthroughs included Dionne Warwick, the Four Tops, and the Supremes.

Lulu, a 19-year-old English girl, was a smash hit in the movie To Sir, With Love, singing the title song.

Other hit songs included The Letter (The Box Tops), Happy Together (The Turtles), Ruby Tuesday (The
Rolling Stones), and several songs by the Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, All You Need Is
Love, and Strawberry Fields Forever.

Vocal duos became more popular, too, with Sam & Dave (Soul Man) and Peaches & Herb (Love Is
Strange).

Jazz music stumbled, having a rough year after growing somewhat in 1966. Many album-buying fans who had
left rock music returned. The few jazz artists who stayed somewhat popular were Archie Shepp, Gary Burton,
Charles Lloyd, and John Handy.

The most accepting crowds were found in Europe, as George Wein (orchestrator of the Newport Jazz Festival)
discovered. When Wein brought Shepp, Burton, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, and Miles Davis across the
Atlantic, the artists played for nearly full houses.

Cannonball Adderly, however, found a foothold in the United States with his hit record, Mercy, Mercy,
Mercy!

Music in 1968
In 1968, music was influenced by the what was going on in the outside world, with many artists sharing their
political, religious and societal views.

Nancy Wilson (Black Is Beautiful), Country Joe and the Fish (The Harlem Song), Pete Seeger, Joan Baez,
and even the Beatles (Revolution) joined in.

Tiny Tim added his eccentric personality to the mix, recreating old hits such as Tiptoe Through the Tulips.

Pop music became more synthesized, literally. Radio stations started to give increased air time to music with
newfangled electronic synthesizers.
Jazz re-established itself, showing possible signs of stabilizing in the United States and foreign countries. Jazz
best described the mood of the United States after Robert F. Kennedys death, with performances by Woody
Herman, Horace Silver, and Duke Ellington played in tribute.

Three young boys captured the attention of many jazz fans: 14-year-old Craig Hundley, 12-year-old J.J.
Wiggins, and 14-year-old Gary Chase. The trio played at festivals and concerts, with their maturity displaying
the continued love for jazz by the younger generation.

Other popular musicians included Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Music in 1969
Though festivals in general were popular throughout the year, they were all dwarfed by the immensity of the
famous Woodstock music festival. The crowd was so massive that a majority of the fans couldnt even hear the
music.

In a similar performance, Bob Dylan drew 200,000 to the Isle of Wight for a two-day festival.

With the disappearance of many groups, new groups were appearing, trying to appeal to the multifaceted likes
and dislikes of popular music. Sly and the Family Stone, Blind Faith, and Credence Clearwater Revival were a
few of these new bands. The Beatles produced one of their best albums yet, Abbey Road and broke up soon
after the end of an era.

Country music expanded, with Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, John Hartford, and others achieving new found
success.

Duke Ellingtons 70th birthday inspired a great jazz performance at the White House. After a formal dinner and
a speech by President Nixon, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Mary Mayo, and Joe Williams performed some of
the Dukes greatest hits of his 40 year career.
Beatlemania

Fans and media swarm the Beatles at Schiphol Airport in 1964.

Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward
British rock band the Beatles during the early years of their success. The phenomenon began in 1963 and
continued past the band's breakup in 1970. The band stopped performing live in 1966, as the screaming fans
made it impossible to put on a good performance.

There are multiple competing theories as to why the Beatles attracted such a fan base, with no clear agreement.
After the Beatles, the term mania was used to describe the popularity of later acts.

History
The use of the word mania to describe fandom pre-dates the Beatles by more than 100 years. Beginning in
1841, fans of Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt showed a level of fanaticism similar to the Beatles.
Poet Heinrich Heine coined the word Lisztomania to describe this.[1] At the time, the word was used to indicate
that the fan behaviour was a genuine mental illness, an implication that was not part of the later Beatlemania.
Like the later Beatlemania, there was no agreement on why Liszt had such a fanatical fan base.

Andi Lothian, a former Scottish music promoter, claims that he coined the term Beatlemania while speaking to
a reporter at the Caird Hall Beatles concert that took place as part of the Beatles' mini-tour of Scotland, on 7
October 1963.[2][3] An early printed use of the word is in The Daily Mirror on 15 October 1963[4] in a news story
about the previous day's Beatles concert in Cheltenham. Beatles' publicist Tony Barrow credited the press for
the term, but saw the phenomenon as beginning with the band's appearance on the London Palladium TV show
on 13 October 1963, at which point he no longer had to contact the press but had the press contacting him
instead.[5] Maureen Lipman reported that after attending a concert in Hull that year, she heard that the arena
"cleared away 40 pairs of abandoned knickers" from fellow young women fans.[6] In early January 1964, TV
talk show host Jack Paar gave Americans their first prime-time glimpse of Beatlemania in the UK by showing
clips of their concerts and crazed fans.[7]

Beatlemania was already evident when the band arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York
in February 1964, but became common in the United States after the Beatles performed on several editions of
The Ed Sullivan Show the same month; an estimated 73 million people tuned in to their February 9 appearance.
Their tour of the U.S. was characterised by intense levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans
both at concerts and during the band's travels. The extent of Beatlemania in the United States is evidenced by
their sales. During the 6 years between the appearance of the "I Want to Hold Your Hand" single on the
Billboard Hot 100 and the Let It Be LP, the Beatles had the Number One single in the US for a total of 59
weeks and topped the LP charts for 116 weeks. In other words, they had the top-selling single one out of every
six weeks, and the top-selling album one out of every three weeks.[8] The Beatles had large amounts of people,
especially female fans, who enjoyed screaming while their idols sang.[9][10]

By 1965, the unprecedented demand for the Beatles' live performances led to the birth of stadium rock, which
debuted with their summer concert at Shea Stadium.

For the Beatles, the excitement of the mania eventually began to wear off, and by mid-1966 they were worn out
by constant touring, press attention, and ever-larger concert crowds. The crowds became so large that it was
difficult to find concert venues to meet the demand. George Harrison lamented, "The more fame we got, the
more girls came to see us, everybody making a noise so that nobody could hear us."[11] The Beatles had also
become major targets of public outcry for the first time when John Lennon's "More popular than Jesus" remark
spread to the United States. The world experienced its last major Beatlemania event on 29 August 1966 at San
Francisco's Candlestick Park. On that evening the foursome performed their last live concert in front of a crowd
of 25,000 at the end of the Beatles' 1966 US Tour. That night, the Beatles retired from touring and live
performing.[12]

Explanations
Cultural observers and psychologists have long speculated about why Beatlemania became so intense, even in
comparison to other waves of celebrity fandom.

In February 1964, Paul Johnson wrote in the New Statesmanin an article that the magazine now describes as
its "most complained-about piece"that the mania was a modern incarnation of female hysteria, and that the
wild fans at the Beatles' concerts were "the least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle, the failures."[13]
A 1966 study published in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology rejected this conclusion. The researchers
found that Beatles fans were not likelier to score higher on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory's
hysteria scale, nor were they unusually neurotic. Instead, they described Beatlemania as "the passing reaction of
predominantly young adolescent females to group pressures of such a kind that meet their special emotional
needs."[14]

One factor in the intensity of Beatlemania may have been the PostWorld War II baby boom, which gave the
Beatles a larger audience of young fans than previous stars like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.[15] Some
commentators have argued that the Beatles' famous moptop haircuts signaled androgyny and thus presented a
less threatening version of male sexuality to teenage girls intimidated by sex. They wore presentable suits and
were seen as less "sleazy" than Elvis to middle-class whites.[16]

A popular narrative in Beatles literature is that the band's arrival in America was immaculately timed, with a
nation mourning the assassination of John F. Kennedy and trying to rediscover its optimism. However, this
narrative was challenged in a Slate column as being expedient and implicitly Americentric.[17]
The U.K.
See also: Music of the United Kingdom (1960s)

Beatles music
Main article: Beatles music

The arrival of the Beatles in the U.S., and subsequent appearance on The Ed
Sullivan Show, marked the start of the British Invasion in which a large
number of rock and roll, beat and pop performers from Britain gained
massive popularity in the U.S.

In the late 1950s, a flourishing culture of groups began to emerge, often

out of the declining skiffle scene, in major urban centres in the UK like
Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London. This was particularly
true in Liverpool, where it has been estimated that there were around
350 different bands active, often playing ballrooms, concert halls and
clubs.[1] Beat bands were heavily influenced by American bands of the
era, such as Buddy Holly and the Crickets (from which group the
Beatles derived their name), as well as earlier British groups such as the
Shadows.[2] After the national success of the Beatles in Britain from 1962, a
number of Liverpool performers were able to follow them into the charts,
including Gerry & the Pacemakers, the Searchers and Cilla Black. Among the
most successful beat acts from Birmingham were the Spencer Davis Group and
the Moody Blues. From London, the term Tottenham Sound was largely based
around the Dave Clark Five, but other London bands that benefited from the beat
boom of this era included the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and the Kinks. The
first non-Liverpool, non-Brian Epstein-managed band to break through in the UK
were Freddie and the Dreamers, who were based in Manchester,[3] as were
Herman's Hermits.[4] The beat movement provided most of the groups responsible
for the British invasion of the American pop charts in the period after 1964, and
furnished the model for many important developments in pop and rock music.

The Monkees, another popular band dominating the 60s.

The Rolling Stones in 1965

By the end of 1962, the British rock scene had started with beat groups like
the Beatles drawing on a wide range of American influences including soul
music, rhythm and blues and surf music.[5] Initially, they reinterpreted
standard American tunes, playing for dancers doing the twist, for example.
These groups eventually infused their original rock compositions with
increasingly complex musical ideas and a distinctive sound. In mid-1962 the Rolling Stones started as one of a
number of groups increasingly showing blues influence, along with bands like the Animals and the Yardbirds.[6]
During 1963, the Beatles and other beat groups, such as the Searchers and the Hollies, achieved great popularity
and commercial success in Britain itself.
British rock broke through to mainstream popularity in the United States in January 1964 with the success of the
Beatles. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was the band's first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, starting the
British Invasion of the American music charts.[7] The song entered the chart on January 18, 1964 at No. 45
before it became the No. 1 single for 7 weeks and went on to last a total of 15 weeks in the chart.[8] Their first
appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show February 9 is considered a milestone in American pop culture. The
broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, at the time a record for an American television program. The
Beatles went on to become the biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed by numerous British
bands.[9]

During the next two years, Chad & Jeremy, Peter and Gordon, the Animals, Manfred Mann, Petula Clark,
Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the
Troggs, and Donovan would have one or more No. 1 singles.[7] Other acts that were part of the invasion
included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five.[10] British Invasion acts also dominated the music charts at home in
the United Kingdom.[6]

The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent
British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success.[11] In America it arguably spelled the end of
instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols, that had dominated the American
charts in the late 1950s and '60s.[12] It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby
Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis
Presley.[13] The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and
cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as
singer-songwriters.[14]

In parallel with Beat music, in the late 1950s and early 1960s a British blues scene was developing recreating
the sounds of American R&B and later particularly the sounds of bluesmen Robert Johnson, Howling Wolf and
Muddy Waters. It reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s, when it developed a distinctive and
influential style dominated by electric guitar and made international stars of several proponents of the genre
including the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin.

A number of these moved through blues-rock to different forms of rock music and as a result British blues
helped to form many of the subgenres of rock, including psychedelic rock and heavy metal music. Since then
direct interest in the blues in Britain has declined, but many of the key performers have returned to it in recent
years, new acts have emerged and there have been a renewed interest in the genre.[15]

British psychedelia emerged during the mid-1960s, was influenced by psychedelic culture and attempted to
replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of hallucinogenic drugs. The movement drew on non-
Western sources such as Indian music's ragas and sitars as well as studio effects and long instrumental passages
and surreal lyrics. Established British artists such as Eric Burdon, the Who, Cream, Pink Floyd and the Beatles
produced a number of highly psychedelic tunes during the decade. Many British psychedelia bands of the 1960s
never published their music and only appeared in live concerts during that time.
North America
The Kingston Trio, the Weavers, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Bob
Dylan, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Carolyn Hester, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte-
Marie, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Rush, Fred Neil, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, Arlo Guthrie and several other
performers were instrumental in launching the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.[16]

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan during the civil rights "March on Washington", 28 August 1963

Folk Rock

By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of the American folk music revival had grown to a major
movement, utilizing traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic
instruments.[17] In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and
often identified with progressive or labour politics.[17] In the early sixties figures such as Bob Dylan and Joan
Baez had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters.[18] Dylan had begun to reach a mainstream
audience with hits including "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "Masters of War" (1963), which brought "protest
songs" to a wider public,[19] but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained
largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences.[20]

Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" (1964),
which was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation.[21] The
folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds' recording of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine
Man" which topped the charts in 1965.[20] With members who had been part of the cafe-based folk scene in Los
Angeles, the Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which
became a major element in the sound of the genre.[20] Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much
to the outrage of many folk purists, with his "Like a Rolling Stone" becoming a US hit single.[20] Folk rock
particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills and Nash to
move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including the Lovin' Spoonful
and Simon and Garfunkel, with the latter's acoustic "The Sounds of Silence" being remixed with rock
instruments to be the first of many hits.[20]

Folk rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967-68, before many acts moved off in a
variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock.[22] However, the
hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music,
bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song
and concepts of "authenticity".[20][23]
Jimi Hendrix, 1967 The Doors, 1967

Psychedelic Rock

Psychedelic music's LSD-inspired vibe began in the folk scene, with the New York-based Holy Modal
Rounders using the term in their 1964 recording of "Hesitation Blues".[24] The first group to advertise
themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas, at the end of 1965; producing an
album that made their direction clear, with The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators the following
year.[24]

Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed the Byrds from
folk to folk rock from 1965.[25] The Los Angeles-based group the Doors formed in 1965 after a chance meeting
on Venice Beach. Although its charismatic lead singer Jim Morrison died in 1971, the band's popularity has
endured to this day. The psychedelic life style had already developed in San Francisco since about 1964, and
particularly prominent products of the scene were the Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish, the Great
Society and Jefferson Airplane.[25][26] The Byrds rapidly progressed from purely folk rock in 1966 with their
single "Eight Miles High",[27] widely taken[by whom?] to be a reference to drug use.

Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. In America the Summer of Love was
prefaced by the Human Be-In event and reached its peak at the Monterey Pop Festival,[28] the latter helping to
make major American stars of Jimi Hendrix and the Who, whose single "I Can See for Miles" delved into
psychedelic territory.[29] Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors'
Strange Days.[30] These trends climaxed in the 1969 Woodstock Festival,[31] which saw performances by most
of the major psychedelic acts, but by the end of the decade psychedelic rock was in retreat. The Jimi Hendrix
Experience broke up before the end of the decade and many surviving acts, moved away from psychedelia into
more back-to-basics "roots rock", the wider experimentation of progressive rock, or riff laden heavy rock.[25]

Surf Rock

The Beach Boys, 1964

In the early 1960s, one of the most popular forms of rock and roll was
Surf Rock, which was characterized by being nearly entirely
instrumental and by heavy use of reverb on the guitars. The spring
reverb featured in Fender amplifiers of the day, cranked to its
maximum volume, produced a guitar tone shimmering with sustain and
evoking surf and ocean imagery.

Duane Eddy's "Movin' and Groovin" is thought by many to be the main contender for laying the groundwork as
the first surf rock record, while others claim the genre was invented by Dick Dale on "Let's Go Trippin'", which
became a hit throughout California. Most early surf bands were formed in during this decade in the Southern
California area. By the mid-1960s the Beach Boys, who used complex pop harmonies over a basic surf rock
rhythm,[32] had emerged as the dominant surf group and helped popularize the genre.[33] In addition, bands such
as the Ventures, the Shadows, the Atlantics, the Surfaris and the Champs were also among the most popular
Surf Rock bands of the decade.

Garage rock

Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in the mid-1960s and is
called such because of the perception that many of the bands rehearsed in a suburban family garage.[34][35]
Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" being
particularly common.[36] The lyrics and delivery were notably more aggressive than was common at the time,
often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming such as the influential
Washington based band, The Sonics.[34] They ranged from crude one-chord music (like the Seeds) to near-
studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers, the Remains, and the Fifth Estate). There were also
regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas.[36]
The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound.[37]

The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen (1963) is a
mainstream example of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the
national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise),[38] the Trashmen
(Minneapolis)[39] and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana).[40] In this early period many bands were heavily
influenced by surf rock and there was a cross-pollination between garage rock and frat rock, sometimes viewed
as merely a subgenre of garage rock.[41]

The British Invasion of 1964-66 greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience,
leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British Invasion lilt, and encouraging many more groups
to form.[36] Thousands of garage bands were extant in the USA and Canada during the era and hundreds
produced regional hits.[36] Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were
commercial failures. It is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around
1966.[36] By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur
musicians faced college, work or the draft.[36] New styles had evolved to replace garage rock (including blues-
rock, progressive rock and country rock).[36] In Detroit garage rock stayed alive until the early '70s, with bands
like the MC5 and the Stooges, who employed a much more aggressive style. These bands began to be labelled
punk rock and are now often seen as proto-punk or proto-hard rock.[42]

Blues-rock

The American blues-rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack,[43] but the genre
began to take off in the mid-'60s as acts followed developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts
included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many
successful musicians), Canned Heat, the early Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, the J. Geils Band
and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys, whose guitar
virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade.[15] Blues-rock bands like Allman
Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and eventually ZZ Top from the southern states, incorporated country elements
into their style to produce distinctive Southern rock.[44]

Roots rock

Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to a more
basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly country and folk music, leading
to the creation of country rock and Southern rock.[45] In 1966 Bob Dylan spearheaded the movement when he
went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde.[46] This, and subsequent more clearly country-
influenced albums, have been seen as creating the genre of country folk, a route pursued by a number of, largely
acoustic, folk musicians.[46] Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the group the Band and the
Californian-based Creedence Clearwater Revival, both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country
and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s.[47] The same movement saw
the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and Lowell
George,[48] and influenced the work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet
(1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970).[25]

In 1968 Gram Parsons recorded Safe at Home with the International Submarine Band, arguably the first true
country rock album.[49] Later that year he joined the Byrds for Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968), generally
considered one of the most influential recordings in the genre.[49] The Byrds continued in the same vein, but
Parsons left to be joined by another ex-Byrds member Chris Hillman in forming the Flying Burrito Brothers
who helped establish the respectability and parameters of the genre, before Parsons departed to pursue a solo
career.[49] Country rock was particularly popular in the Californian music scene, where it was adopted by bands
including Hearts & Flowers, Poco and Riders of the Purple Sage,[49] the Beau Brummels[49] and the Nitty Gritty
Dirt Band.[50] A number of performers also enjoyed a renaissance by adopting country sounds, including: the
Everly Brothers; one-time teen idol Ricky Nelson who became the frontman for the Stone Canyon Band; former
Monkee Mike Nesmith who formed the First National Band; and Neil Young.[49] The Dillards were, unusually,
a country act, who moved towards rock music.[49] The greatest commercial success for country rock came in the
1970s, with artist including the Doobie Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles (made up of
members of the Burritos, Poco and Stone Canyon Band), who emerged as one of the most successful rock acts
of all time, producing albums that included Hotel California (1976).[51]

The founders of Southern rock are usually thought to be the Allman Brothers Band, who developed a distinctive
sound, largely derived from blues rock, but incorporating elements of boogie, soul and country in the early
1970s.[52] The most successful act to follow them were Lynyrd Skynyrd, who helped establish the "good ol'
boy" image of the subgenre and the general shape of 1970s guitar rock.[52] Their successors included the
fusion/progressive instrumentalists Dixie Dregs, the more country-influenced Outlaws, jazz-leaning Wet Willie
and (incorporating elements of R&B and gospel) the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.[52] After the loss of original
members of the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the genre began to fade in popularity in the late 1970s, but was
sustained the 1980s with acts like .38 Special, Molly Hatchet and the Marshall Tucker Band.[52]

Progressive rock

Progressive rock, sometimes used interchangeably with art rock, was an attempt to move beyond established
musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types and forms.[53] From the mid-1960s
the Left Banke, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of
harpsichords, wind and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard
in singles like Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (1967), with its Bach inspired introduction.[54] The
Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created
orchestral sounds with synthesisers.[53] Classical orchestration, keyboards and synthesisers were a frequent
edition to the established rock format of guitars, bass and drums in subsequent progressive rock.[55]

Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract or based in fantasy
and science fiction.[56] The Pretty Things' SF Sorrow (1968) and the Who's Tommy (1969) introduced the format
of rock operas and opened the door to "concept albums, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand
overarching theme."[57] King Crimson's 1969 dbut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, which mixed
powerful guitar riffs and mellotron, with jazz and symphonic music, is often taken as the key recording in
progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in the early 1970s among existing blues-rock
and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts.[53]
Pop

Chubby Checker during the early 1960s popularizes the enduring dance craze the Twist with his hit cover of
Hank Ballard & the Midnighters' R&B hit "The Twist".[32]

Gerry Goffin and Carole King become a very influential duo in pop music, writing numerous number one hits
including the first song to ever reach number one by a girl group, the Shirelles "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"
and the 1962 number one hit, "The Loco-Motion" which was performed by Little Eva.

Sugar Sugar becomes a big hit for the Archies, defining the bubblegum pop genre.

R&B and Soul

Motown's the Four Tops performing in New Rochelle, New York, 1967

The Detroit-based Motown label develops as a pop-influenced answer

to soul music. The label begins a long run of No. 1 U.S. hit singles in 1961
with "Please Mr. Postman" by the Marvelettes. The label would have
numerous No. 1 Billboard hits throughout the decade and into the 1990s.
Notable Motown acts included the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations,
the Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and the Jackson Five,
who debuted in 1969.
Soul music develops popularity throughout the decade, led by Sam
Cooke, James Brown and Otis Redding, among many others.
Funk begins later in the decade with James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone having early hits.
You Keep Me Hanging On uses a fast tempo which would prove innovative in the development of disco music.
Aretha Franklin's 1967 recordings, such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Respect" (originally
sung by Otis Redding), and "Do Right Woman-Do Right Man", are considered the apogee of the soul genre, and
were among its most commercially successful productions.

Country music
Johnny Cash onstage in Germany

Triumph and great tragedy marked the 1960s in country music. The
genre continued to gain national exposure through network television,
with weekly series and awards programs gaining popularity. Sales of
records continued to rise as new artists and trends came to the forefront.
However, several top stars died under tragic circumstances, including
several who were killed in plane crashes.

The predominant musical style during the decade was the Nashville
Sound, a style that emphasized string sections, background vocals, crooning lead vocals and production styles
seen in country music. The style had first become popular in the late 1950s, in response to the growing
encroachment of rock and roll on the country genre, but saw its greatest success in the 1960s. Artists like Jim
Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Floyd Cramer, Roger Miller and many others achieved great
success through songs such as "He'll Have to Go," "Danny Boy," "Make the World Go Away", "King of the
Road" and "I Fall to Pieces."[58] The country-pop style was also evident on the 1962 album Modern Sounds in
Country and Western Music, recorded by rhythm and blues and soul singer Ray Charles. Charles recorded
covers of traditional country, folk and classical music standards in pop, R&B and jazz styles. The album was
hailed as a critical and commercial success, and would be vastly influential in later country music styles. Songs
from the album that were released for commercial airplay and record sales included "I Can't Stop Loving You,"
"Born to Lose" and "You Don't Know Me."[59]

Among the new artists of the decade, Loretta Lynn was very successful, releasing her first album in 1963 and
peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. She gained a total of 4 number one albums, and 4
number one hit singles during the decade.

By the end of the decade, the Nashville Sound became more polished and streamlined, and became known as
"countrypolitan." Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell, Dottie West and Charley Pride were among the top artists
adopting this style. While George Jones by the early 1960s one of country music's most consistent hitmakers
also recorded countrypolitan-styled music, his background remained pure honky tonk, singing of heartbreak
and lonlieness in many of his songs. Also, Marty Robbins proved to be one of the genre's most diverse singers,
singing everything from straight-ahead country to western to pop to blues ... and even Hawaiian.

Johnny Cashwho became known as "The Man in Black"became one of the most influential musicians of
the 1960s (and eventually, 20th century). Although primarily recording country, his songs and sound spanned
many other genres including rockabilly, blues, folk and gospel.[60] His music showed great compassion for
minorities and others who were shunned by society, including prison inmates. Two of Cash's most successful
albums were recorded live in prison: At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin.

During the latter half of the 1960s, Pride a native of Sledge, Mississippi became the first African-
American superstar in country music, a genre virtually dominated by white artists. Some of his early hits, sang
with a smooth baritone voice and in a style meshing honky-tonk and countrypolitan, included "Just Between
You and Me," "The Easy Part's Over," "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)" and a cover version of Hank Williams'
"Kaw-Liga." Pride continued to be successful for more than 20 years, amassing an eventual 29 No. 1 hits on the
Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.

A newly emerging style, which had its roots in the 1950s but exploded in the mainstream during the 1960s, was
the "Bakersfield sound." Instead of creating a sound similar to mainstream pop music, the Bakersfield sound
used honky tonk as its base and added electric instruments and a backbeat, plus stylistic elements borrowed
from rock and roll. Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Wynn Stewart were some of the top artists adopting this
sound, and by the late 1960s they were among country music's top selling artists.

Dolly Parton, a native of the Smoky Mountains town of Locust Ridge, Tennessee, gained national exposure on
the nationally syndicated program The Porter Wagoner Show. Her mountain-influenced, biographical brand of
country and her down-home personality won many fans, and her star power would only begin to rise.

In addition to the syndicated The Porter Wagoner Show, several other television programs were produced to
allow country music to reach a wider audience, such as The Jimmy Dean Show in mid-decade. At the end of the
decade, Hee Haw began a 23-year run, first on CBS and later in syndication; Hee Haw, hosted by Owens and
Roy Clark was loosely based on the comedy series Rowan & Martin's Laugh In, and incorporated comedy along
with performances by the show's cast or guest performers from the country music field. The Academy of
Country Music and Country Music Association awards programs were telecast for the first time in the late
1960s.

The 1960s were marred with tragedy. Johnny Horton, who sang in the saga-song style, was killed in a car
accident in 1960. A March 5, 1963, plane crash claimed the lives of Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw
Hawkins. Days later, Jack Anglin was killed in a car accident, while Texas Ruby died in a trailer fire in Texas.
In July 1964, Jim Reeves lost his life while piloting a plane near Brentwood, Tennessee. Ira Louvin (one half of
the Louvin Brothers) was killed in a car accident in 1965. Success overcame several of those tragic deaths, as
both Cline and Reeves had many posthumous hits (with previously recorded songs issued after their deaths) and
enjoyed strong followings for many years, while Louvin's brother, Charlie, continued as a successful solo
performer for more than 40 years.

The 1960s began a trend toward a proliferation of No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, thanks
to ever-changing data collecting methods. When the 1960s decade opened, there were but four No. 1 songs
topping the chart (five, if one counts Marty Robbins' "El Paso"), but by the mid-1960s, there were always at
least a dozen songs topping the chart annually. In 1967, there were more than 20 songs reaching the top spot for
the first time ever in a single calendar year ... and that number would only continue to rise during the next 20
years.

Other trends and musical events

Woodstock Festival, August 1969

Late in the decade, the Monterey Pop Festival[28] and Woodstock Music
Festival[31] would epitomize the American counterculture.
Current events become a major influence on popular music. Many songs
are written in protest to the Vietnam War. The song "Ohio" was written
about the Kent State Massacre, and became a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young.
World music sees a huge rise in popularity as many seek interest in
other cultures. Ravi Shankar performs at the Monterey and Woodstock
festivals. Latin Rock artist Carlos Santana sees popularity throughout the decade. George Harrison develops an
interest in the Hare Krishna culture, adding Indian influence to the Beatles' music including the use of a sitar.
Reggae begins to popularize at this time.
In 1969, the Rolling Stones organized the ill-fated Altamont Free Concert.
Songs like "Summertime Blues" and "Eve of Destruction" address the issue of the voting age, which at the time
was 21. The issue was that soldiers were drafted at 18, but could not vote. The voting age was eventually
lowered to eighteen.
A few songs such as Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" address the Civil Rights Movement.