Music of the 60

Music of the 1960s was characteristic of the revolution that was going on during the decade. It was a time of rebellion and counter-culture in which the younger people were questioning everything,including authority, corporations, the government, and other aspects of everyday life. It was essentially a revolution of the status quo. This gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement of the decade alongwith other movements that affected the rights of society as a whole.

The British Invasion was a movement during the mid-1960s in which several bands in the UK were creating a buzz in the UnitedStates. The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Animals, and The Beatles were some of the prominent bands that defined this movement. The Beatles emerged as the most popular and they are also one of the mostbands in history in terms of commercial success. They began a trend in the United States and the UK because of their catchy tunes and boyish good looks. The young girls of the decade literally swoonedin their presence. The Beatles quickly made a cultural impact with their lyrics and their tendency to experiment with different musical sounds. Even though they were reported to be “just a fad”following their Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1964 , they are still consistently ranked as the #1 band on list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time poll done by Rolling Stone magazine.

The Beatlesalso created a great deal of controversy while their popularity flourished. John Lennon, one of the band’s leaders, made a statement at the height of their popularity, saying that The Beatles were morepopular than Jesus. This set off a hailstorm of album burnings and boycotts of their albums, but their success did not suffer. Elvis Presley even met with then-President Nixon and asked him to banThe Beatles from entering the United States because they had lifestyles that encouraged drug use and they were anti-war. To many people of this era, anti-war meant being anti-American. In the eyes of...