1960: The Beatles
In the year 1960, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, four young men from Liverpool, formed a band known as the Quarrymen. The band got renamed as the Beatles. In 1961, they found a manager and made their first scores, and by the year 1962, they were already making concerts all around Europe. The Beatles were the first pioneers of modern pop music. After 10 years, the band dissolved in 1970 when each men began his individual career.
The Beatles were revolutionary musicians. They became the first pioneers of modern pop music. Their music is the milestone in music transformations. Almost every popular band or musician from the last 50 years, from U2 and Coldplay to Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran, can trace its musical influences back to the Beatles.
1960s: The British Invasion
Inspired by the Beatles, many famous bands and musicians originated in Great Britain. Bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and the Who, and musicians such as David Bowie, made up the wave of musical history known as the British Invasion. This refers to the musical acts, as well as other aspects of British pop culture, that became popular in America during the 60s. The Invasion truly began when the Beatles made their appearance at The Ed Sullivan Show on 1964.
The British Invasion didn’t only involved musical acts, but also other aspects of pop culture, such as films (Bond series), and TV series (The Saint, Danger Man), and musical theatre (My Fair Lady). The British Invasion also led to a wave of artistic exchange between countries. To the actual day, British musicians such as Adele, Jessie J, Natasha Bedingfield and Taio Cruz enjoy success in American charts. The Beatles’ historical presentation on American television influenced the modern world in more ways that its members would ever imagine.
1960s: Love Ballads and Purple Haze, American Rock
While the Beatles enamored American audiences, Elvis Presley, the king of rock n roll, still produced some hot records. Rock n roll had evolved into something bigger: Rock music. The classic rock n roll mixed itself with other genres and spurred many divisions. Dick Dale’s "Misirlou” and the Beach Boys’ "Good Vibrations” were good examples of surf rock. Jimi Hendrix’s guitar strums and the Doors’ lyrics are examples of psychedelic rock. Jefferson Airplane also dominated the musical scene of San Francisco, and Roy Orbinson wrote the first romantic love ballads for the genre.
Hendrix and his contemporaries represented the turn from rock n roll to rock. Along with British bands such as the Rolling Stones, all of these musicians represent a panorama of new opportunities for young people. Music had completely gone from being simply a form of entertainment to being a medium of expression for the young people.
1969: Music Rocks at Woodstock
In 1969, while Nixon became president and Armstrong set foot on the moon, a dairy farm became the site for 3 days of peace. Between August 15th and August 18th, Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm at New York was the venue for a conglomeration that forever changed music history: The Woodstock Music Festival. The conglomeration attracted a crowd of more than 400,000. Lasting for four days, the festival presented some of the most important musical acts of the decade, such as Bob Dylan, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix, who played outdoors through the rain. Hendrix closed the festival, in which he presented his iconic electric guitar rendition of the US national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner”, which has been parodied in a lot of movies and TV shows.
Woodstock is highly regarded as one of the most defining moments in the history of music. The Rolling Stone magazine set it as one of the top moments that defined rock history. It gathered a huge crowd and remains a defining pinnacle in the history of music and the postwar world.