1960s in music

[10] 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.

[19] 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.

[21] 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 1960s.

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.

The Kingston Trio, the Weavers, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Carolyn Hester, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Dave Van Ronk, The Mamas and the Papas, Tom Rush, Simon & Garfunkel, 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.

[30] 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.

[32] Other New York City based singer-songwriters began to emerge, using the urban landscape as their canvass for lyrics in the confessional style of poets like Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath.

In July, 1969, Newsweek magazine ran a feature story, "The Girls-Letting Go," describing the groundbreaking music of Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Lotti Golden and Melanie, as a new breed of female troubadour: "What is common to them are the personalized songs they write, like voyages of self discovery, brimming with keen observation and startling in the impact of their poetry."

[40] 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.

In America the Summer of Love was prefaced by the Human Be-In event and reached its peak at the Monterey Pop Festival,[43] 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.

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.

[51] 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.

By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise),[53] the Trashmen (Minneapolis)[54] and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana).

[57] The American blues-rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack,[58] but the genre began to take off in the mid-'60s as acts followed developed a sound similar to British blues musicians.

[63] The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George,[64] and influenced the work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970).

[68] 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.

[69] 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.

[72] 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.

[47] The Brill Building at 1619 Broadway in New York City became the centre of the American music industry that dominated the pop charts in the early 1960s, nurturing many prolific songwriting partnerships.

Likewise, songwriting couple Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry turned out a stream of charting songs, including "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Be My Baby", "Then He Kissed Me", and "Leader of the Pack"; whilst Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were behind several major hits of the era, including "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", the recording of which by the Righteous Brothers became the most played record on air in the 20th century.

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.

"[75] 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.

Johnny Cash, who began his career at Sun Records in the 1950s with hits such as "I Walk The Line," ultimately became one of the most influential musicians of the 1960s (and eventually, 20th century), and was labeled "The Man In Black."

Some of his early hits, sung 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."

By early 1961, Nelson's songwriting was gaining national attention, as several of his songs became country standards: "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls", "Pretty Paper", "Night Life" and "Crazy" ... all of them for other artists including – respectively – Billy Walker, Faron Young, Roy Orbison, Ray Price and Patsy Cline.

This was specifically inspired by a song, "Harper Valley PTA," written by singer/songwriter Tom T. Hall about a miniskirt-wearing widowed mother of a teenage girl who was criticized by local school officials for supposedly setting a bad example for her daughter.

His most famous songs include Voy a apagar la luz (I'm Going to Turn Off the Lights), Contigo Aprendí (With you I Learnt... ), Adoro (Adore), No sé tú (I don't know if you...), Por Debajo de la Mesa (Under the Table) Esta Tarde Vi Llover (English version "Yesterday I Heard the Rain"), Somos Novios (English version "It's Impossible"), Felicidad (Happiness) and Nada Personal (Nothing Personal).

Singers and musical groups like Angelica Maria, César Costa, Enrique Guzmán performed cover versions of songs by Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra, Paul Anka and others.

Young composers, like David Ahern, emerged, initially inspired by ideas of the European avant-garde, and applying them to Australian icons, such as Captain Cook and Ned Kelly.