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1960's

The 1960s can still be considered to be the most explosive era for rock music. It was in the 60s that rock-and-roll lost the innocence of the bobby-soxers of the 50s "good times" happy feeling of simple beats and lyrics, giving way to hard rock, acid rock and the first rumblings of heavy metal.

Of course, the 1960s were dominated by the British invasion, starting with The Beatles and followed quickly by their "dark shadows" the Rolling Stones. But incredible American acts also emerged in the 60s, and their offerings went from sweet and soulful country rock, to some pretty heavy stuff.

One of the "darker" but extremely popular American bands of the later 60s was The Doors, fronted by Jim Morrison. The Doors gained huge popularity with songs such as "Light My Fire,' "Break On Through" and "LA Woman."

On the other end of the spectrum were lighter "hippy" bands, such as "The Greatful Dead" who never had a lot of top 40 hits, but who enjoyed a huge cult following. Other perhaps lighter, more commercial rock bands were The Turtles, Lovin' Spoonful and The Byrds. The Bryds were innovators of folk rock. It was rock influenced by country and folk styles. Thhe Byrds had huge hits with "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Mr. Tambourine Man."

Of course, the 1960s saw the emergence of probably the single most important artist in all of rock (according to Rolling Stone magazine) Bob Dylan. Dylan is not only a writer and lyricist of genius who scored dozens of his own hits, but an amazing array of other acts have recorded and covered his songs.

Many hard-edged rockers exploded on the scene in the late 60s, including wizard-guitarist Jimmy Hendrix and the raspy voiced Janis Joplin. Both lived hard and died young, but remain immortal in the annals of rock music.

It's impossible to name the entire constellation of truly big American names of 60s rock -- Grace Slick and her band Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Santana, Credence Clearwater Revival, Blood Sweat & Tears and many more.

Of course, the amazing 1960s came to and end in "the Summer of Love", 1969, when the mother rock concert of them all took place - Woodstock - which featured just about everybody who was anybody in the rock world, a concert which defined a generation.

The music of 1960s is still going absolutely as strong today as it was 40 to 50 years ago. Why is the music of this era still popular? Well, sociologists, musicologists, writers, journalists, philosopher and authors have been talking about this since it all ended in 1969.

Part of the reason that this music has endured is because of the huge social changes that erupted through the 60s, including the drug culture, the hippy lifestyle, the war in Vietnam, the space race - the music of that era was speaking to all of these issues, which played a central role in the lives of just about everyone, whether they participated in events or not.

Of course, all this is well and good, but perhaps the bottom line is, the music of the 1960s was just flat out good. When it came on the radio, we all listened and it was amazing. It transported us to a new world, and that affect has lasted to the present day.