The 1960's were an amazing time for music! Rock and roll was will new and so many great things were being done with it. It became so many different sounds and types in really just a short period of time. The rock and roll of the 60's was being taken by people who made it their own and molded it how they thought it should be.
Girl power was born in the 1960's!! You had amazing rock divas like Aretha and Cher who started off their long and illustrious careers. There were tons of amazing girl groups too. The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las and The Shirelles (to name just a few) were topping charts like no other. I always had this dream about starting my own girl group like the ones from the 1960's, they just always seem so poised and cool.
The British were coming in droves to the U.S. and not just ones that sounded like the Beatles. The Rolling Stones and the Kinks were tearing things up with insane guitar riffs and lyrics. I can remember when I was younger listening to the Kinks all the time with my dad. Theirs songs don't necessarily seem so full of raw emotion with how today's music sounds but I did and still think they have that unbridled passion.
The U.S. wasn't slacking though turning out crooners like the Righteous Brothers, Percy Sledge, and Marvin Gaye. The African American groups such as the Four Tops, The Temptations and The Chambers Brothers playing songs that just stick with you for the rest of your life.
Another movement during the 60's was that of folk rock. Folk was pioneered early on by artists like Woody Guthrie, people like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan came along and really melded folk and rock together making it more mainstream. Taking what they started groups like the Mamas and the Papas, Lovin' Spoonful and Crosby, Stills & Nash moved to using electric instrumentation but with the folk sound.
Drugs ended up being a huge influence in both songs and types of music that emerged, the most prevalent one being psychedelic rock. It seemed that every band had a song that "referred" to drugs, even today so many songs are still questionable about whether or not they're referring to drugs. Jimi Hendrix and others propelled the crazy psychedelic guitar riffs into immortality. Some songs it seems you can only understand if you're on drugs. Psychedelic rock is just nuts. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is one of my all time favorite songs. For years I would listen to this song on repeat ... on my record player. Pretty sure my parents would have thought I was on drugs if I wasn't in fifth grade!
After starting to write this post I realized there was no way I could really do any of the artists and songs I love so much from the 1960's any justice by doing one post. So let's just call this one a brief outline and a taste of what is more to come later on Tunes on Tuesday. Here is a couple more of my all time favorites : )
I went through a phase where I only listened to oldies when I was younger. I have to be in the mood to listen to them now though. Unless it's the Beatles. They will always be one of my favorites.
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