Without arguing about the most influential era, the 60's certainly were influential. And it was perhaps a perfect storm of a multitude of different things coming together all at once. read more
The sixties (especially 1960-67) were for me personally and for music in general here in the U.K such an influential period, for the two reasons of young people now being in a position to purchase records and provide a market for the record labels, and then the offshore pirate radio stations generating a bigger market by giving much greater exposure of pop music and especially new artists to the British listeners. read more
In addition to songs of social protest, rock and roll music continued to be popular in America during the nineteen sixties. The most popular group, however, was not American. It was British -- the Beatles -- four rock and roll musicians from Liverpool. read more
Even when the lyrics of songs were not overtly directed towards the description of social conditions and a call to improve them, as was so characteristic of the folk music of the 1960s and 1970s, music was, and always has been, shaped by the conditions of the larger panorama of the socio-cultural moment. read more
In Asia, various trends marked the popular music of the 1960s. In Japan, the decade saw the rise in popularity of several Western popular music groups such as The Beatles. The success of rock music and bands in the Japan started a new generation, known as Group Sounds, which was popular in the latter half of the decade. read more