From Psychedelia to Radical Folk, The Sounds of the Sixties are Alive and Kicking

“If you can remember anything about the 60’s, you weren’t really there…” – Paul Kanter

The 1960’s were an era of great turmoil, particularly in the United States. From the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, to the Kennedy assassinations, Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War, the Swinging Decade wasn’t entirely full of free love. But from great conflict erupted the amazing music scene that paved the path for a series of talented new artists like Sonny & Cher, Jimi Hendrix, and the Doors. By 1964, the American music scene was filling up with a whole slew of rising bands from the UK, and new sounds from American bands bringing rise to new styles of music like Psychedelia, Alternative Rock, and Radical Folk.

“The British Invasion,” as it has been coined, was perhaps the most significant music event of the 1960’s, introducing North America to the alternative sounds of bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Dave Clark Five. The Beatles, a foursome of long haired British lads, are generally credited with leading the invasion. American audiences were ready to move away from the doo-wop and saxophone sounds of the 1950’s, and into the psychedelic blend of pop, beat, and rock & roll music. It was no time before The Beatles’ records were hitting #1 on the charts. The Rolling Stones too experienced great success with their brand of blues, R&B, and rock and roll, and their unkempt, surly youth image is one that seems to have stuck with generations of Rock musicians.

The invasion of UK artists was an exciting time for America, but plenty was happening musically on the home front – chiefly, the rise of psychedelic music. As a definition, psychedelia is almost too broad to pinpoint. Elaborate studio effects like reverb, exotic instrumentation (Sitar etc.), and surreal lyrics were the psychedelic staples of many bands and artists including Motown, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, The Beatles, and more. There was a rise of alternative culture, creating a powerful market for radical music, and for influential artists like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, the 60’s were a great time share a message.

Alternative Rock and Psychedelic Music weren’t the only genres gripping the charts during the 60’s. A new folk tradition was being carefully pioneered by artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. The 1960’s were home to all kinds of new development in the music market, and the folk tradition was dying out. Artists like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seger, orchestrated an American Folk Music Revival, and helped popularize the lyrical style of the 60’s with hits like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Love is Just a Four Letter Word.”

The 1960’s world was one of great conflict and passion, a place in which music was reinvented to reflect the values of a new society. Woodstock, a music and arts festival held in New York in 1969, encapsulated the counterculture that was the 1960’s – the ‘hippie era.’ From Psychedelia and alternative rock, to radical folk music that redefined the genre, the 1960’s birthed a brand of music that will never fade.

Today, online music sources, and countless radio stations across the world, make the sounds of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan, available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.