HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT
2. The
1960s
In
1964 the Beatles traveled to New York City to appear on a television broadcast (“The Ed
Sullivan Show,” 1948 to 1971) and launched the so-called British Invasion. Influenced by
American recordings, British pop bands of the period invigorated the popular music
mainstream and confirmed the international stature of rock music. Soon, several British
groups had developed individual distinctive styles: The Beatles combined the guitar-based
rock and roll of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly with the artistry of the Tin Pan Alley style;
the Animals blended blues and R&B influences; and the Rolling Stones joined aspects of
Chicago blues to their intense, forceful music.
As
with early rock and roll, the major American record companies did not take the British
bands seriously at first—the Beatles' first hit singles in the United States were
released through small, independent record companies. Soon, however, the success of the
British bands became too difficult to ignore, and some American musicians reacted by
developing their own styles. In 1965 Bob Dylan performed live and in-studio with a band
that played electric instruments, alienating many folk-music purists in the process. The
folk-rock style was further pioneered the same year by the American band the Byrds, who
had a number-one hit on the Billboard magazine music charts with a version of
Dylan's song “Mr. Tambourine Man.” The short-lived group Buffalo Springfield, formed
in 1966, blended aspects of rock and country-and-western music to create country rock.
During
the late 1960s, rock music diversified further into new styles while consolidating its
position in the mainstream of American popular music. The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the first rock concept album, established new
standards for studio recording and helped to establish the notion of the rock musician as
a creative artist. Once again, American musicians responded to the British musical
stimulus by experimenting with new forms, technologies, and stylistic influences.
San
Francisco rock, or psychedelic rock, emerged about 1966 and was associated with the use of
hallucinogenic drugs, such as Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, or LSD; psychedelic art and
light shows; and an emphasis on spontaneity and communitarian values, epitomized in
free-form events called be-ins. Musicians such as Jerry Garcia and the Grateful
Dead experimented with long, improvised stretches of music called jams. Despite the
antiestablishment orientation of the youth culture in San Francisco, such musicians and
groups as Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Santana (led by Carlos Santana) signed
lucrative contracts with major recording companies.
Another
important center of rock music in the 1960s was Los Angeles, where film student Jim
Morrison formed the group the Doors and guitarist and composer Frank Zappa developed a
unique blend of risqué
humor and complex jazz-influenced compositional forms with his group the Mothers of
Invention. In the late 1960s hard rock emerged, focusing on thick layers of sound,
loud volume levels, and virtuoso guitar solos. In London, American Jimi Hendrix developed
a highly influential electric-guitar style. His fiery technique gained exposure at the
first large-scale rock festivals in the United States, Monterey Pop (1967) and Woodstock
(1969). In 1966 the first so-called power trio was formed in London—the band Cream,
which showcased the virtuosity of guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer
Ginger Baker. In the late 1960s additional styles emerged in the United States, including
southern rock, pioneered by the Allman Brothers Band; jazz rock, proponents of which
included the band Blood, Sweat and Tears; and Latin rock (a blend of Latin American music,
jazz and rock influences, and R&B styles), exemplified by the music of Santana.