The 1960s brought about a fundamental change in the way music sounded, the way it was made and the way it would be sold. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly may have begun the rock 'n' roll revolution, but bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones perfected it. Soul music hit its stride with Motown and Stax Records churning out hit after hit. Meanwhile, jazz continued to evolve with Miles Davis looking for ways to innovate and create, culminating in some of his best and polarizing work. It was a decade of change, but one that ultimately served as the foundation for the way music would run through the end of the century.
The British Invasion
The Beatles began the British Invasion with their 1962 debut album "Please Please Me." They were soon followed by albums from the Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks, all of which built upon the blues and rockabilly foundations of American artists from the 1950s. While The Beatles were the true trendsetters, developing the album as an art form and perfecting the use of the studios, the other band followed suit bringing about a sort of competition. The Beatles would implode and break up by the end of the decade, but the Rolling Stones and The Who continued to record, with The Who breaking new ground by creating the rock opera with 1969's "Tommy."
American Rock and Roll
In America, rock music stayed relatively quiet in the early part of the decade with most bands aping the sounds that were coming from Britain, with the exception of the Beach Boys, who matched the Beatles in terms of studio capabilities. Bob Dylan, who began as a folk poet known for his fiery lyrics, began to branch out into rock 'n' roll, becoming perhaps the best American musician of his time. Near the end of the decade, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and Janis Joplin emerged to great acclaim, bringing about a change again in sound, incorporating elements of psychedelia into rock music. At the same time, The Stooges and the Velvet Underground found very little success, but would become a major influence on the punk community in the later decades.
Soul Music
Soul and R&B emerged as a major force in America with artists such as Otis Redding, James Brown and Sam Cooke became the voices of the Civil Rights movement. Motown Records became a hit-making machine with a number of hit singles from the likes of The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and many more. The Supremes would rival the Beatles in terms of singles sold.
Miles Davis and Jazz
Miles Davis led the charge for jazz into the 1960s. As the decade progressed, he began to incorporate elements of rock while experimenting with different time signatures. By 1969, with the recording of "Bitches Brew," Davis had successfully brought about jazz fusion, an element that he would continue to experiment with into the 1970s.
Rolling Stone Magazine
With the rise in popularity of rock 'n' roll came several magazines designed to cover the music. Rolling Stone, created in 1967, was the most prominent of these because of its coverage of the scene as well as the way it treated its subjects seriously.
