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Music Of The 1960s Essay

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Music of the 1960’s

From The British Invasion to Woodstock

The 1960’s were arguably the most influential years in American music’s history. The music helped connect people of all races, whom enjoyed visiting jazz-clubs in the early to mid-60s, to listen to the music and poetry performed by African-Americans. Much of the music from the 1960s also led to the creation and popularization of new genres and subgenres, such as rock-and-roll. These new music styles influenced the lifestyles of a large majority of Americans, particularly teenagers and young-adults, who mimicked the lifestyles of many stars of the time.

The most popular music during the early 1960s was jazz. Whites and African-Americans alike visited popular jazz clubs of the time, such as The Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, to listen to popular black artists performing blues, jazz, and poetry. Some of the more popular artists included the trumpeter Louis Armstrong, singer Bessie Smith, and saxophonist John Coltrane and his many different quartets. This mingling of the races was key in the acceptance of each other and the …show more content…

From that moment on rock was there to stay. With an almost empty genre of music, the creative opportunity was infinite, which large scores of bands that took advantage of. Alongside The Beatles, other popular rock bands of the time were The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, all of whom were British. While British-rock bands dominated the scene of rock-and-roll, American bands began making many variations of the genre, which became known as the aforementioned subgenres. Arguably the most popular in the states was psychedelic-rock, headed by many artists such as The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors. Other mainstream sub genre artists included folk-rock Bob Dylan, blues-rock Santana, and surf-rock The Beach

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