- The Beatles, a British band composed of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, & Ringo Starr, were the most well known band during the 1960's. They were the face of the British Invasion, bringing their mop top hair & pop music over to America & taking the country by storm. They influenced not only the music scene, but the fashion one as well. Beatlemania lasted throughout the different incarnations of the band, from lovable wholesome pop darlings to drug addled hippies. The end of the decade saw the end of the Beatles.
- The Rolling Stones were another British bband that were highly popular at this time. Hailed as the anti-Beatles, the Stones were more in your face & pure rock&roll than their fellow Britains. Magazines tried to pit the two bands against each other & claimed they were feuding all of the time, but in reality they were good friends. The Beatles even gave the Stones one of their songs, "I Wanna Be Your Man" to record. At the end of the decade, both bands were still riding high in popularity, but the Stones were the only ones that stuck together-- in fact, they are still together, releasing music & touring today!
- Other big names in the music scene duringg this time include the Beach Boys, the Shangri-La's, the Supremes, Bob Dylan, the Dave Clark Five, The Monkees, & others. The interesting thing about the latter group is that they were a British made-for-tv group that did not actually perform the songs they were supposedly singing, yet they still caused a big sensation. In addition to the radio friendly sound of these bands, there were popular bands such as the Grateful Dead & Jefferson Airplane, which were bands mainly listened to by hippies that ironically managed to gain their big breaks in the music scene, so to speak, after the hippie movement died down. The 1960's also experienced the rise of the guitar gods, including such people as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, & Eric Clapton.
- #1 Songs of the 1960's.
[For some unknown reason, that link does NOT want to work. If it messes up, try this instead.]
