Research: Music - 60's

The 60's saw the origin of many new musicians, some similar, some quite different.


Known as the swinging 60's due to culture becoming more relaxed on matters such as racism and sexism, music related to what was happening. People were experimenting with new things such as drugs and sexuality.
Psychedelic rock was a new brand of music becoming increasingly popular, and was a reflection of mind-altering drugs such as LSD.


A huge number of musicians and bands grew to popular success during this time.
One of my favourite musicians to gain popularity was Jimi Hendrix, considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Many of his songs referenced drugs or drug use. Purple Haze is considered one of these, however Hendrix did deny this allegation, claiming it to be a love song.

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix headlined Woodstock in 1969, an iconic music festival which described itself as 'three days of peace and music. Although the festival was built to hold 150,000 to 200,000 people, 500,000 turned up, as the line-up had very attractive musicians set to play such as Credence Clearwater Revival, the Who and Santana.


The 60's was also the start of the careers of the likes of Ritchie Blackmore, an English guitarist who is most well known for his part in Deep Purple and Rainbow. Eric Clapton also joined psychedelic rock group Cream and helped drive them to popular success.


The Beatles also emerged in the early 60's, following a theme of psychedelic rock, mixed with pop music.
From Liverpool, England, they became popular as a four piece band with their debut album 'Please Please Me', which rose to number 1 in most music charts.

The Beatles

Many of their songs had references to love, sex and drugs similar to other current bands. Songs such as 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' aroused speculation as the letters spelled LSD, although John Lennon also denied these accusations. Despite this, it is widely believed it is a song about a trip on hallucinogenic drugs.

'Beatlemania' took over popular culture, and in their 10 year reign, they released 12 core albums, as well as 15 international versions.