The 1960s was a time of great upheaval of fashion, attitude and especially music in society. Popular styles of music began to diverge from rock and roll and develop into several sub genres of rock. In the early 1960s, surf rock began to take over the charts as early as 1961, following the release of Dick Dales’ regional hit “Let’s Go Trippin’” which in a way launched surf rock into popularity. It was a mostly instrumental style which started in Southern California as a type of dance music, before its fame spread wider across the US. The most influential group of the genre was The Beach Boys who were also one of the only bands to sustain their success to this day. Surf rock continued to be extremely popular before British Invasion began to creep into fame. The “British Invasion” is the name given to a period in the early 1960s when many British rock/pop artists became extremely popular in the US and worldwide. Many of them started by creating covers of American rock and roll and rhythm and blues (R&B) influence. The most well-known band that comes to mind when mentioning British Invasion is The Beatles, who jumped into the US music scene in 1963, but mainly became popular in 1964 after their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. They dominated the charts worldwide until their breakup in 1970 but are easily called the most influential group of the 1960s.

Towards the mid-1960s, a subgenre of rock called hard rock began to form. Hard rock artists would take elements of rock and roll and make them heavier, with more aggressive tones and delivery and many vocalists having distinctly higher vocal ranges or raspy voices. The style was heavily influenced by blues rock, garage rock and R&B an went on to become associated with ‘rebellious youth’ and anti-authority with some stage acts even destroying their instruments on stage. However, many musicians of the hard rock scene developed drug and alcohol problems, which unfortunately caused some influential artists, such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, to die at a young age due to substance abuse or accidents caused by them.

Around a similar time and a bit later to when hard rock began to form, roots rock started to emerge, creating a style made up of a mix of many styles of popular rock. It has a distinct ‘back to basics’ sound, due to the artists wanting to create a more natural and less polished sound to mainstream hits. Bob Dylan is one of the most significant roots rock artists, with his 1966 album ‘Blonde on Blonde’ setting an example for what a roots rock is. Many popular bands joined roots revival which was the popularisation of non-mainstream and independent of folk music. Similarly growing in the 1960s, folk rock was becoming popular throughout the US and other places. Much of it was born from emerging singer-songwriters heavily inspired by folk musicians of the 1930s and its style is heavily characterised by its melodic sound. Bob Dylan became a significant one of these singer-songwriters due to popular artists of the time such as ‘The Byrds and Peter’ and ‘Paul and Mary’ covering his songs. Many songs of folk rock also grew out of the protest movements which were active at the time. Some folk rock songs did not necessarily have links to protest movements but many implemented them into the lyrics of their songs.

Another similar style at the time was protest music, which as the name suggests, it was used as a form of protest or even rebellion. What made this style so different is that it always had some sort of message and was not limited to the sound or style of folk like folk rock. Protest music was very often a response to a social injustice, cultural change or news events. It was also not specific to certain artists and even many mainstream artists participated. This brought awareness to younger generations who would then go on to grow those movements. Protest music was used during the Vietnam war as a part of the anti-war movement. This movement began in the US after more and more American troops were being sent to fight in Vietnam with little to no progress being made, causing American citizens to start protesting.

1960s Rock and Roll compositional techniques

Harmonies and vocal arrangements

Throughout the 60s, chord progressions began to get more complex and interesting and so did vocal lines. Many songwriters experimented with many layered vocal harmonies. Some of the things that were experimented with were the use of parallel thirds and countermovement. Many of the layered harmonies are sung by backing singers, who sing backing vocals which could often be as simple as just 'ooh's and 'ah's on various notes.

1960s Rock and Roll production techniques

Stereo mixing

Stereo mixing involves attempting to alter the qualities of each part individually and/or as a whole with the ideal result of creating a sound which is close enough to as if you were hearing an actual live performance. If involving a video of sorts, even matching up the contents of the video with what is being heard is important for a 'perfect mix'. So in the end product, what the listener would hear is a clear, balanced and evenly spaced out parts, which should sound like a natural live performance, yet the process for attaining this is far from natural.

Notable Producers/musicians

Technology used in the 1960s Rock and Roll recordings