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Korean War begins
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Disc Jockey Appeals to Multi-Racial Audience
Alan Freed of Cleveland, Ohio started spinning up-tempo rhythm and blues hits, and wanted to aim his program beyond his African-American audience base. Freed eventually gained a multi-racial audience, consisting of mostly teenagers. He is also credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to emphasize the cross-current of different musical styles and influences that he featured on his show. -
Introduction of Gibson Les Paul guitar
Although the origins of the electric guitar date back to the 1930's, it became more prominent in the 1950's. One of the earliest proponents of the electric guitar on record during this decade is Les Paul, who introduced the Gibson Les Paul in 1952. Several other notable models came out including the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster. -
Elvis Presley records "That's All Right Mama" at Sun Studios, Memphis
Rock'n'roll's big bang. A 19-year old truck driver fulfils producer Sam Phillips's dream of finding 'a white guy who sings like a negro There were rock'n'roll records before this one, nearly all of them by black artists, but this is the moment when the embryonic form found its perfect embodient. -
Broom vs. Board of Education
Landmark decision of the Supreme Court, declares state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students and denying black children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional -
Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" is released
'Maybellene' was Berry's first paean to cars and girls, two of the constants of American rock'n'roll. His guitar and songwriting style permeated the music of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks incites the Montgomery bus boycott -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Primarily a voting rights bill, becomes the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress since Reconstruction -
Elvis joins the army
When he was drafted at 23, Elvis's blatant sexual energy was still the cause of mass moral pandemonium. When he emerged from the army two years later, he sounded old-fashioned and emasculated. 1960's inflated tearjerker 'It's Now or Never' was the moment the first rock rebel turned MOR entertainer. -
The miracles' 'Shop Around' is released
The first hit bearing the Tamla Motown imprint. The pop-soul label owned by Berry Gordy and operating from downtown Detroit produced more than 100 singles by the likes of Stevie Wonder, the Supremes and the Temptations. Dubbed the Hit Factory, it defined the pop decade more than any other label. -
JFK elected President
John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th President, Johnson, Vice President. -
Vietnam War begins
Vietnam War officially begins with 900 military advisors landing in Saigon -
Phil Spector invents the Wall of Sound
Spector was the first producer as creative artist - and tyrant - treating his vocal groups as just another component int he production process. On multilayered 'wall of sound' songs such as the Crystals' 'He's a Rebel' and the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby', he was the first person to make pop sound epic. -
James Brown: Live at the Apollo
The first million-selling r'n'b album, and a dynamic snapshot of the greatest soul act ever to tread the boards. Brown's influence on modern music is immeasurable, beginning with his impact on Sixties Mod groups and continuing apace with his presence in contemporary urban music. -
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech"
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The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan sparks Women’s Rights Movement -
JFK assassinated
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The Beatles take America
Already the most popular pop group in Europe, the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan's television show in early 1964. The following month, 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' shot to the top of the US charts, swiftly followed by their four previous singles. In March 1964, they occupied the top five chart positions in America. Beatlemania was born. -
Bob Dylan turns the Beatles on
The Beatles met Dylan at the Hotel Delmonico in New York on August 28th. He offered to roll a joint, and the Fab Four had to admit they had never partaken before. 'Until then we'd been scotch and Coke men,' McCartney would say later, 'It sort of changed that evening.' -
British Invasion
The Beatles' triumphant arrival in the States triggers many other British acts to travel to US: The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Peter and Gordon, Donovan, Lulu, Manfred Mann, The Kinks, The Who, The Zombies and many others. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlawing major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, and ended racial segregation in the United States -
LSD hits the streets
Errant chemist Augustus Stanley Owsley III, completed his first batch of home-made LSD in May 1965. The hallucinogen would dramatically transform pop culture over the following two years, making San Francisco the centre of hippydom and begetting Sgt. Pepper's, Pet Sounds and an entire genre called acid rock. -
Bob Dylan releases 'Like a Rolling Stone'
As momentous in its way as Presley;s first single, Dylan's great stream-of-consciousness song clocked in at six minutes and singlehandedly ended the era of the formulaic sub-three-minute pop single. Dense, elliptical and caustic, it marked the high point of Dylan's most intensely creative period - January 1965 to July 1966. The birth of the modern rock song as we know it. -
Dylan plays the Newport Folk Festival
In leather jacket and shades, Dylan walked on stage clutching an electric guitar, and all hell broke loose. As a statement of intent, it was direct and provocative and, while the audience jeered and Pete Seeger tried to chop through the power cables, Dylan blasted the protest-folk era into pop prehistory. -
The Who: 'My Generation'
The Who were the most aggressive - and the artiest - British pop group of the mid-Sixties. Pete Townsend dressed in Union Jack suits, smashed his guitar and wrote songs that perfectly caught the rising tide of teen frustration. The stuttered teen snarl of 'My Generation' remains one of the key moments in British pop, and the most potent evocation of Mod elitism and amphetamine-fueled aggression ever committed to vinyl. -
The Rolling Stones' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' is released
Keith Richards creates the most famous riff in rock and a still youthful Jagger sounds suddenly bored and petulant. The moment the group transcended their American influences and broke America. In retrospect, an omen of all the indulgence and dissolution that was to come. -
First Anti-War March
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Medicare and Medicaid enacted
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The Beatles record 'Tomorrow Never Knows'
Forget the inflated period piece that is Sgt. Pepper's - this was the moment when the Beatles went psychedelic. Tucked at the end of Revolver, 'Tomorrow Never Knows\ was an acid trip turned into a pop song. It still sounds startling in its sonic invention. -
Brian Wilson makes Pet Sounds
While the rest of the Beach Boys toured their greatest hits, Brian Wilson stayed at home in his studio and created pop's enduring masterpiece - and his swansong.Sad songs tied to the most intricate arrangements, it baffled the rest of the band though their vocal harmonizing has never sounded so sublime. It was followed by 'Good Vibrations' which still sounds as close to perfection as a pop single has ever come. -
NOW is formed
Feminist group National Organization of Women is formed -
The Redlands drug bust
The Rolling Stones enshrined their reputation as rock'n'roll outlaws when Mick and Keith were arrested in the latter's Surrey mansion for possession of hash and amphetamines. In court, Richards was given a one-year jail sentence and Jagger three months, prompting the famous Times editorial, 'Who breaks the butterfly on a wheel?' On appeal, they were both acquitted. -
The Velvet Underground and Nico LP is released
Recorded in New York in 1966 but released the following year, the Velvet Underground's debut album was the antithesis of the LSD-fueled optimism that characterized West Coast rock. Produced by Andy Warhol and wrapped in his now famous banana sleeve, the album was reviled on initial release, but is now regarded by many as the most influential rock record ever made. -
Nixon elected President
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Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated
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Civil Rights Act of 1968
Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known as the Fair Housing Act -
Police clash with protesters
Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago outside the National Democratic Convention -
Jimi Hendrix plays 'The Star Spangled Banner' at the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock, which attracted half-a-million rock fans, was the most dramatic mass flowering of the hippy ideal and, as with all defining moments, the beginning of the end of that same ideal. Hendrix's startling assault on the American national anthem was interpreted at the time as a political statement against the Vietnam war, but in retrospect can be read as a swan song for the era of peace and love. Hendrix died in his sleep the following year. -
The Rolling Stones play Altamount
It seems somehow fitting that the Rolling Stones, by then the self-styled Satanic Majesties of rock indulgence and excess, should hold the wake for the death of the sixties. Altamount was the antithesis of Woodstock, culminating with the murder of Meredith Hunter, a young black man who was bludgeoned to death by members of the Californian Hell's Angels who had been hired to provide security, the end of the hippy era. -
The Stooges' first album is released
The greatest and most influential garage band ever, Detroit's the Stooges made stripped down, dumb and dirty rock'n'roll like no one else. Fronted by Iggy Pop, the most outrageously self-destructive showman rock has yet thrown up, their debut album, though dismissed in its day, remains the template for punk rock in all its manifestations, from the Sex Pistols to the White Stripes. -
Stonewall riots in New York
Stonewall riots in NY city marking the start of modern Gay Rights movement -
Woodstock Music Festival
Woodstock in Whitelake, New York