Music and the cultural change that occurred in the 1960s were undeniably interconnected. Music has the potential to impact the development of societal values because of its ability to reach a mass audience. The influences that music and the movements have on each other and mainstream American society are interconnected. The decade of the 1960s is most known for its turbulent and revolutionary social movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement, campus unrest, and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The decade gave birth to artists such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin. These artists and many more, used music as a platform for their voice about cultural conflict and a dialogue of other issues at the time. No area of American culture better encapsulates the complicated decade of the 1960s than the popular music that was conceived as a result of the social and political changes of the decade.

Popular music in the 1960s reflected the change that American culture was experiencing following the assassination of President Kennedy, the United State's role in the war in Vietnam and the continuing Civil Rights Movement. Various music genres were created and stemmed from the social and political events. The Vietnam War was the main proponent for the creation of protest music in the latter half of the 1960s. Anti-war music, which became known as "Protest Music" was used as a space for cultural and political dialog and at times a tool and resource for movements against the war. The tensions surrounding the Vietnam War and the growing generational divide, were mirrored by the music of rock and roll. Rock and roll played an important role in defining the counterculture as a movement of rebellion, sex, drugs and disobedience. The growing popularity of drugs and acid in the youth counter culture led to creation of of psychedelic or acid rock. Psychedelic rock simulated a hallucinogenic high through the arrangement and sounds of the music. The music of the 1960s played a vital role in defining the decade as one of social and political revolution and changing the way music was used from an art form to a social and political platform. 

The History of the 1960s 

The beginning of the 1960s began with the youngest U.S. President, four young black men staged a sit-in at a white's only counter in Greensboro, NC, and the return of Elvis Presley. The decade began with promise and hope for a young generation rebuilding after World War II, with a young president in office, four young men's act of defiance spreading sit ins across the country and the icon of youth culture, returning to celebrate freedom and rebellion. By the end of the decade, J.F.K. and Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the Civil Rights Movement, were both assassinated, and culture wars created a divide between the nation. 

In the 1960s, America was enjoying a prosperous and innovative time during the post World War. While the country was united in advancing technologically, the country was divided socially, especially in the South, where segregation and racism was widely accepted. The 1960s was a time of protest and movements, and the largest movement at the time was The Civil Rights Movement. The movement fought for racial equality and justice in the South, where Jim Crow Laws, and deep racism separated this region of the country. The movement participated in sit-ins, mass meetings, marches, and protests, with Martin Luther King Jr. as the most prominent leader. Music was widely used in support of the movement and the type of music that came from the Civil Rights Movement was reflective of the struggle for freedom that people felt at the time. The 1960s was a time of protest and unrest for injustices occurring at home and eventually overseas. 

While the United States swelled with the growing support of The Civil Rights Movement, another movement began to grow. In the early 1960s, the U.S. involvement in Vietnam gradually escalated as the U.S. intended to stop South Vietnam from falling to communist North Vietnam. By the time of Kennedy's "assassination in November of 1963, there were 16,000 American military personnel stationed in Vietnam" (Candaele). President Johnson, Kennedy's predecessor, increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam towards the middle of the decade, and as the decade came to a close in the year 1968, "there were 550,000 combat troops in Vietnam and rising casualties with no end in sight" (Candaele). The troops being drafted into Vietnam comprised of those born during the baby boom, which was the large number of births following the end of the second World War. The youth generation made up the anti-war movement for the most part due to their growing skepticism, new social and political consciousness about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and because they didn't believe they should be fighting "a rich man's war." Anti-war music, also known as protest music, grew in popularity as a political platform for the youths to protest the war, and to bring light to the moral and ethical disintegration of American society. Youths led the fight against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, The Civil Rights Movements, and would eventually create a counterculture that defined the decade as one of youth domination, socially, politically, and culturally through the use of music. 

The Counter Culture

In the article, The 1960s: A Decade of Promise and Heartbreak by Kenneth T. Walsh,  Walsh quotes social policy essayist, Bruce Bawer as defining " 'The Sixties,' for conservatives, as an explosion of puerile irresponsibility and fashionable rebellion, the wellspring of today's ubiquitous identity politics, debased high culture, sexual permissiveness, and censorious political correctness ... For liberals, the period was a desperately needed corrective that drew attention to America's injustices and started us down the road toward greater fairness and equality for all" (Walsh). The decade of the 1960s created a divided society of the older generation and the newer "baby boomer generation." 

The conservative older generation lived comfortable middle class lives in post war America and gave birth to the baby boomer generation. The baby boomer generation "became frustrated with "conventional moral conduct, civil rights violations, authoritarianism in universities, gender discrimination, the establishment, and, of course, the war in Southeast Asia" (University of Redlands). The youths of the decade began to question the morality and political decisions being made in postwar America and their music tastes mirrored their feeling of unrest (Gilmore). The emerging youth culture became the audience of the evolving rock music. The music of rock and roll attracted the audience of the youth generation largely because of the innovative sounds and the messages that defied the establishment, which in turn influenced the direction of the social revolution. 

Rock and Roll in the 1960s 

The popular music that emerged around the youth culture in the sixties was a representation of  the rejection of the dominant culture in America. Rock and roll was the music of rebellion, disobedience and disrespect; all of which mirrored the growing tensions between the youth culture and the older generation. Rock and roll was revived and reinvented in the 1960s following the arrival of British artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, and The Who. "The 1960s proved that rock is anything but trivial music; it does have impact, and at its worthiest, it still aims to threaten, to draw boundaries, to defy and to win young people over to its view and ethos" (Gilmore).  The music of the 1960s was beginning to shift from pop love songs and began to include messages that highlighted social and political consciousness. 

The music of rock and roll was a reflection of the anger and frustration the youth culture felt towards society's social and political morals. Rock and roll was a notable threat to society's standards and norms because of "the emphasis on unrestrained expression, dance, the relative simplicity of the music and its emphasis on sexuality" (McGovern). The British band, The Beatles, and American singer songwriter Bob Dylan, are among the most notable figures in defining and shaping rock music's impact on society. With The Beatles, Dylan, and other artists of the time writing their own music and lyrics, it allowed for the artists to address social and political issues such as "social inequality, alienation from American life, personal identity, and the Vietnam War" (McGovern). Often merging between the folk rock and rock genres, Dylan was a prolific figure who articulated the growing tensions of the restless generation. Dylan's song, "The Times They Are a-Changing" encompassed the rising tensions that were developing in the decade. "Your old road/ is rapidly agin' / Please get out of the new one/ If you can't lend your hand/ For the times they are a-changin'" (Dylan). Dylan's lyrics spoke for youth culture that was emerging and further emphasized the growing generational gap. Rock musicians not only pushed boundaries with the social and political messages of their lyrics, but they pushed conventional musical boundaries. 

Sixties rock music was capable of more than just disruption and rebellion but it could unite the masses for worthy causes and bring about social change. Rock music was considered to be a collective experience that spoke of cultural and political significance to the young people who then used music to create and express their messages which led to a cultural revolution. Gilmore describes rock and roll as a truism, or threat, and that rock and roll "could and should make a difference: that it was eloquent and inspiring and principled enough to change the world- maybe even to save it" (Gilmore).  The 1960s transformed rock and roll into an art form, capable of expressing emotional and thematic truths while rock and roll transformed the 1960s into a decade of social and political revolution. 

Protest and Anti-War Music

Tensions throughout America rose steadily the more the U.S. became involved with Vietnam. Music always had a role along side any American War. The creation of "Yankee Doodle" in the Revolutionary War, "Dixie" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" during the Civil War and Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" during World War I were all songs composed during times of war that sang words of patriotism and support for America. The songs that came about during Vietnam were noticeably different from the songs of World War II and before. The U.S. involvement in Vietnam led musicians to "transform their empathy, concern, anger, and other emotions into poetry, prose, or in our time, popular music" (Candaele). Popular music in general, and anti-war music specifically, became a space for cultural and political dialog and at times a tool and resource for movements against the war. Political music did not stop the war or remake the country, but it created a social movement that demanded and received the attention of the world. 

During the Vietnam War, music was one of the most powerful ways of voicing opposition of the U.S.' involvement in Vietnam. Folk and rock musician Bob Dylan and many other anti-war musicians used their lyrics to poetically express the "mass confusion, frustration and anger and how many parents' sons and daughters were being sent off to war" (Hopkins). Protest music was a combination of different styles and influences of music including rock, blues, Motown and psychedelic music. In 1969, Edwin Starr wrote what is considered to be the most direct anti war song ever recorded called "War". Starr's lyrics "War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker/War, friend only to the undertaker" reminded listeners of the lives being lost in this bloody human conflict. Artists protested the war through the messages in their lyrics but also through musical style and arrangement. In the song "War" a combination of Starr's shouts and the rhythmic beats, Starr created a song that aurally depicted the war itself. One of the most notable antiwar songs that used solely instrumental music was Jimmy Hendrix's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. Hendrix's rendition imitated the sounds of war, including machine gunfire and explosions through manipulating his guitar's sounds with his use of distortion and whammy bar techniques (Hopkins). Hendrix's performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" encapsulated the essence of the 1960s and the disenchantment that the generation felt towards the United States. 

Folk and rock musician Bob Dylan, became the most prolific person in protest music. Dylan's song "Like a Rolling Stone" pointed the finger and criticized and anonymous establishment with the recurring theme of alienation and anger to society. The song gained popularity on the music charts where it remained for weeks. The powerful message and relevancy of the song led many to think of it as "the theme song of the sixties, and, more than any other, it was the song that brought a kind of truth-bearing meaning into popular music" (Eyerman, Jamison 125).  Dylan's biggest hit perfectly encompassed the decade and the spirit of a generation that was trying to break off from main stream society and live by their own rules. With this song, Dylan not only continued to give a voice to the rising political consciousness but began to voice the fears and hopes of his audience. Dylan and other artists of the time changed the standards of music by showing that music could be complex and poetic and that "popular songs could be a kind of exemplary, truth-bearing action: by singing them, dancing to them, comprehending them, something significant about one's self and one's world could be revealed" (Eyerman, Jamison 129). The music of the 1960s that developed in protest against racism, war and injustice helped to shape a new kind of politics. Artists such as Dylan, Hendrix, Starr and other famous anti-war musicians used music as a medium for addressing the issues that affected the generation and the generations to follow. The use of music with protests in the 1960s helped to integrate music in becoming a key role in affecting society and culture. 

Psychedelic Music, Drugs, and the Hippie Culture 

In line with the counter culture of rebellion and breaking away from mainstream society, one subculture developed known as the Hippie Movement. The hippies' main platform was peace, love, freedom from commercial products, and concern for environmental issues. The hippies searched for personal liberation and community in a form of utopian world. The hippie movement found their sense of freedom and self awareness in the drug LSD. "LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE, which concentrated upon the liver, produced chemical change in the body, and thereby affected the brain" and created intense and vivid hallucinogenic highs (Harris). With the growing use of LSD, musicians began to recreate the experience of tripping on acid as well as the experience of creating the music while under the influence of the drug. This music genre became known as psychedelic music.
