The Swingin' 60's

Before the 60's, music in the UK was, for want of a better word, polite. Songs were simple and mainly revolved around a theme of love or joy. There wasn't any experimenting or pushing of the boundaries until the era of sex, drugs and rock n roll – the 60’s. The 60’s brought about counterculture and rebellion. All that jazz became well…outdated. Artists like The Doors, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan inspired people to stand up for something and so, people did and society changed.

New and exciting genres were born, ‘Rock’ was given sub-genre’s, hard rock or soft rock, psychedelic rock or progressive rock. Soul and Motown music became mainstream thanks to artists like Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes. Genres of music influenced from 50's genres, but experimented with.

The Beatles were among the bands who experimented with the technology of the era. They used plates and echo chambers at Abbey Road where they also requested to use double tracking in recording, meaning that the sound could be recorded on two tracks and then one edited. They were the first band to have ever done this. They also used reverb on tracks, giving their songs a sense of realism. The Beatles album ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was the biggest selling album of the decade, 'Time' magazine called it "a historic departure in the progression of music". In fact within the top 20 best selling records of the 60’s, The Beatles produced ten. Taking second place was the soundtrack to the 60’s hit film ‘The Sound of Music’ songs from which still feature in many popular adverts and on modern day artist’s albums today. For example, 'My Favourite Things' on the Skoda advert and 'So Long, Farewell' on the Natwest ad.

‘A Day In the Life’ by The Beatles, uses a full orchestra for the interlude sections which fuses together the two disparate sections of the song, which initially started out as two different songs – one by John Lennon and one by Paul McCartney. For no reason other than ‘because the could’, the song ends on a sustained C chord played on four different pianos and lasting 42 seconds.

The Beatles also experimented with instruments, ‘Within You Without You’ uses a range of Indian instruments including a sitar, a tabla, a tambura and a dilruba as well as a string section. ‘When I’m 64’ features 3 clarinets and a range of organs, including an electric on and a harmonium.