Sound and technology
Multitrack recording and effects made the studio part of composition.
ERA · KNOWLEDGE GUIDE
1960s
Explore 1960s through technology, music industries, regional scenes and representative recordings—and hear why this decade differs from those around it.
- Recordings
- 191
- Albums and releases
- 65
- Regions
- 9
THE DECADE IN CONTEXT
What happened in this decade?
Civil-rights movements, counterculture, global media and studio experimentation gave popular music a larger social and artistic role.
People and circulation
Touring, television and political movements connected musicians and audiences across borders.
Listen by comparing
Compare a single with an album track and notice how arrangement supports a larger artistic statement.
Soul, rock and the folk revival expandedStudio experimentation intensifiedJamaican and Brazilian music reached wider audiences
The decade's key question
Why were popular recordings increasingly treated as complete artworks?
Songs addressed social change and personal experience more directly, while multitrack recording enabled dense arrangements and sound experiments. The LP also let artists organize songs into a sustained theme rather than a sequence of unrelated singles.
MAJOR GENRES
Major genres of the decade
AROUND THE WORLD
Sounds from different regions
Middle East and North AfricaExplore local scenes and recordingsEuropeExplore local scenes and recordingsContinental EuropeExplore local scenes and recordingsNorth AmericaExplore local scenes and recordingsUnited StatesExplore local scenes and recordingsLos AngelesExplore local scenes and recordingsUnited States SouthExplore local scenes and recordingsUnited KingdomExplore local scenes and recordingsLatin AmericaExplore local scenes and recordings
ARTISTS
Representative artists
Artist·afrobeat
Hamza El Din
Artist·Modal Jazz
Francy Boland
Artist·Soul
Yvonne Baker
RArtist·Gospel Blues
Reverend Gary Davis
Artist·Latin Jazz
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
Artist·Afrobeat
The Meters
Artist·Psychedelic Rock
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Artist·Nueva Canción
Inti‐Illimani
Artist·Free Jazz
John Coltrane
LISTENING PATH
Hear the decade through these recordings
REFINE THIS VIEWFilter recordings from the 1960s
Genre and region are combined; only options with recordings from the 1960s are shown.
01Someday1962 · Rock and Roll · rock and rollOpen in new tab 02Gılgamış1969 · Anadolu Rock · rockOpen in new tab 03Cousin Mary1960 · Hard BopOpen in new tab 04Giant Steps1960 · Hard BopOpen in new tab 05Count Down1960 · Hard BopOpen in new tab 06Runnin to the Judgement1961 · Blues · bluesOpen in new tab 07Rinky‐Dink1962 · SoulOpen in new tab 08Blue Grass1963 · Cool Jazz · cool jazzOpen in new tab 09I Am in the Heavenly Way1964 · Delta Blues · delta bluesOpen in new tab 10A Love Supreme, Part 1: Acknowledgement1965 · Modal JazzOpen in new tab
ALBUMS
Representative albums and releases
DECADE GRAPH
View relationship graph1960s relationship map
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