What Separates ’60s and ’70s Rock Music

As with innovation, the forward flow of time heralds new beginnings, even for disciplines such as music. Rock music, earlier known as rock n’ roll, was subjected to such “evolution” as well. From the rhythm n’ blues roots from the 50’s, rock n’ roll proliferated in the 50’s with bands and artists such as The Beatles, The Moody Blues, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, and The Doors, among others. Pop, psychedelic, hard, progressive: these flavors of rock music started taking root in the fifties. In a growing countercultural movement, rock played a major part in empowering and uniting the masses, especially when the Hippies took over. People became more liberated, and started partaking in recreational drugs, just like their musician idols. The rock music of this period was somewhat a diluted, juvenile form, which is surely understandable given its time in the industry. When the late 60’s came, bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa, and Eric Clapton began to surface, and refine the standard set by their progenitors.

Rock music in the 70’s was a rebellious celebration and innovation. Progressive rock even became more prolific, as well as hard rock and the newly-created heavy metal genre courtesy of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Punk was widely popularized by the Ramones. What was rock n’ roll in the sixties, became rock in the seventies. Rock was finally beginning to materialize the way it was supposed to. Gone was the pop quality The Beatles mainly brought from the past decade, developing into a more electric guitar driven sound, taking in influences from blues, jazz, and even classical music. This amalgamation of genres is what gave the seventies a vibrant ring to it, the true golden age of rock music. The real rocker lifestyle seemed to reveal itself as well, accompanied by excess revelry and debauchery, truly the epitome of the long-standing image rock musicians have carried throughout the years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4cnyrPFQrM

Now, with almost seven decades down the line, rock music has seen its ups and downs, and has birthed a significant amount of variations that are either improved or eccentric for the masses. The only question now is, how rock music will find itself back to the mainstream, just like its prime years.