Why are the Early 60's so Disliked?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bosskeenneat, Feb 6, 2015.

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  1. Ya'll were just looking in the wrong place...

    Englewood Cliffs, N.J. a little known jazz label called Blue Note was churning out great music on an almost weekly basis in the early 60's. Motown was up and running, the folks at the Brill Building were coming up with classics galore.

    I really get tired of all this rock-centric bleating. There was wonderful music being made throughout this period in many genres. Don't expect good stuff to come knocking at your door and land in your lap with your coffee and toast, get off your **** and go find it.
     
    moodyxadi, mschrist, Devon and 7 others like this.
  2. Absolutely no music of any kind was being made before then :whistle:
     
    spindly likes this.
  3. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    There was a lot of good stuff going on during that time. The folk revival was in full swing, and Roy Orbison, Dion, and the Everly Brothers were making some of the best records of their careers. Neil Sedaka and Del Shannon are underrated songwriters.
     
  4. Scott in DC

    Scott in DC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    While I can appreciate certain late 50s, early 60s music, in general I far prefer what came after. Jazz and folk were quite good during that time but pop and rock, not so good.

    Too much strings in pop music during this period. Most of the time the strings weren't needed.

    Scott
     
  5. HumanMachinery

    HumanMachinery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lowell, MA USA
    I don't want to say there was *NO* good music in the early '60s, but it was aptly described by Todd "in the Shadows" Nathanson as the "golden age of the garbage novelty tune."

    Sure, you had Ray Charles, Mary Wells, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Sam Cook, Petula Clark, Bob Dylan, and a bunch of be-bop, Latin, and free form jazz greats, but you also had a veritable avalanche of crap like the Monster Mash.
     
  6. JL6161

    JL6161 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    There's that "history is written by the victors" cliche, and the major genre/style that "won" the 60s, i.e., became culturally dominant in the US in from 1950--1980, was (mostly) male, guitar-centered, (fairly) blues/r&b-derived rock combo music. Also, most of the people who write about pop music history of this era are in the target audience demographic for that style. So naturally, a history of the era focused primarily on tracing the rise of that phenomenon is going to emphasize and value the influences, early originators and adopters, and later innovators and masters of that style and de-emphasize or give less space and value to other types of artists, trends, and genres or those that don't appear directly relevant to the "rise of the rock band" narrative.
     
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  7. HumanMachinery

    HumanMachinery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lowell, MA USA
    In one sense it was like what happened in the USA during the late '80s:

    Sure, a lot of great music was being made, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the charts. Blandness reigned supreme.
     
    Purple and spindly like this.
  8. thecdguy

    thecdguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, Pa.
    I think oldies radio (and music fans in general) today see the late 50's/early 60's as a separate era. It's generally associated with Elvis and Teen Idols, clean cut, Al-American singers and songs. Kind of like "Happy Days". Pop music changed immeasurably after The Beatles hit in 1964, so I can understand why some people might look at it that way. I don't know if I'd say the era is "disliked" as much as it seems disassociated with the rest of the decade. The local oldies radio station here plays hits from the 60's, 70's and 80's, but not really anything pre-1964, except on Sunday nights with their doo-wop show. And the 60's songs they DO play seem to get less and less airplay nowadays.
     
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  9. Beattles

    Beattles Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    Feb 3, 1959 - Dec 26, 1963
    Buddy Holley Died
    Elvis was in the Army (or Hollywood)
    The Charts were fully of Bobbys: Darin, Vee, Vinton & Rydell with Darin by far the best
    And Soundtracks. Number 1 hit of 196o Theme From A Summer Place

    Folk, Surf-Hot Rod and R&B were happening, but these didn't dominate radio play.
     
  10. docwebb

    docwebb Forum Resident

    Some great music in the early 60's but it was hard to get to it. Top 40 radio played the same hits by the teen idols over and over again. No underground radio. No internet. I was lucky growing up in the DC area to be able to hear Don Dillard's radio show as he played off the beaten stuff, R&B, rockabilly etc.
     
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  11. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Probably is. :)
     
  12. jimbags

    jimbags Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leeds
    A Classic
     
  13. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    No way is "Monster Mash" crap - it was a graveyard smash!

     
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  14. Led9

    Led9 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Allentown, PA
    Yes, you are correct, there are a few isolated examples pre-'65. The Ventures used fuzz as early as '62 on several songs. There's even an Elvis song "Slowly But Surely" from '62 that has fuzz guitar, but these are far and few between.
     
    HumanMachinery likes this.
  15. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer Seeker of Truth

    Location:
    NYC
    A proposition based on blind (and deaf) ignorance
     
    Jackson likes this.
  16. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    It was a great time for music. I don't really perceive it as a frowned upon
    Era. Maybe it is overshadowed by the later part of the decade, but much of the British Invasion was based on English teenagers feeding us back our own blues and R&B from that time frame.

    Plus Girl Groups, Surf Music and New Orleans R&B can stand up to anything that came later.
     
    Grant and Mechanical Man like this.
  17. In two words, no soul. There was great jazz music happening during this time, but not much else, IMO.
     
    The Pinhead likes this.
  18. Tony Sclafani

    Tony Sclafani Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
    No soul? So I guess you don't count Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Motown (Marvelettes, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder), girl groups (Ronettes, Shirelles), or New Orleans music as soul?

    What does count as soul? When guys from the UK covered their songs and/or wrote their own in the style these people had developed to begin with? The British Invasion bands were not reviving '50s music in its classic raw form, but re-channeling or amping up much of the music from this very era. A good argument can be made that it was sold back to the US with a whiter, less ethnic face. And less soul, not more.
     
  19. ibanez_ax

    ibanez_ax Forum Resident

    I think a lot of people dismiss this era because rock and roll didn't dominate like it did later on. There was a lot of great classic jazz, soul, Sinatra, Tony Bennett, etc.
     
    e.s. likes this.
  20. MonkeyMan

    MonkeyMan A man who dreams he is a butterfly?

    Are the early 60s disliked?

     
  21. daleyguy

    daleyguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Alberta, Canada
    While not a hit, this old Tommy Boyce track (& it's flip side "Along Came Linda") epitomize the early sixties for me:

     
  22. williamjoel

    williamjoel Spins At 33 1/3 RPM

    Location:
    Orlando, FL
    Many people are just not lovin' it lots and lots because it sometimes sounded like this.
     
  23. Slokes

    Slokes Cruel But Fair

    Location:
    Greenwich, CT USA
    I love that era, American Graffiti and all that. But the narrative tends to push against anyone who was not there taking any interest in it. For one, it's godawful depressing, beginning with a plane crash and ending with a highway shooting. For another, you have Elvis going from the Army to Hollywood. You have those Bobbies that Beattles just mentioned, and all the novelty numbers. Motown was starting up, but it wasn't really going strong yet. Looked at today, everything seems primed for one thing, the arrival of those lads from Liverpool and all the madness that followed. For Americans, the Early 1960s are seen as a period of short-haired conformity, tinny AM radio transistors, and losing the Space Race to the Russians.
     
    goodiesguy likes this.
  24. blurayisking

    blurayisking Forum Resident

    I will never ever forget the early 60's music since I grew up with it. It is timeless music that I never ever get tired of listening to. Along 70's and 80's music, it is what I listen to most. I started collecting 45 RPM records in 1962 and had already been listening to AM Radio as far back as 1957 so for me it represents my youth and the very best time to be following the local music charts.
     
  25. Michael P

    Michael P Forum Resident

    Location:
    Parma, Ohio
    Ironically, "Shakin' All Over" would be thought of as a 1965 hit on this side of The Atlantic. There used to be a video on You Tube that got pulled, with Johnny Kidd on U.K. TV doing that song...in 1960! :bigeek:

    I used to think The Kinks were ahead of their time with "You Really Got Me". They were rockin' all along in England.
     
    OneStepBeyond likes this.
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