Music Changes The World

1960's and 1970's-A Time of Change 

1960s Music Montage

In the 1960's and early 1970's music was a force that actually affected the way many people thought and acted. Music awakened people to what was "hip" or "unhip" in the world around us. 

California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country. 

Barbie dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G. I. Joe, 12 inches tall and the first action figure for boys.

 Another doll, the troll or Dammit doll (named for it's creator, Thomas Dam) was a good luck symbol for all ages. Slot cars overtook toy trains in popularity.

The 1960's began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. 

By mid-decade, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legs, bodywear was revealing curves, and women's hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men's hair became longer and wider, with beards and moustaches. Men's wear had a renaissance. Bright colors, Dashikis, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue. 

Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was popular, featuring bell bottomed blue jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro. 

Sly and The Family Stone

The musical phenomena of the decade was Woodstock, a three day music festival that drew 400,000 people and featured peace, love, and happiness...and LSD. 

The Vietnam War, what started out as a tiny traditional peace movement broke out of its shell, reaching a far wider segment of the population by 1965 and becoming a radical peace movement on college campuses. Within three years polls would show that more than half the population was opposed to the war. The radicalization of the peace movement began with the formation of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). 

Campus unrest began as sit ins and protests soon escalated to burning buildings and throwing rocks or bombs at law enforcement officials.

1968 was a year of unrest and turmoil. The Tet offensive by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong, President Johnson’s announcement not to run for a second term, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., after which  riots broke out in almost every major U.S. City,  Robert Kennedy’s assassination, the violent demonstrations and brutal police reactions at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago were some of the low lights. 

On Monday, May 4 at Kent State a student protest was occurring and National Guardsmen were ordered to clear the campus . The Guardsman opened fire and fired sixty-one shots within thirteen seconds, killing four students and wounding nine.

On May 26, 1969  John Lennon and Yoko Ono held a very unique protest-in bed. During their week-long bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, the former Beatle and his wife recorded their anthem Give Peace a Chance. "We're here as a protest against violence," Lennon said.

"If we say peace often enough, if I, John Lennon, say peace, it's going to make all those people who love me say peace. Now think about it. At least, they're going to think about it which is the most anybody can count on, " On December 8,1980 John Lennon was shot and killed by obsessed loner Mark Chapman.

The Jackson 5 perform "Can You Remember" in 1969 on the Hollywood Palace. The song is one of their early cuts on their debut album for Motown, "Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5."

In 1970 George Harrison organized the Concert for Bangladesh to raise funds for UNICEF's relief efforts to aid war victims in Bangladesh. -- the first, and perhaps the greatest, concert-for-a-cause that rock 'n' rollers ever staged. 

It was staged at Madison Square Garden, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and  Ringo Starr, among others played . Unofficially, it was the first rock for benefit concert.

George Harrison died on 29 November 2001.