Sixties

Skiffle, Merseybeat en Beatmuziek
In the UK, young musicians also became interested in rock and roll and blues, and a mixture of their own styles, such as the skiffle and the Merseybeat, emerged. The result was so-called beat music, pioneered by The Beatles. With this, the center of gravity of pop music also shifted from the United States to Great Britain. In the United States, talk of a British invasion, a wave of British music that overshadowed American bands and artists. Bands like The Monkees were the answer to this British wave. However, they never sang live. They were also the first of a series of bands put together from the ground up by their producers, with a sophisticated look and media backing that addressed a specific fan audience.

The only American band to gain popularity against the tide was The Beach Boys with their surf pop, who rivaled The Beatles in popularity. From 1965 onwards, a creative competition developed between the two bands, with The Beatles releasing the album Rubber Soul and The Beach Boys reacting with Pet Sounds. With these albums, a new direction in pop music was taken; pop music became an art form in which the possibilities of the studio were increasingly exploited and in which albums in the future were more than collections of songs ('two hits and eight fillers') (concept albums).

[bron: Wikipedia]