The fifties might have seen the birth of rock and roll, but it was the sixties that saw music take shape into what we would recognize as the modern music industry. There was an explosion of innovation as the industry transformed. The Beatles developed the album as an artistic piece. Motown perfected the art of packaging groups. And lower instrument costs put music in the hands of the average person, who came up with new ideas just by not knowing the rules.
And then there’s the music itself. The sixties saw a smorgasbord of new genres burst forth. Some have lasted to become essential parts of the music scene–bubblegum pop, metal, R&B, and folk music. Others have become vintage, indisputably tied to the era that bore them–lounge, Motown, surf rock, and psychedelia.
While most genre throwbacks prefer the bombast of the eighties or the trendiness of the nineties, there are K-pop acts that remind us of the sixties, and the first step on the road that led here.
