File:Photo A scene from 2001. A Space Odyssey, a 1968 film directed by Stanley Kubrick 1968 - Touring Club Italiano 04 0826.jpg|Popular films of the 1960s included
2001: A Space Odyssey,
Lawrence of Arabia,
Dr. Strangelove,
Psycho,
Bonnie and Clyde,
Planet of the Apes,
The Sound of Music,
To Kill a Mockingbird,
Breakfast at Tiffany’s,
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, many of which remain among the most acclaimed and influential films in cinema history. File:Doctor Who logo 1963-1967.jpg|TV shows like
Doctor Who,
The Twilight Zone,
The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Addams Family,
Mission: Impossible, The Fugitive, Get Smart, Bonanza, and
Star Trek were popular in the 1960s. File:Woodstock redmond stage.JPG|The late 1960s saw the rise of the
counterculture and the
hippie movement, emphasizing peace, civil rights, and opposition to the
Vietnam War, culminating in events such as the
Woodstock festival. File:The Beatles arrive at JFK Airport.jpg|The
British Invasion transformed popular music, led by
The Beatles, along with
The Rolling Stones,
The Kinks,
The Who, and
The Zombies, reshaping youth culture and global pop music. File:The Flintstones logo.svg|Animated television series such as
The Flintstones,
The Jetsons,
Top Cat,
Jonny Quest,
Wacky Races, and
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, became cultural staples and defined early primetime animation. File:Jimi Hendrix 1967 uncropped.jpg|
Psychedelic rock emerged in the mid-1960s as part of the counterculture, with artists such as
Jimi Hendrix,
Pink Floyd,
Jefferson Airplane, and
The Doors using experimental sounds, extended improvisation, and surreal lyrics to define the era's music. File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial) - NARA - 542010.jpg|The
Civil Rights Movement influenced music, film, and television, bringing issues of race, equality, and social justice into
mainstream American culture. File:Diana Ross en The Supremes tijdens opname in RAI voor AVRO-TV, Bestanddeelnr 920-9925.jpg|
Motown dominated popular music, launching the careers of
The Supremes,
The Temptations,
Four Tops,
The Miracles,
Stevie Wonder,
Marvin Gaye, and
The Marvelettes. File:Rome Olympics 1960 - Opening Day.jpg|Six Olympic Games were held in the 1960s,
Squaw Valley and
Rome in 1960,
Innsbruck and
Tokyo in 1964,
Grenoble and
Mexico City in 1968. File:Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.jpg|The
folk revival, led by performers like
Bob Dylan,
Joan Baez,
Pete Seeger, and
Phil Ochs, became closely associated with civil rights activism and anti-war protest movements. File:1960s Batmobile (FMC).jpg|The superhero boom of the decade saw in media and popular culture, TV series like
Batman,
The Green Hornet,
The Marvel Super Heroes, and
Spider-Man were more popular. File:Doug-kemp-peter-greenaway-ian-dury-art-school-london-1960s optimized.jpg|The 1960s art scene was shaped by
Pop art, led by artists such as
Andy Warhol and
Roy Lichtenstein, blending mass media imagery with fine art. File:Buzz salutes the U.S. Flag.jpg|The 1960s were the height of the
Space Age and space aesthetics in popular culture. In 1969, humans
landed on the Moon for the first time. The
counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the
Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the
Woodstock Festival in
upstate New York in 1969.
Psychedelic drugs, especially
LSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by
Timothy Leary with his slogan "
Turn on, tune in, drop out".
Ken Kesey and the
Merry Pranksters also played a part in the role of "turning heads on".
Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses (see
27 Club). There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism.
Music pictured in 1962. Known as
Motown's "
soul supergroup", The Miracles were one of the first commercially successful acts of the 1960s and propelled both Motown and its
Tamla label to international fame. The rock 'n' roll movement of the 1950s quickly came to an end in 1959 with
the Day the Music Died (as explained in the song "
American Pie"), the scandal of
Jerry Lee Lewis' marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, and the induction of
Elvis Presley into the
United States Army. As the 1960s began, the major rock 'n' roll stars of the '50s such as
Chuck Berry and
Little Richard had dropped off the charts and popular music in the U.S. came to be dominated by girl groups,
surf music, novelty pop songs, clean-cut teen idols, and
Motown music. Another important change in music during the early 1960s was the
American folk music revival which introduced
Bob Dylan,
Joan Baez,
Pete Seeger,
The Kingston Trio,
Harry Belafonte,
Odetta,
Phil Ochs, and many other singer-songwriters to the public. Girl groups and female singers, such as
the Shirelles,
Betty Everett,
Little Eva,
the Dixie Cups,
the Ronettes,
Martha and the Vandellas and
the Supremes dominated the charts in the early 1960s. This style consisted typically of light pop themes about teenage romance and lifestyles, backed by vocal harmonies and a strong rhythm. Most girl groups were African-American, but white girl groups and singers, such as
Lesley Gore,
the Angels, and
the Shangri-Las also emerged during this period. Around the same time, record producer
Phil Spector began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as the
Wall of Sound. This style emphasized higher budgets and more elaborate arrangements, and more melodramatic musical themes in place of a simple, light-hearted pop sound. Spector's innovations became integral to the growing sophistication of popular music from 1965 onward. Also during the early 1960s,
surf rock emerged, a rock subgenre that was centered in Southern California and based on beach and surfing themes, in addition to the usual songs about teenage romance and innocent fun.
The Beach Boys quickly became the premier surf rock band and almost completely and single-handedly overshadowed the many lesser-known artists in the subgenre. Surf rock reached its peak in 1963–1965 before gradually being overtaken by bands influenced by the
British Invasion and the counterculture movement. The
car song also emerged as a rock subgenre in the early 1960s, which focused on teenagers' fascination with
car culture. The Beach Boys also dominated this subgenre, along with the duo
Jan and Dean. Such notable songs include "
Little Deuce Coupe", "
409", and "
Shut Down", all by the Beach Boys;
Jan and Dean's "
Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "
Drag City",
Ronny and the Daytonas' "
Little GTO", and many others. Like girl groups and surf rock, car songs also became overshadowed by the British Invasion and the counterculture movement. The early 1960s also saw the golden age of another rock subgenre, the
teen tragedy song, which focused on lost teen romance caused by sudden death, mainly in
traffic accidents. Such songs included
Mark Dinning's "
Teen Angel",
Ray Peterson's "
Tell Laura I Love Her",
Jan and Dean's "
Dead Man's Curve",
the Shangri-Las' "
Leader of the Pack", and perhaps the subgenre's most popular, "
Last Kiss" by
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. In the early 1960s, Britain became a hotbed of rock 'n' roll activity during this time. In late 1963, the Beatles embarked on their first US tour and cult singer
Dusty Springfield released her first solo single. A few months later, rock 'n' roll founding father
Chuck Berry emerged from a -year prison stint and resumed recording and touring. The stage was set for the spectacular revival of rock music. In the UK, the Beatles played raucous rock 'n' roll – as well as doo wop, girl-group songs, show tunes – and wore leather jackets. Their manager
Brian Epstein encouraged the group to wear suits.
Beatlemania abruptly exploded after the group's appearance on
The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Late in 1965, the Beatles released the album
Rubber Soul which marked the beginning of their transition to a sophisticated power pop group with elaborate studio arrangements and production, and a year after that, they gave up touring entirely to focus only on albums. A host of imitators followed the Beatles in the so-called British Invasion, including groups like
the Rolling Stones,
the Who and
the Kinks who would become legends in their own right. As the counterculture movement developed, artists began making new kinds of music influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs. Guitarist
Jimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene in 1967 with a radically new approach to electric guitar that replaced Chuck Berry, previously seen as the gold standard of rock guitar. Rock artists began to take on serious themes and social commentary/protest instead of simplistic pop themes. A major development in popular music during the mid-1960s was the movement away from singles and towards albums. Previously, popular music was based around the 45 single (or even earlier, the 78 single) and albums such as they existed were little more than a hit single or two backed with filler tracks, instrumentals, and covers. The development of the AOR (album-oriented rock) format was complicated and involved several concurrent events such as Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, the introduction by Bob Dylan of "serious" lyrics to rock music, and the Beatles' new studio-based approach. In any case, after 1965 the vinyl LP had definitively taken over as the primary format for all popular music styles. Blues also continued to develop strongly during the '60s, but after 1965, it increasingly shifted to the young white rock audience and away from its traditional black audience, which moved on to other styles such as soul and funk.
Jazz music and
pop standards during the first half of the 1960s was largely a continuation of 1950s styles, retaining its core audience of young, urban, college-educated whites. By 1967, the death of several important jazz figures such as
John Coltrane and
Nat King Cole precipitated a decline in the genre. The takeover of rock in the late 1960s largely spelled the end of jazz and standards as mainstream forms of music, after they had dominated much of the first half of the 20th century.
Country music gained popularity on the
West Coast, due in large part to the
Bakersfield sound, led by
Buck Owens and
Merle Haggard. Female country artists were also becoming more mainstream (in a genre dominated by men in previous decades), with such acts as
Patsy Cline,
Loretta Lynn, and
Tammy Wynette. Late 1960s also was the beginning of
disco music, which became more popular in 1970s.
Significant events in music in the 1960s •
Elvis Presley returned to civilian life in the U.S. after two years away in the
U.S. Army. He resumes his musical career by recording "
It's Now or Never" and "
Are You Lonesome Tonight?" in March 1960. • Country music stars
Patsy Cline,
Cowboy Copas and
Hawkshaw Hawkins were killed when their plane
crashed in Camden, Tennessee while returning home from a
Kansas City benefit show in March 1963. • In July 1964, a plane crash claimed the life of another country music legend,
Jim Reeves, when the plane he was piloting crashed in a turbulent thunderstorm while on final approach to
Nashville International Airport. •
Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a motel (at the age of 33) in Los Angeles, California on 11 December 1964, under suspicious circumstances. •
Motown was founded in 1960. Its first
Top Ten hit was "
Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on the
Billboard Hot 100 and was Motown's first million-selling record. • Newcastle-born
Eric Burdon and his band "
The Animals" hit the No. 1 in charts in the U.S. with their hit single "
The House of the Rising Sun" in 1964. • Folk singer and activist
Joan Baez released her
debut album on
Vanguard Records in December 1960. •
The Marvelettes scored Motown's first U.S. No. 1 pop hit, "
Please Mr. Postman", in 1961. Motown would score 110
Billboard Top 10 hits during its run. •
The Four Seasons released three straight number one hits. • In a widely anticipated and publicized event,
The Beatles arrive in America in February 1964, spearheading the
British Invasion. • The
Mary Poppins original soundtrack tops record charts.
Sherman Brothers receive
Grammys and double
Oscars. •
Lesley Gore hits number one on
Billboard with "
It's My Party" and number two with "You Don't Own Me" at the age of 17 (behind "
I Want To Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles). •
The Supremes scored twelve number-one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with "
Where Did Our Love Go". •
The Kinks release "
You Really Got Me" in August 1964, which tops the British charts; it is regarded as the first
hard rock hit and a blueprint for related genres such as
heavy metal. •
John Coltrane released
A Love Supreme in late 1964, considered one of the most acclaimed jazz albums of the era. • The
Grateful Dead was formed in 1965 (originally The Warlocks), thus paving the way for the emergence of
acid rock. •
Bob Dylan went
electric at the 1965
Newport Folk Festival. •
Cilla Black's number-one hit "
Anyone Who Had a Heart" still remains the top-selling single by a female artist in the UK from 1964. •
The Rolling Stones had a huge No. 1 hit with their song "
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in the summer of 1965. •
The Byrds released a cover of Bob Dylan's "
Mr. Tambourine Man", which reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts and repeated the feat in the U.K. shortly thereafter. The extremely influential track effectively creates the musical subgenre of
folk rock. • Bob Dylan's "
Like a Rolling Stone" is a top-five hit on both sides of the Atlantic during the summer of 1965. • Bob Dylan's 1965 albums
Bringing It All Back Home and
Highway 61 Revisited ushered in album-focused rock and the
folk rock genre. were a popular musical duo of the era •
Simon and Garfunkel released the single "
The Sound of Silence" in 1965. •
The Beach Boys released
Pet Sounds in 1966, which significantly influenced The Beatles' ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' album released the following year. • Bob Dylan was called "Judas" by an audience member during the
Manchester Free Trade Hall concert; the start of the
bootleg recording industry follows, with recordings of this concert circulating for 30 years – wrongly labeled as
The Royal Albert Hall Concert – before a legitimate release in 1998 as
The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. • In February 1966, Nancy Sinatra's song "
These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" became very popular. • In 1966, ''
The Supremes A' Go-Go was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard'' magazine pop albums chart in the United States. •
The Seekers were the first Australian group to have a number one with "
Georgy Girl" in 1966. •
Jefferson Airplane released the influential
Surrealistic Pillow in 1967. •
The Velvet Underground released its self-titled debut album,
The Velvet Underground & Nico, in 1967. •
The Doors released its self-titled debut album,
The Doors, in January 1967. •
Love released
Forever Changes in 1967. •
The Procol Harum released
A Whiter Shade of Pale in 1967. •
Cream released "
Disraeli Gears" in 1967. launched the mainstream career of Jimi Hendrix, one of the most influential electric guitarists in history •
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released two successful albums during 1967 (
Are You Experienced and
Axis: Bold as Love) that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques. •
The Moody Blues released the album
Days of Future Passed in November 1967. • R&B legend
Otis Redding has his first No. 1 hit with "
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay". He also played at the
Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 just before he died in a plane crash. •
Pink Floyd released its debut record,
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. •
Bob Dylan released the
country rock album
John Wesley Harding in December 1967. • The
Bee Gees released their international debut album,
Bee Gees 1st, in July 1967; it included the pop standard "
To Love Somebody". • The
Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 was the beginning of the "
Summer of Love". •
The Beatles released ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' in 1967. It was nicknamed "The Soundtrack of the Summer of Love". •
Johnny Cash released
At Folsom Prison in 1968. • After
The Yardbirds folded,
Led Zeppelin was formed by
Jimmy Page and manager
Peter Grant in 1968 with
Robert Plant,
John Bonham,
John Paul Jones, and Page as members; they released their debut album,
Led Zeppelin, the next year. •
Big Brother and the Holding Company, with
Janis Joplin as lead singer, became an overnight sensation after their performance at the
Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and released their second album
Cheap Thrills in 1968. •
Gram Parsons with
The Byrds released the influential LP
Sweetheart of the Rodeo in late 1968, forming the basis for
country rock. •
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the influential double LP
Electric Ladyland in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of his previous two albums. •
Simon and Garfunkel released the single "
Mrs. Robinson" in 1968, featured in the film
The Graduate. • Country music newcomer
Jeannie C. Riley released the country and pop hit "
Harper Valley PTA" in 1968, which is about a
miniskirt-wearing mother of a teenage girl who was criticized by the local
PTA for supposedly setting a bad example for her daughter but turns the tables by exposing some of the PTA members' wrongdoings. The song, along with Riley's
mod persona in connection with it, apparently gave country music a "sexual revolution" of its own as hemlines of other female country artists' stage dresses began rising in the years that followed. •
Sly & the Family Stone revolutionized black music with their 1968 hit single "
Dance to the Music" and became international sensations by 1969 with the release of their hit record
Stand!. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the
Woodstock Festival. •
The Gun released "Race with the Devil" in October 1968. • After a long performance drought,
Elvis Presley made a successful return to TV and live performances after spending most of the decade making movies, beginning with his ''
'68 Comeback Special'' in December 1968 on
NBC, followed by a summer engagement in
Las Vegas in 1969. Presley's return to live performing set the stage for his many concert tours and continued Vegas engagements throughout the 1970s until his death in 1977. •
The Foundations released "
Build Me Up Buttercup" in December 1968. • The Rolling Stones filmed the TV special
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in December 1968 but the film was not released for transmission. It was considered a fabled "lost" performance for decades until it was released in North America on
Laserdisc and
VHS in 1996. The special features performances from
The Who,
The Dirty Mac (featuring
John Lennon,
Eric Clapton and
Mitch Mitchell),
Jethro Tull and
Taj Mahal. •
Spooky Tooth released their second album,
Spooky Two, in March 1969. The album was an important hard rock milestone. • The
Woodstock Festival (and the
Altamont Free Concert four months later) in 1969. •
The Who released and toured the first rock opera,
Tommy, in 1969. • Proto-punk band
MC5 released the live album
Kick Out the Jams in 1969. •
Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band released the
avant-garde Trout Mask Replica in 1969. •
Creedence Clearwater Revival released "
Fortunate Son" in 1969. The song amassed popularity with the
anti-war movement at the time and would later be used in films, TV shows and video games depicting the
Vietnam War or the
U.S during the late 1960s and early 1970s. •
The Stooges released their debut album in 1969. •
The Beatles released
Abbey Road in 1969. •
King Crimson released their debut album,
In the Court of the Crimson King, in 1969. •
Led Zeppelin released two of their self-titled debut albums,
Led Zeppelin I and
Led Zeppelin II, in 1969.
Film in
The Cursed Palace (1962) The highest-grossing film of the decade was 20th Century Fox's
The Sound of Music (1965). Some of Hollywood's most notable
blockbuster films of the 1960s include: •
2001: A Space Odyssey •
The Apartment •
The Birds •
I Am Curious (Yellow) •
Bonnie and Clyde • ''
Breakfast at Tiffany's'' •
Bullitt •
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid •
Carnival of Souls •
Cleopatra •
Cool Hand Luke •
The Dirty Dozen •
Doctor Zhivago •
Dr. Strangelove •
Easy Rider •
Exodus •
Faces •
Funny Girl •
Goldfinger •
The Graduate • ''
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' •
Head •
How the West Was Won •
The Hustler •
Ice Station Zebra •
In the Heat of the Night •
The Italian Job • ''
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' •
Jason and the Argonauts •
Judgment at Nuremberg •
The Jungle Book •
Lawrence of Arabia •
The Lion in Winter •
The Longest Day •
The Love Bug •
A Man for All Seasons •
The Manchurian Candidate •
Mary Poppins •
Medium Cool •
Midnight Cowboy •
My Fair Lady •
Night of the Living Dead •
The Pink Panther •
The Odd Couple •
Oliver! •
One Hundred and One Dalmatians •
One Million Years B.C. •
Planet of the Apes •
Psycho •
Romeo and Juliet • ''
Rosemary's Baby'' •
The Sound of Music •
Spartacus •
Swiss Family Robinson •
The Sword in the Stone •
To Kill a Mockingbird •
Valley of the Dolls •
West Side Story • ''
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' •
The Wild Bunch The counterculture movement had a significant effect on cinema. Movies began to break social taboos such as
sex and
violence causing both controversy and fascination. They turned increasingly dramatic, unbalanced, and hectic as the cultural revolution was starting. This was the beginning of the
New Hollywood era that dominated the next decade in theatres and revolutionized the film industry. Films of this time also focused on the changes happening in the world.
Dennis Hopper's
Easy Rider (1969) focused on the
drug culture of the time. Movies also became more sexually explicit, such as
Roger Vadim's
Barbarella (1968), as the
counterculture progressed. In Europe,
art cinema gained wider distribution and saw movements like
la Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave), which featured French filmmakers such as
Roger Vadim,
François Truffaut,
Alain Resnais, and
Jean-Luc Godard; the
cinéma vérité documentary movement took place in Canada, France and the United States;
Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman,
Chilean filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky and
Polish filmmakers Roman Polanski and
Wojciech Jerzy Has produced original and offbeat masterpieces and the high-point of
Italian filmmaking with
Michelangelo Antonioni and
Federico Fellini making some of their most known films during this period. Notable films from this period include:
La Dolce Vita,
8 1/2|;
La Notte; ''
L'Eclisse, The Red Desert; Blowup; Fellini Satyricon; Accattone; The Gospel According to St. Matthew; Theorem; Winter Light; The Silence; Persona; Shame; A Passion; Au hasard Balthazar; Mouchette; Last Year at Marienbad; Chronique d'un été; Titicut Follies; High School; Salesman; La jetée; Warrendale;
Knife in the Water; Repulsion; The Saragossa Manuscript; El Topo; A Hard Day's Night; and the cinéma vérité Dont Look Back''. ,
Steve McQueen,
Horst Buchholz,
Charles Bronson,
Robert Vaughn,
Brad Dexter, and
James Coburn in
John Sturges's
The Magnificent Seven, 1960 In Japan,
Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki a film version of the story of the
forty-seven rōnin directed by
Hiroshi Inagaki, was released in 1962; the legendary story was also remade as a television series in Japan. Academy Award-winning
Japanese director
Akira Kurosawa produced
Yojimbo (1961) and
Sanjuro (1962), which both starred
Toshiro Mifune as a mysterious
samurai swordsman for hire. Like his previous films both had a profound influence around the world. The
Spaghetti Western genre was a direct outgrowth of the Kurosawa films. The influence of these films is most apparent in
Sergio Leone's
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) starring
Clint Eastwood and
Walter Hill's
Last Man Standing (1996).
Yojimbo was also the origin of the "
Man with No Name" trend which included Sergio Leone's
For a Few Dollars More, and
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly both also starring Clint Eastwood, and arguably continued through his 1968 opus
Once Upon a Time in the West, starring
Henry Fonda,
Charles Bronson,
Claudia Cardinale, and
Jason Robards.
The Magnificent Seven a 1960 American
western film directed by
John Sturges was a
remake of
Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film,
Seven Samurai. Another popular figure in this genre was
John Wayne, with films from the 60s such as
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962),
El Dorado (1966),
True Grit (1969) and others. The decade also marked the start of the
James Bond film series, starting with
Dr. No with
Sean Connery as
James Bond, and has continued with latest installments and actors portraying 007 to this very day. The 1960s were also about experimentation. With the explosion of lightweight and affordable cameras, the underground
avant-garde film movement thrived. The movement's notable figures include Canada's
Michael Snow and Americans
Kenneth Anger,
Stan Brakhage,
Andy Warhol, and
Jack Smith. Notable films in this genre include
Dog Star Man,
Scorpio Rising,
Wavelength,
Chelsea Girls,
Blow Job,
Vinyl, and
Flaming Creatures.
Walt Disney, the founder of
The Walt Disney Company, died on 15 December 1966 from a major tumor in his left lung. Alongside
One Hundred and One Dalmatians,
The Sword in the Stone and
The Jungle Book (some of his most important blockbusters), animated feature films of the decade that are of notable status include
Gay Purr-ee, ''
Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, The Man Called Flintstone, Mad Monster Party?, Yellow Submarine and A Boy Named Charlie Brown''.
Significant events in the film industry in the 1960s • Removal of the
Motion Picture Association of America's
Production Code in 1967. • The MPA's establishment of the
film ratings system in 1968. • The decline and end of the
studio system. • The rise of
arthouse films and theaters. • The end of the
classical Hollywood cinema era. • The beginning of the
New Hollywood Era due to the counterculture. • The rise of independent producers that worked outside the studio system. • Move to all-color production in Hollywood films. • The invention of the
Nagra 1/4", sync-sound, portable open-reel tape deck. • New film formats like
IMAX are invented and new ways of displaying film are tested at
Expo 67. • Flat-bed film editing tables (like the
Steenbeck) appear; they eventually replace the
Moviola editing platform. • The
French New Wave reaches its peak. •
Direct cinema and
cinéma vérité documentaries. • The beginning of the
Golden Age of Porn in 1969, which continued throughout the 1970s and into the first half of the 1980s.
Television The most prominent TV series of the 1960s include
Doctor Who,
The Ed Sullivan Show,
Coronation Street,
Star Trek,
Peyton Place,
The Twilight Zone,
The Outer Limits,
The Andy Williams Show,
The Dean Martin Show,
The Wonderful World of Disney,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents,
The Beverly Hillbillies,
Bonanza,
Batman, ''
McHale's Navy, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Fugitive, The Tonight Show, Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, Gilligan's Island, Mission: Impossible, The Flintstones, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Thunderbirds, Lassie, The Danny Thomas Show, The Lucy Show, My Three Sons, The Red Skelton Show, Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie. The Flintstones
was a popular show, receiving 40 million views an episode with an average of 3 million views a day. Doctor Who
is the longest-running science-fiction show of all time according to the Guinness World Records. Some programming (such as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'') became controversial by challenging the foundations of America's corporate and governmental controls, making fun of world leaders and questioning U.S. involvement in (as well as escalation of) the
Vietnam War. The
1966 FIFA World Cup final was the
most-watched television event in the United Kingdom watched by 32.3 million people, seeing England win 4–2 against Germany.
Fashion Significant fashion trends of the 1960s include: •
The Beatles exerted an enormous influence on young men's fashions and hairstyles in the 1960s which included most notably the
mop-top haircut, the
Beatle boots and the
Nehru jacket. • The
hippie movement late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including
bell-bottom jeans,
tie-dye and
batik fabrics, as well as
paisley prints. • The
bikini came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the film
Beach Party. •
Mary Quant popularised the
miniskirt, which became one of the most popular fashion rages in the late 1960s among young women and teenage girls. Its popularity continued throughout the first half of the 1970s and then disappeared temporarily from mainstream fashion before making a comeback in the mid-1980s. • Men's mainstream hairstyles ranged from the
pompadour, the
crew cut, the
flattop hairstyle, the tapered hairstyle, and short, parted hair in the early part of the decade, to longer parted hairstyles with
sideburns towards the latter half of the decade. • Women's mainstream hairstyles ranged from
beehive hairdos, the bird's nest hairstyle, and the
chignon hairstyle in the early part of the decade, to very short styles popularized by
Twiggy and
Mia Farrow in
Rosemary's Baby towards the latter half of the decade. • African-American hairstyles for men and women included the
afro. File:Mop-top hair.jpg|Members of Argentine rock band
Los Gatos sporting
mop-top haircuts, which were considered at the time a rebellious hairstyle. File:On the Beach at Tiberias.jpg|The
bikini became a fashionable item in the Western world during the decade File:Londons_Carnaby_Street,_1966.jpg|"Swinging London" fashions on
Carnaby Street, File:Tie dye T-shirts.jpg|
Tie-dye shirts of all colors were at their height and worn by many during the 1960s. File:Lava lamps (16136876840).jpg|
Lava lamps (released in the late 1940s) became very prevalent in the 1960s and were used as decorations. File:Go-go boots by Andre Courreges, 1965.jpg|
Go-go boots were a popular piece of fashion, worn by many. 's'' book cover by
Editorial Alfaguara.
Literature • In 1961,
On Heroes and Tombs by
Ernesto Sábato is published. • In 1963,
Hopscotch by
Julio Cortázar is published. •
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was a massively popular novel during the decade. It illustrated the difficult life for the working class at the time.
Marvel Comics dominated the comic book industry in this decade, introducing the world to characters such as
Spider-Man,
Iron Man, the
X-Men, the
Fantastic Four, the
Hulk,
Black Panther,
Doctor Strange, and the
Avengers to name a few.
Sports The first ever Super bowl had happened in 1967 in Los Angeles, California
Olympics There were six
Olympic Games held during the decade. These were: •
1960 Summer Olympics 25 August – 11 September 1960, in Rome, Italy •
1960 Winter Olympics 18–28 February 1960, in
Squaw Valley, California, United States •
1964 Summer Olympics 10–24 October 1964, in Tokyo, Japan •
1964 Winter Olympics 29 January – 9 February 1964, in
Innsbruck, Austria •
1968 Summer Olympics 12–27 October 1968, in
Mexico City, Mexico •
1968 Winter Olympics 6–18 February 1968, in
Grenoble, France
Association football There were two
FIFA World Cups during the decade: •
1962 FIFA World Cup hosted in Chile, won by Brazil •
1966 FIFA World Cup hosted and won by England The
1960 Copa de Campeones de América was the first season of the
Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores,
CONMEBOL's premier club tournament.
Baseball The first wave of
Major League Baseball expansion in 1961 included the formation of the
Los Angeles Angels, the move to Minnesota to become the
Minnesota Twins by the
former Washington Senators and the formation of a
new franchise called the Washington Senators. Major League Baseball sanctioned both the
Houston Colt .45s and the
New York Mets as new
National League franchises in 1962. In 1969, the
American League expanded when the
Kansas City Royals and
Seattle Pilots, were admitted to the league prompting the expansion of the post-season (in the form of the
League Championship Series) for the first time since the creation of the World Series. The Pilots stayed just one season in Seattle before moving and becoming the
Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. The National League also added two teams in 1969, the
Montreal Expos and
San Diego Padres. By 1969, the New York Mets won the
World Series in only the 8th year of the team's existence.
Basketball The
NBA tournaments during the 1960s were dominated by the
Boston Celtics, who won eight straight titles from 1959 to 1966 and added two more consecutive championships in 1968 and 1969, aided by such players as
Bob Cousy,
Bill Russell and
John Havlicek. Other notable NBA players included
Wilt Chamberlain,
Elgin Baylor,
Jerry West and
Oscar Robertson. At the
NCAA level, the
UCLA Bruins also proved dominant. Coached by
John Wooden, they were helped by
Lew Alcindor and by
Bill Walton to win championships and dominate the American college basketball landscape during the decade.
Disc sports (Frisbee) Alternative sports, using the flying disc, began in the mid-sixties. As numbers of young people became alienated from social norms, they resisted and looked for alternatives. They would form what would become known as the
counterculture. The forms of escape and resistance would manifest in many ways including social activism, alternative lifestyles, experimental living through foods, dress, music and alternative recreational activities, including that of throwing a
Frisbee. Starting with promotional efforts from
Wham-O and
Irwin Toy (Canada), a few tournaments and professionals using
Frisbee show tours to perform at universities, fairs and sporting events, disc sports such as
freestyle,
double disc court,
guts,
disc ultimate and
disc golf became this sports first events. Two sports, the team sport of
disc ultimate and
disc golf are very popular worldwide and are now being played semiprofessionally. The
World Flying Disc Federation,
Professional Disc Golf Association and the Freestyle Players Association are the official rules and sanctioning organizations for flying disc sports worldwide.
Major League Ultimate (MLU) and the
American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) are the first semi-professional ultimate leagues.
Racing In
motorsports, the
Can-Am and
Trans-Am series were both established in 1966. The
Ford GT40 won outright in the
24 Hours of Le Mans. Graham Hill edged out Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme for the World Championship in Formula One. == People ==