In the 1960s the West Coast became an important center for rock music. Los Angeles and Southern California are famous for sunshine and surfing. There, a quieter kind of rock called surf rock became famous. The Beach Boys sang songs like "Surfin’ U. S. A.", "California Girls" and "Fun, Fun, Fun". These songs made people dream about the good life in California.
San Francisco was a center for young people and rock music in the late 1960s. This was the time of the Vietnam War, student protest, hippies, and drugs. Hippies talked about love and peace. They wore brightly colored clothes and had long hair. They listened to rock and folk-rock music.
Drugs were a serious problem during that time. The deaths of three young rock stars, Janis Jopling, Jim Morrison and the great guitar player Jim Hendrix were all related to drugs.
Not all of the rock musicians came from California or the U. S. A.. That was the time of the great British rock groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. British rock musicians had a very important place in the rock music of the 1960s in America.
Another kind of softer rock music was created by the singers. Singers like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor wrote their own lyrics and their own music. Their songs were about love and friendship, good and bad times.
In the 1960s big rock concerts were very welcomed by everyone. The most famous concert was Woodstock. In 1969 in New York State, a million young people came together to hear the rock stars. This peaceful Woodstock concert was the most important musical event of the 1960s.
After World War Ⅱ a great number of black people moved from the South to the big industrial cities like New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Many black people lived in poor parts of the city such as Harlem in New York. Musicians wrote and sang about life in the big cities. Life was difficult but music and dancing made it a little easier.
Popular black music had a strong beat for dancing. At first this music was called rhythm and blues. The 1960s called it soul.
In Detroit, a black musician named Berry Gordy set up an all black record company. It was called Motown. Motown or motor town is another name for Detroit, where cars are made. Most of the famous soul musicians like the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Jackson Five recorded with Motown.