± The mid-1960s was a time of rapid change, which seemed to accelerate after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
± Sam Cooke’s 1964 recording “A Change Is Gonna Come” became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement. Before the end of the year, Cooke was shot and killed under mysterious circumstances.
± The Beatles were extremely popular in England by the end of 1963, and the phenomenon of Beatlemania was already underway. By the beginning of 1964, The Beatles were climbing the popularity charts in the U.S., reaching the number one spot with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on February 1, 1964. That same week, The Beatles arrived in New York to start their first U.S. tour, welcomed by a horde of screaming teenagers. Nearly 74 million viewers saw their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9.
± Although the Rolling Stones rose to prominence on the coattails of The Beatles, their persona was quite different. The Stones were the “bad boys” of rock. Their performances were often accompanied by violence and arrests. The Stones’ first U.S. tour was not an overwhelming success, but the song “Satisfaction” hit number one, relying on repeated riffs and simple form.
± Milton Babbitt’s “Philomel” pits a soprano soloist against a recorded track, using, among other sounds, manipulated recordings of the soloist herself.
± Composer Terry Riley began his composing using tape loops, but in 1964 created a work, In C, made up of fifty-three short fragments to be performed by any combination of instruments. Since he does not specify how many times each fragment is to be repeated by each instrumentalist before moving on, every performance will be different. At first the piece was supposed to be free of tempo, but Riley’s friend Steve Reich suggested that one player supply a steady beat by repeating eighth notes on the top two Cs on the piano. This allowed the overlapping fragments to create interesting polyrhythmic combinations. In C was one of the first pieces using trance-like calmness and repetition to move in the direction of minimalism.
± Steve Reich recorded a Pentecostal minister in San Francisco and used the tape to create a piece that, like In C, created a trance-like mood that moved toward minimalism. Reich’s concept was to slowly shift the alignment of small samples of text repeating over and over. Reich’s tape manipulation on “It’s Gonna Rain” and “Come Out” helped pave the way for sampling techniques used in hip-hop and rap production. Reich’s compositions incorporating the phasing technique extended to his live instrumental music. In these compositions, he used tonal pitch structures rather than the dissonant sounds popular among his contemporary classical composers. This led to his touring with instrumental groups that resembled a rock band, creating trance-like textures with the repetition of small groups of notes.
± Leonard Bernstein chose to make his 1965 Chichester Psalms tonal instead of dissonant.
± Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, a four-movement composition that explores the artist’s spiritual awakening, demonstrated that jazz musicians could create expressive, serious art in an extended format. Coltrane’s later works moved further into the world of dissonance and free jazz until his career was cut short by liver cancer in 1967.
± Bob Dylan’s folk-based music demonstrated a social consciousness, which was common in folk music. In 1964, a group of former folk musicians formed a rock band, the Byrds, and recorded Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” with a group of professional backup musicians. This recording resulted in the first number one hit by Bob Dylan and established the subgenre of folk-rock. At about the same time, Dylan was experimenting with bringing rock and roll instruments into his music, and he surprised (and angered) audiences at the Newport Folk Festival by performing with electric guitar, organ, and drum set.
± Detroit-based Aretha Franklin did not sign with the local label, Motown, but started her career with Columbia. When she moved to Atlantic in 1967, she broke into the top ten, and by June 1967, her version of Otis Redding’s “Respect” hit the number one spot. She continued to place songs in the top ten and won several Grammy awards.
± James Brown’s aggressive “in-your-face” soul music helped pave the way for funk music, with short, interlocking horn and rhythm section licks.
± The Supremes were the Motown group that managed to unseat the British invaders from the top of the pops charts in late 1964. The Supremes were propelled to the top by great songs written by Holland-Dozier-Holland and by Diana Ross’s lead singing. By the end of the decade, they had recorded twelve number one hits, more than any other artist except Elvis and The Beatles.