• The decade of the 1960s was one of the most disruptive, controversial, and violent eras in American history.
• The 1960s saw the emergence of a new generation of American teen pop stars.
• Bands from Great Britain came to dominate American popular music (the British Invasion).
• New styles of African American music emerged (soul music).
• By the mid-1960s, the transition from rock ’n’ roll to rock music was well under way, under the influence of performers such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan and the musical experimentalism of the late-1960s counterculture.