| Arthur Marwick (1998: 247) has described the period between the assassination of John F. Kennedy (22 November 1963) to the riots and student protest of the spring of 1968 as the "High Sixties." This "period" marks a cultural transformation for the western world, and Britain and British popular music has a seminal role: the open challenge of traditional sources of authority, the embrace of all things modern (even as we absorbed the non-Western world into the West), and the acceptance of biochemicals as an integral part of the individual's life. Governments and populist leaders continued to dominate society, some individuals sought a return to a bucholic past, and macrobiotic diets became celebrated causes; but the world had changed. |
| In the world of British popular
music, independent studios (such as IBC), record companies (such as Immediate
Records), and radio stations (notably the "pirate" radio stations)
challenged the hegemony of EMI, Decca, Pye, and the BBC. Musicians embraced
new musical technologies and created ever more sophisticated musical compositions
and performances. And pharmaceutical solutions to writer's block empowered
both surrealistic fantasies and dark tragedies. |
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