Gary Watkins

In the 1960s rock stopped being background noise and became the main event. British groups took American blues and pop and sent them back louder and sharper. The Beatles made the album a work of art. The Stones made it dangerous. In the U. S., folk went electric, psychedelia blew the studio open, and festivals turned crowds into a single audience. The 1970s raised the volume and the stakes. Led Zeppelin and their peers built rock for arenas.
Pink Floyd and the Who treated records as long stories. Glam added costume and sneer. By the end of the decade punk was already kicking the furniture. What the two decades leave behind is a small set of bands whose songs, riffs, and live myth still set the standard for what "rock" is supposed to feel like.