He goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan’s six-minute single “ Like a Rolling Stone” has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music and is a top-five hit on both sides of the Atlantic during the summer of 1965. A number of Dylan’s early songs, such as “ Blowin’ in the Wind” and “ The Times They Are a-Changin’“, became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. His work from the 1960s is when he is an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. The rise of the counterculture movement, particularly among the youth, created a market for rock, soul, pop, reggae and blues music.īob Dylan an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, is an influential figure in popular music and culture. The Los Angeles and San Francisco Sound began in this period with many popular bands coming out of LA and the Haight-Ashbury district, well known for its hippie culture. The taste of the American listeners expanded from the folksinger, doo-wop and saxophone sounds of the 1950s to the Motown sound, folk rock and the British Invasion. Also, bands tended to record only the best of their songs as a chance to become a hit record. Popular music enters an era of “all hits”, as numerous artists release recordings, beginning in the 1950s, as 45-rpm “singles” (with another on the flip side), and radio stations tended to play only the most popular of the wide variety of records being made.

Eight miles high cover