The Music of the 60s: From The Twist to Woodstock

In the 1950s, rock & roll meant disruption: It was the clamor of young people, kicking hard against the Eisenhower era’s ethos of vapid repression.  By the onset of the  1960s , that spirit had been largely tamed or simply impeded by numerous misfortunes, including the film and army careers of  Elvis Presley , the death of  Buddy Holly , the blacklisting of  Jerry Lee Lewis  and  Chuck Berry  and the persecution of DJ Alan Freed, who had been stigmatized by payola charges by Tin Pan Alley interests and politicians angered with his championing of R&B and rock & roll.  In 1960, the music of Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka, Connie Francis and Mitch Miller (an avowed enemy of rock & roll) ruled the airwaves and the record charts, giving some observers the notion that decency and order had returned to the popular mainstream.  But within a few years, rock would regain its disruptive power with a joyful vengeance until, by the decade’s end, it would be seen as a genuine force of cul