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The Soaring 60s

The 1960s marked a transitional time for America. The great wealth accumulated during the forties and fifties allowed American families to provide their children with goods, services and expectations that previous generations never dreamed possible. Yet, some call this period of American history “The Years of Discontent.” The Baby Boomer’s Headquarters is a great site to explore the 1960s.

By 1960, television was in 87% of American homes. Newton Minow, the FCC Chairman, declared TV to be ‘a vast wasteland.’ Read and hear the famous speech at Americanrhetoric.com. Programming changed during the 1960s as most prime time shows were shot on film, live primetime programming was mostly variety. Show like The Untouchables (from www.TVparty.com) brought new, graphic violence into American homes. Other shows seemed to take the situation comedy out of the living room and into the realm of fantasy. The Beverly Hillbillies brought rural Americans to Hollywood and Gilligan’s Island took us to a desert island. Visit these fan websites.

During the 1960s, the youthful new president, John F. Kennedy, provided an indication that change was everywhere. Kennedy was a compelling speaker. You can listen to his Inaugural Speech (from American Rhetoric). JFK encourage the new youthful generation to fight for social justice. The Civil Rights movement signaled a great shift in politics and American culture in general. The charismatic leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a brilliant speaker. You can read and listen to some of Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the MLK Online site.

Kennedy’s assassination changed the country’s mood. John McAdam’s site is one of the best sites that examines the evidence and the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination. The killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby on live, national television has many convinced, even today, that a conspiracy was in place to kill the President. Regardless, Kennedy’s death and the increasingly contentious war in Vietnam created a climate for the unrest that would follow. PBS’ Vietnan Online is worth studying. Spanning many years and several presidencies, the war caused deep-seated beliefs about America and what we stood for to be questioned. Nixon’s escalation of the war into Cambodia spurred college protests all across America, but the protests at Kent State (www.May4.org) ended in tragedy.

Top 40 Radio and popular music was vibrant during the sixties. The songwriters from The Brill Building and Tin Pan Alley created some of the most enduring pop and rock music. The Spectropop site provides a wonderful guide to the leading songwriting teams of the sixties. American pop music was challenged by the Beatles and artists of the British Invasion. (There are many sites about this phase of music but two good starting points are The Beatles Internet Album and The British Invasion) The West Coast surfing craze spawned from different musical tastes. America’s Beach Boys provided angelic harmonies with a standard rock beat. Bob Dylan merged the sentiments of the folk tradition with rock. Dylan’s lyrics (www.bobdylan.com) spoke for a new generation who were ready to question America's social agenda while The Grateful Dead showed everyone how to party. The Woodstock Music Festival marked a special moment in music for the sixties generation.

Though it seemed that America was losing the race for space in the early sixties, NASA triumphantly placed Neil Armstrong on the moon in the summer of 1969. Explore NASA’s Apollo 11 Website for great information on that historical mission. The year of 1969 was also notable in broadcasting, too, as the Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine in the famous ‘Red Lion’case.