American Pop: How Music Shaped the 1960s

From the bestselling American Pop series comes a sharp, immersive look at how music defined-and divided-the 1960s.

American Pop: How Music Shaped the 1960s traces the decade when sound became a battleground for culture, politics, and identity. From surf rock to Motown, folk revival to psychedelia, and the British Invasion to protest songs, music did more than soundtrack the era-it became one of its most powerful forces. Taylor Prescott explores how records, radios, festivals, and television broadcasts turned musicians into cultural icons and their songs into shared experiences that shaped national debates.

Moving beyond nostalgia, this book examines the ways music intersected with key movements of the time: civil rights, antiwar protests, the counterculture, and generational rebellion. Prescott reveals how the industry, from studio producers to record labels, navigated rapid change while audiences forged new communities around sound. Whether charting Bob Dylan's electric turn, the rise of FM radio, or the communal energy of Woodstock, this cultural history brings new depth to familiar stories.

For readers of music history, 20th-century American studies, and fans of the American Pop series, this is a lively and thoughtful exploration of how a generation found its voice-and its fights-through music.