Sound of the Sixties

In June 1962 a Liverpool record shop owner, Brian Epstein played a tape of a local Liverpool band to EMI's George Martin, who immediately signed the Beatles to the Parlophone label. The group's debut single 'Love Me Do' reached number 17 in the charts and in 1963 'Beatlemania' burst onto the scene. With an artist roster which included The Seekers and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, along with the Beatles, EMI issued 15 of the 19 number one selling singles of 1963.

With the exception of the English language service of Radio Luxembourg, with its transmitters in the Ardennes, British broadcasters, i.e. the BBC, devoted little air-time to rock and pop. All changed in the spring of 1964 when an enterprising young Irishman convinced advertisers and financial backers that if a ship was anchored just outside territorial limits, and broadcast rock and pop around the clock, then "half the f'* * * * *g country would tune in." The young entrepreneur was Ronan O'Rahilly and Radio Caroline started broadcasting at Easter 1964. Within a year the coasts of the United Kingdom were dotted with off-shore pirate stations, including Radio Scotland. Government action sank the pirates but not before they sparked off a revolution in the BBC. In 1967 BBC Radio 1 came on-air as an all-day rock and pop station. The pirates and Radio 1 further whetted the appetite of the record-buying younger generation.

The evolution in popular music during the course of the 60s is reflected in the Beatles back catalogue - from 'She Loves You' to 'Sergeant Pepper' in the course of one decade. The increasingly elaborate sound was created by developments in technology, including multi-track recording which was quickly installed at Abbey Road.

As the music changed so did its associated life-style. Concern over American intervention in Vietnam and the nuclear arms race, civil rights, women's liberation, changing sexual mores and experimentation with drugs synthesised and rallied at Woodstock, the Isle of Wight. and other major music festivals, where the politically inspired lyrics of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others provided the soundtrack for the psychedelic counter-culture.

Multi-track recording was important in improving the sound quality of classical recordings and through the 1960s EMI classical output, which included Janet Baker, Jacqueline Du Pre, Otto Kempner and Yehudi Menuhin, remained an important part of the business.

music 100 celebrates the 60s with the original pressing of the Beatles' 'Love Me Do', pictures and film of the Beatles at work with George Martin and examples of the merchandising industry that built up around the 'Fab Four'. The exhibit also includes pictures and film of the other stars of the decade, and examines the social movements which found a voice through the music of the period.