Words: 397
Over the course of the war, things had changed. Simple, optimistic pop songs that had previously topped the charts had turned into social critiques of the American lifestyle, and sophisticated statements made through the whole running time of an LAP. The American consciousness started to become painfully aware of the reality of the situation during the mid-ass’s, and this is where the shift in music becomes obvious. Instead of the family oriented hits, things became serious. Bands in the limelight in 1966 were the Birds, Bob Dylan, The Battles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling
Stones, The Animals, and Simon and Guarantee. And it wasn’t Just about the music anymore, it was about the words too, and how much of a statement an artist could make between the two. ! One of the most significant changes came in the shift from the popularity of the single to the LAP. Through an LAP, an artist could make a statement over the course of 40-50 minutes, not Just 3. The Battles and their groundbreaking LAP “Rubber Soul” become the first real LAP to contain no filler. It was a series of songs meant to be heard together.
The Beach Boys took this a step further with Pet Sounds, a full album of artistic, introspective songs that reaffirmed the LAP as the new meaner of making art through music. Within a year, some of the greatest Alps in music were being released However, this was a change in the delivery in music. Along with this change came three major shifts in music in relation to the Vietnam war. Type A 2: Protest songs, which were songs directly opposed the Vietnam war. Type B 3: War lyric songs, songs that used the Vietnam war as subject matter for the song.
Type C 4: Dark songs, ones that were intentionally dark, through lyrics or the music itself. All three of these types had songs written with them in the mid ass’s, and many overlapped. This shift in music happened very quickly. Many previously popular acts failed to keep up with the changing times and subsequently dropped out of the publics attention. The need to adapt to the changing times, along with the tidal wave that was the British invasion, meant that many older American groups were completely swept away, never to be seen in the charts again.