The Late 1960s

I've had the idea for this thread for quite a while. To be honest, I would actually be interested in discussing more topics relating to the '60s and for now, I thought it would be good if we started off with a thread based on an era which saw great social and political evolution; the Late 1960s.

What are your thoughts on the Late '60s? Do you like the pop culture from the era? Would you ever want to experience (or re-experience) the era for yourself?

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Personally, I've always had an interest in the Late '60s. If I had the chance to live during a time period that I never got to experience, the Late '60s would easily be my second choice (behind the Mid-Late '90s). The two elements that most intrigue me about the era are the rate of social change that was occurring at the time, as well as the innovation and experimentation in pop culture. It was just a fascinating time and it must have been great to witness all those changes unfold. 

There were a few factors which led to me forming an interest in the era. I would say the main reason was as a result of my paternal Grandparents expressing nostalgia for the era (and the '60s in general) and me taking note of it while I was growing up. My Grandparents were both born during the Late 1940s; not only were they in their late teens/early 20s during the Late '60s, but they also participated in and closely followed the pop culture of the era. I've always found it interesting to hear about was life was like back then and what has since changed. The way in which they describe the era makes the Late '60s sound like they was truly a great era to live through, which only adds to the intrigue for me.

The next biggest factor, as silly as this sounds, was through religiously watching The Simpsons when I was younger and picking up on all the '60s pop cultural references. I was a Simpsons fanatic as a kid. I used to go home every afternoon after school and watch my DVD boxsets of The Simpsons in my bedroom all evening/night. As a result, I was eventually able to pick up on the subtle references to elements of '60s pop culture, such as the use of certain songs in the background (e.g "Born To Be Wild", "White Rabbit") and certain comments that the characters would make. Also, when I was 9-10 years old and there was nothing to watch in the afternoons, sometimes I would watch Bewitched or I Dream of Jeanie to pass the time. I actually didn't mind watching I Dream of Jeanie, to be honest.

As for my thoughts on the pop-culture, there are a lot of elements of Late 1960s pop culture that I truly appreciate. The Beatles' studio albums from those years are all brilliant (especially The White Album, which is personally my favourite Beatles album release), while quite a lot of the releases from other contemporary artists of the time are excellent as well. I have a particular appreciation of the psychedelic music scene from the Late '60s. It may not be a genre of music that I generally go out of my way to listen to, but there are quite a few releases that came out of the movement that I genuinely like, such as "I Am The Walrus" and "White Rabbit". 

These would have to be my Top-10 favourite songs from each year of the Late '60s:



As you can see, I also have a bit of an appreciation for Late '60s bubblegum-pop. I genuinely like "Daydream Believer" and "Sugar, Sugar", despite both songs being cheesy in their very nature. There's a certain charm to them which I find enjoyable. I also like quite a lot of the hard-rock songs that were released around that time, such as "Caledonia", "With a Little Help From my Friends" (the Joe Cocker version) and "Whole Lotta Love". 

There are quite a few TV shows from the Late '60s that I have enjoyed at certain points in my life as well. Like I mentioned earlier, I watched Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie fairly often when I was 9 and 10 years old. I also enjoyed watching "Wacky Races" when I was a kid as well. As for movies, I can't say that I have really watched a lot of movies from the Late '60s, to be honest, so I can't make a judgement on them. 

Even though I would like to experience the Late '60s (if I had the opportunity to do so), I wouldn't actually want to stay put in the era. I would only like to check out the era for a short amount of time, just so that I could see what the era was truly like.