In the rock music world, I reckon the mid-1960's as a period of time limited by two events related to the Beatles: "I Want To Hold Your Hand" opening the American door to the British Invasion at the beginning of 1964; and the release of
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967, changing rock music forever.
Some things that happened during that time:
1) Several highly important bands made their debut in UK: the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Zombies, the Yardbirds, Cream, etc.
2) New big name bands also appeared in US, especially in the west coast: the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield, etc.
3) Groups that already existed, like the Beach Boys and the same Beatles, did their biggest artistic steps in their careers.
4) Bob Dylan's got electrified.
5) Jimi Hendrix jumped to the scene as the consummation of the guitar hero.
6) Lots of all time classics were fresh on the air: "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "Ticket To Ride", "Help!", "Yesterday", "Eleanor Rigby", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", "I Get Around", "California Girls", "Good Vibrations", "Satisfaction", "Paint It Black", "Ruby Tuesday", "I Can't Explain", "My Generation", "Substitute", "Mr. Tambourine Man", "Turn! Turn! Turn!", "Eight Miles High", "You Really Got Me", "Sunny Afternoon", "Waterloo Sunset", "For Your Love", "Heart Full Of Soul", "Shapes Of Things", "Somebody To Love", "White Rabbit", "She's Not There", "For What It's Worth", "Light My Fire", "I Feel Free", "The Sound Of Silence"...
7) Albums started to be much more than a couple of hits and lots of fillers:
Rubber Soul,
Revolver,
Pet Sounds,
Mr. Tambourine Man,
Surrealistic Pillow,
The Doors, etc.
What more can you say about those terrific days?
