The end of World War II brought thousands of young servicemen back to America to pick up their lives and start new families in new homes with new jobs. With an energy never before experienced, American industry expanded to meet peacetime needs. Americans began buying goods not available during the war, which created corporate expansion and jobs.  Growth everywhere.  The baby boom was underway and rock and roll was introduced.

The 1950's saw the birth of rock, Pop and Soul, and the 1960's was the greatest decade in Pop music History -- and the only decade in which Pop merged with other forms and was as concerned with art as they were. The sixties culture also produced fabulous fashions and marvelous movies. TV was in its golden age and sometimes could be seen in "living color." Social upheaval also marked these times, and from those times come the times we live in now, for better or for worse, and some of the era's achievements (civil rights for various groups, for example) are undeniably for the better.

Pat Boone and Perry Como started the decade as the mainstream form of music. Big bands were still tolerated, but not as much in vogue as it was just five years earlier. Proper families would only listen to classical music played by numerous orchestras. And as it has been for quite some time, country and western hits was America's safety net from the "scary" and sometimes labeled "immoral" music of the African Americans.

Times were changing. The younger generation was starting to explore music the parents were sure to immediately disapprove. The same way their parents played music which offended their grandparents. So is the story of the evolution of music. Unless something changes, it gets old and stagnant and boring.

The light, inoffensive tunes of the early 50s had its place in time. Not that there was anything wrong with the talent of that era, it just didn't appeal to a generation of baby boomers who were ready to have their ears thrilled. Songs about love were at the top of the pop charts, but it has been clinched then and continues to be clinched. You would still have to be dense to deny the talent it took to sing these sweet, syrupy songs of innocence. The singers back then could carry a note.