The new music was built out of materials already in existence: blues, rock'n'roll, folk music. But although the forms remained, something completely new and original was made out of these older elements - more original, perhaps, than even the new musicians themselves yet realize. The transformation took place in 1966-1967. Up to that time, the blues had been an essentially black medium. Rock'n'roll, a blues derivative, was rhythmic dance music. Folk music, old and modern, was popular among college students. The three forms remained musically and culturally distinct, and even as late as 1965, none of them were expressing any radically new states of consciousness. Blues expressed black soul; rock was the beat of youthful energy; and folk music expressed anti-war sentiments as well as love and hope.

In 1966-1967 there was spontaneous transformation. In the United States, it originated with youthful rock groups playing in San Francisco. In England, it was led by the Beatles, who were already established as an extremely fine and highly individual rock group. What happened, as well as it can be put into words, was this. First, the separate musical traditions were brought together. Bob Dylan and the Jefferson Airplane played folk rock, folk ideas with a rock beat. White rock groups began experimenting with the blues. Of course, white musicians had always played the blues, but essentially as imitators of the Negro style; now it began to be the white bands' own music. And all of the groups moved towards a broader eclecticism and synthesis. They freely took over elements from jazz, from American country music, and as time went on from even more diverse sources. What developed was a music readily taking on various forms and capable of an almost limitless range of expression.

The second thing that happened was that all the musical groups began using the full range of electric instruments and the technology of electronic amplifiers. The electric guitar was an old instrument, but the new electronic effects were altogether different - so different that a new listener in 1967 might well feel that there had never been may sounds like that in the world before. Electronics did, in fact, make possible sounds that no instrument up to that time could produce. And in studio recordings, new techniques made possible effects that not even an electronic band could produce live. Electronic amplifiers also made possible a fantastic increase in volume, the music becoming as loud and penetrating as the human ear could stand, and thereby achieving a "total" effect, so that instead of an audience of passive listeners, there were now audiences of total participants, feeling the music in all of their senses and all of bones.

Third, the music becomes a multi-media experience; a port of a total environment. The walls of the ballrooms were covered with changing patterns of light, the beginning of the new art of the light show. And the audience did not sit, it danced. With records at home, listeners imitated these lighting effects as best they could, and heightened the whole experience by using drugs. Often music was played out of doors, where nature provided the environment.

新音樂

新音樂的素材來源于布魯斯、搖滾和民間音樂，雖然保存了它們的形式，但從這些較早的音樂中卻產(chǎn)生了一些全新而富有創(chuàng)意的東西--也許比新的音樂家所意識到的還有創(chuàng)意。這種變化發(fā)生于1966-1967年間，這之前布魯斯一直是黑人音樂的基本表現(xiàn)形式。搖滾衍生于布魯斯，是一種很有節(jié)奏的舞蹈音樂。而民間音樂，不論古老的還是現(xiàn)代的，都很受大學(xué)生們的喜愛。這三種形式一直保留著音樂和文化上和特色，甚至到了1965年，他們中也沒有一種形式表達一些全新的意識形態(tài)。布魯斯表達黑人的情感；搖滾是青春活力的跳動；而民間音樂表現(xiàn)愛、希望以及反戰(zhàn)情緒。

1966-1967年這些音樂形勢自然而然地發(fā)生了變化。這一變化在美國起始于舊金山演出的青年搖滾樂隊，在英國則由甲殼蟲樂隊領(lǐng)先，他們當(dāng)時已經(jīng)成立了非常不錯、極有個性的搖滾組合。當(dāng)時所發(fā)生的一切盡可能訴諸文字如下。首先那些獨立的音樂傳統(tǒng)融合起來。鮑勃迪倫和杰菲遜飛機樂隊演奏的民間搖滾將民歌的歌詞配上了搖滾節(jié)奏。白人搖滾樂隊也開始嘗試布魯斯。其實白人音樂家一直都在嚴奏布魯斯，不過基本是模仿黑人的風(fēng)范的折衷與融合。他們隨意的從爵士樂、鄉(xiāng)村音樂中吸取養(yǎng)分，隨著時間的推移甚至從更多來源中各取所需，很快一種形式各異的極具有表現(xiàn)力的音樂形成了。

其次所有的音樂組合都開始使用全套電子樂器和電子擴間技術(shù)。吉他是舊式樂器，但是新的電子效果卻完全不同，在1967年第一次聽到它的人恐怕會感覺到以前世界上從來沒有像這樣的音響。電子技術(shù)確實制造出了此前樂器無法發(fā)出的各種聲響。在錄音室錄音，新的技術(shù)能做出連電子樂隊現(xiàn)場都演奏不出的效果。電子放大器也可以使音量大到極至，音樂顯得洪亮而有穿透力，震耳欲聾，因而達到一種徹底的效果，使得聽眾不再是被動的接受者，而是完全地投入，用整個身心去感受音樂。

第三，音樂成為一種多媒體的感受、整個環(huán)境中的一部分。舞廳的墻上閃爍著變幻莫測的燈光。這是新的燈光藝術(shù)的開始。觀眾不是正襟危坐，而是跳動不已。家中有唱片的人會模仿那些燈光效果，并使用實物來加強整體的感覺。音樂還往往以大自然為背景室外演奏。