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.

新音乐

新音乐的素材来源于布鲁斯、摇滚和民间音乐，虽然保存了它们的形式，但从这些较早的音乐中却产生了一些全新而富有创意的东西--也许比新的音乐家所意识到的还有创意。这种变化发生于1966-1967年间，这之前布鲁斯一直是黑人音乐的基本表现形式。摇滚衍生于布鲁斯，是一种很有节奏的舞蹈音乐。而民间音乐，不论古老的还是现代的，都很受大学生们的喜爱。这三种形式一直保留着音乐和文化上和特色，甚至到了1965年，他们中也没有一种形式表达一些全新的意识形态。布鲁斯表达黑人的情感；摇滚是青春活力的跳动；而民间音乐表现爱、希望以及反战情绪。

1966-1967年这些音乐形势自然而然地发生了变化。这一变化在美国起始于旧金山演出的青年摇滚乐队，在英国则由甲壳虫乐队领先，他们当时已经成立了非常不错、极有个性的摇滚组合。当时所发生的一切尽可能诉诸文字如下。首先那些独立的音乐传统融合起来。鲍勃迪伦和杰菲逊飞机乐队演奏的民间摇滚将民歌的歌词配上了摇滚节奏。白人摇滚乐队也开始尝试布鲁斯。其实白人音乐家一直都在严奏布鲁斯，不过基本是模仿黑人的风范的折衷与融合。他们随意的从爵士乐、乡村音乐中吸取养分，随着时间的推移甚至从更多来源中各取所需，很快一种形式各异的极具有表现力的音乐形成了。

其次所有的音乐组合都开始使用全套电子乐器和电子扩间技术。吉他是旧式乐器，但是新的电子效果却完全不同，在1967年第一次听到它的人恐怕会感觉到以前世界上从来没有像这样的音响。电子技术确实制造出了此前乐器无法发出的各种声响。在录音室录音，新的技术能做出连电子乐队现场都演奏不出的效果。电子放大器也可以使音量大到极至，音乐显得洪亮而有穿透力，震耳欲聋，因而达到一种彻底的效果，使得听众不再是被动的接受者，而是完全地投入，用整个身心去感受音乐。

第三，音乐成为一种多媒体的感受、整个环境中的一部分。舞厅的墙上闪烁着变幻莫测的灯光。这是新的灯光艺术的开始。观众不是正襟危坐，而是跳动不已。家中有唱片的人会模仿那些灯光效果，并使用实物来加强整体的感觉。音乐还往往以大自然为背景室外演奏。