Best music artists of the 1960s
The 1960s reshaped popular music forever, giving us everything from the British Invasion to soul, folk, and psychedelic rock, all while soundtracking a decade of massive cultural upheaval. With so many legendary acts vying for the title of the greatest, the debate over who truly defined the era is as fierce as ever. Cast your vote and help decide which artist reigns supreme from this iconic musical decade.
What counts: Seeded with approximate figures where shown — the crowd's votes decide the order.
The Beatles▲ Rising
From the shrieking Beatlemania of 1964 to the studio alchemy of Sgt. Pepper's in 1967, they rewired what a pop band could be in real time, turning three-minute singles into the most consequential art of the decade. No act did more to make the album itself the unit of genius, and every studio experiment since owes them a royalty check.
Active Years (1960s): 1960–1970Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 12US #1 Hits: 20Career Grammy Awards: 7Critical Acclaim: 10/10Cultural Influence: 10/10Global Album Sales: 600 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 6 rankings
66
The Rolling Stones▲ Rising
While the Beatles smiled, the Stones sneered, and 'Satisfaction' in 1965 announced rock's id had arrived with a fuzz-toned riff that still sounds dangerous. They took Chicago blues, roughed it up with British snarl, and by decade's end on 'Beggars Banquet' and 'Let It Bleed' had become the genre's dark, essential counterweight.
Active Years (1960s): 1962–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 8US #1 Hits: 8Career Grammy Awards: 3Critical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Influence: 9/10Global Album Sales: 200 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 6 rankings
58
Bob Dylan▲ Rising
Plugging in an electric guitar at Newport in '65 wasn't just a scandal, it was a detonation that split folk purism from rock's future, and 'Like a Rolling Stone' proved a pop song could carry the weight of literature. He gave a generation its conscience and its vocabulary, making protest and poetry commercially inseparable from rock and roll.
Active Years (1960s): 1961–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 10US #1 Hits: 0Career Grammy Awards: 10Critical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Influence: 10/10Global Album Sales: 125 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 6 rankingsBob Dylan
51
Jimi Hendrix▲ Rising
He set his guitar on fire at Monterey in 1967 and then, less than two years later, set the national anthem on fire at Woodstock, bending feedback into something like grief and rage and transcendence at once. No one before or since has made the electric guitar sound so entirely like a human voice, and his death in 1970 only sealed how singular that four-year run truly was.
Active Years (1960s): 1966–1970Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 3US #1 Hits: 0Career Grammy Awards: 0Critical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Influence: 9/10Global Album Sales: 50 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 4 rankingsJimi Hendrix
21
When she demanded 'Respect' in 1967, she wasn't covering Otis Redding so much as reclaiming him, turning a good song into a civil-rights and feminist anthem with a single vocal run. Her run of Atlantic records that decade didn't just define soul music, they defined what it meant for a Black woman's voice to hold that much unapologetic power.
Active Years (1960s): 1960–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 8US #1 Hits: 1Career Grammy Awards: 18Critical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Influence: 9/10Global Album Sales: 75 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 5 rankingsAretha Franklin
7
The Beach Boys
Brian Wilson heard the Beatles' 'Rubber Soul' and answered with 'Pet Sounds' in 1966, an album so lush and strange it made Paul McCartney weep and reset the ceiling for pop ambition. Underneath the surfboards and harmonies was a nervous breakdown turned into art, and 'Good Vibrations' proved a single could be a pocket symphony.
Active Years (1960s): 1961–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 15US #1 Hits: 4Career Grammy Awards: 0Critical Acclaim: 8/10Cultural Influence: 8/10Global Album Sales: 100 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 3 rankings
-2
Decades past his revolutionary Hot Five days, he still had one more trick left, knocking the Beatles off the top of the charts in 1964 with the impossibly warm growl of 'Hello, Dolly!' His mere presence in the decade was a living bridge from jazz's birth to its rock-and-roll eclipse, a reminder of where all the century's popular music actually started.
Active Years (1960s): 1960–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 5US #1 Hits: 1Career Grammy Awards: 1Critical Acclaim: 8/10Cultural Influence: 9/10Global Album Sales: 30 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 3 rankingsLouis Armstrong
-10
Miles Davis▼ Falling
He walked away from hard bop's rulebook to make 'Kind of Blue' feel like the default setting of cool jazz, then spent the rest of the decade restlessly dismantling it again with modal experiments and electric flirtations that pointed straight at fusion. Every trumpet player who followed had to reckon with a man who kept changing the question before anyone else answered it.
Active Years (1960s): 1960–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 20US #1 Hits: 0Career Grammy Awards: 9Critical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Influence: 9/10Global Album Sales: 20 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 3 rankings
-12
John Coltrane▼ Falling
'A Love Supreme' in 1965 wasn't a jazz album so much as a spiritual confession played at the edge of human breath control, four movements of searching that turned technical virtuosity into devotion. He pushed free jazz into territory so intense and unresolved that it scared some listeners and evangelized others, and both reactions proved his importance.
Active Years (1960s): 1960–1967Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 20US #1 Hits: 0Career Grammy Awards: 2Critical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Influence: 8/10Global Album Sales: 10 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: —
added by IJRin 3 rankingsJohn Coltrane
-16
Frank Sinatra▼ Falling
He entered the '60s already a legend and simply kept adding to the myth, delivering the boozy, world-weary swagger of 'It Was a Very Good Year' and the theatrical bravado of 'My Way' as rock swallowed the charts around him. Sinatra proved the old guard could still command a room even as the culture's center of gravity shifted permanently away from the crooner and toward the guitar.
Active Years (1960s): 1960–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 20US #1 Hits: 1Career Grammy Awards: 11Critical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Influence: 9/10Global Album Sales: 150 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: —
added by IJRin 2 rankingsFrank Sinatra
-24
Johnny Cash▼ Falling
He walked into Folsom State Prison in 1968 and turned a comeback into a mission statement, singing to inmates with the gravel-voiced authority of a man who'd lived every outlaw song he wrote. Cash gave country music a conscience and a rebel streak that outlasted Nashville polish, making him as essential to the decade's outsider spirit as any rock star.
Active Years (1960s): 1960–1969Studio Albums Released in 1960s: 15US #1 Hits: 0Career Grammy Awards: 13Critical Acclaim: 8/10Cultural Influence: 8/10Global Album Sales: 90 MRock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee: ✓
added by IJRin 3 rankings
-31
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Comments (4)
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This order is closer to right than any editor would've gotten.
Voted — and the gap between #1 and #2 should be bigger.
- FFelix SilvaJul 29, 2026
The crowd is sleeping on the bottom half of this list.