We just can’t live without certain things in our lives. In the decade of the 1960s, there were a few things that everyone needed and wanted. You’d remember these essential 1960s items if you lived through this decade.
In the 60s, people couldn’t live without music. ‘The British Invasion’ was a big part of the 60s music world. The British bands revolutionized rock, including, ‘The Beatles,’ ‘The Rolling Stones,’ and ‘The Who.’
But many other genres exploded in popularity in this decade too. Motown, psychedelic rock, and folk became mainstays of the 60s Billboard charts. The company ‘Philips’ also introduced the first cassette tape in 1963, which happened to be the same year when Bill Lear invented the 8-track tape.
Many people couldn’t live without ‘Valium.’ Its first appearance in 1963 was prescribed to manage anxiety, and it quickly became one of the most prescribed drugs of all time. Anti-anxiety pills have been researched since the late 1800s, but they couldn’t make one without highly addictive opiates. Valium was set to change that, but it didn’t. Over ten years, it was prescribed to 59.3 million patients, who were mainly women.
The 60s crowd loved their Tie-dye clothes. The style became popular in the 1920s because it was cheap and easy. Stars in the 60s set out to revive this trend. Jerry Garcia from ‘The Grateful Dead’ was one of the leaders of the resurgence. Other rockers followed, and it caught on quickly. People interested in this fashion were called ‘Hippies,’ who had evolved from the 50s ‘Beatniks.’
You couldn’t live without the classic 60s lava lamp invented in 1948. Edward Craven Walker created this funky lamp after seeing a cocktail shaker full of colorful liquids boiling on a stove in a pub in England. In 1963, he perfected the creation, also known as an ‘Astro Lamp.’
The 60s were captured by the ‘Kodak Instamatic, an inexpensive, easy-to-load camera that debuted in 1963. The name became synonymous with any cheap point-and-shoot cameras that followed. The 60s had many exciting things people couldn’t live without in their daily lives.
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