Performances often sounded amateurish, naïve, or intentionally raw, with typical themes revolving around the traumas of high school life and songs about 'lying girls' being particularly common. Contests were held, locally, regionally and nationally, and three of the most prestigious national events were held annually by the Tea Council of the US, the Music Circus, and the United States Junior Chamber. Groups often competed in ' battles of the bands', which gave musicians an opportunity to gain exposure and a chance to win a prize, such as free equipment or recording time in a local studio. Some garage rock bands went on tour, particularly those better-known, but even more obscure groups sometimes received bookings or airplay beyond their immediate locales. Occasionally, groups had the opportunity to open at shows for famous touring acts. For acts of legal age (and in some cases younger), bars, nightclubs, and college fraternity socials also provided regular engagements. Local and regional groups typically played at parties, school dances, and teen clubs. Garage bands performed in a variety of venues. According to Mark Nobles, it is estimated that between 19 over 180,000 bands formed in the United States, and several thousand US garage acts made records during the era. Though it is impossible to determine how many garage bands were active in the era, their numbers were extensive in what Markesich has characterized as a 'cyclonic whirlwind of musical activity like none other'. combos) proliferated Everywheresville USA'. Referring to the 1960s, Mike Markesich commented 'teenage rock & roll groups (i.e. While numerous bands were made up of middle-class teenagers from the suburbs, others were from rural or urban areas or were composed of professional musicians in their twenties. The term 'garage rock', often used in reference to 1960s acts, stems from the perception that many performers were young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage. Social milieu and stylistic features The D-Men (later the Fifth Estate) in 1964 Garage rock continues to appeal to musicians and audiences who prefer a 'back to basics' or ' do-it-yourself' musical approach. In the 2000s, a wave of garage-influenced acts associated with the post-punk revival emerged, and some achieved commercial success.

Later in the decade, a louder, more contemporary garage subgenre developed that combined garage rock with modern punk rock and other influences, sometimes using the garage punk label originally and otherwise associated with 1960s garage bands. In the early to mid-1980s, several revival scenes emerged featuring acts that consciously attempted to replicate the look and sound of 1960s garage bands.

The style has also been referred to as ' proto-punk' or in certain instances 'frat rock'. The term 'garage rock' gained favor amongst commentators and devotees during the 1980s. Between 19, certain American rock critics began to retroactively identify the music as a genre and for several years used the term ' punk rock' to describe it, making it the first form of music to bear the description, predating the more familiar use of the term appropriated by the later punk rock movement that it influenced. Other countries in the 1960s experienced similar rock movements that have sometimes been characterized as variants of garage rock.ĭuring the 1960s, garage rock was not recognized as a distinct genre and had no specific name, but critical hindsight in the early 1970s-and especially the 1972 compilation album Nuggets-did much to define and memorialize the style. After 1968, as more sophisticated forms of rock music came to dominate the marketplace, garage rock records largely disappeared from national and regional charts, and the movement faded. With the advent of psychedelia, numerous garage bands incorporated exotic elements into the genre's primitive stylistic framework. Hundreds of grass-roots acts produced regional hits, some of which gained national popularity, usually played on AM radio stations. In the US and Canada, surf rock-and later the Beatles and other beat groups of the British Invasion-motivated thousands of young people to form bands between 19. Its name derives from the perception that groups were often made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, although many were professional. The style is characterized by basic chord structures played on electric guitars and other instruments, sometimes distorted through a fuzzbox, as well as often unsophisticated and occasionally aggressive lyrics and delivery. Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or '60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals.

Garageband recording shifts