# These 7 Songs From the ’60s Laid the Foundation for Alternative Rock

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/these-7-songs-from-the-60s-laid-the-foundation-for-alternative-rock/
- Published: 2026-11-02T05:08:11+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-02T07:13:48+00:00
- Original publisher: Collider
- Original article: https://collider.com/alternative-rock-songs-1960s/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Alternative rock’s roots stretch back to 1960s experimentation.
- The article highlights seven songs that helped shape the genre.
- Psychedelia and counterculture influenced later alternative styles.

## Summary

The article argues that alternative rock’s roots reach back to the 1960s, when psychedelic music and counterculture encouraged experimentation and rejection of genre boundaries. It presents seven songs from the decade as foundations for later styles including grunge, post-punk, shoegaze and Britpop.

The examples covered in the supplied text include David Bowie’s 1969 “Space Oddity”, inspired partly by 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Zombies’ 1965 “She’s Not There”, and Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love”, featured on their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. The article links their genre-mixing and themes such as isolation, emotional numbness and rebellion to qualities that later became associated with alternative rock.

---
Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.
