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Great Bands of the 60's-80's. Talk about a loaded statement! There are so many great bands from this era it's hard to keep count of them all.
We have the British Invasion acts consisting of first and foremost the Beatles. The Beatles started me into rock music via my older sister. Before them I was content to listen to the latest country my Dad listened to. The Beatles were a Rock Band that got more people listening to Rock. The Rolling Stones kicked Rock in the ass! With their bad boy image they personified the rebellion Rock represented.

Meanwhile American bands were coming into their own. The Beach Boys backed by Brian Wilson's songwriting proved to be Lennon/McCartney's equal in creating pop standards. Who can forget Good Vibrations, as far as that goes the whole Pet Sounds album.
The 70's came in and a voice came into being crossing the lines between country and rock. The Byrds which evolved into the Flying Burrito Brothers, Roger McGuinn, Gram Parsons et al defined new parameters for rock in general. Most famous of these crossovers were the Eagles which to this day influence both country and rock musicians alike.
Another area of which is my favorite is the progressive rock movement. Pink Floyd, Genesis, Electric Light Orchestra and Kansas all bear this torch. I love them all but my favorite is still Kansas. The guys in Kansas looked like they stepped off a tractor working the fields in their namesake home state, but the music and lyrics that came out were absolutely heavenly. A little more complex than you would expect from a bunch of guys from Topeka. Check out their first three albums Kansas, Song for America and Masque and you can see what I mean.
Another genre to come out of this era is Heavy Metal. You need to go no further than Black Sabbath to see the roots of this music. Ozzie's vocals and Tommie's guitar lead the charge. John Kaye and Steppenwolf coined the term Heavy Metal, but Sabbath defined it. Dark lyrics and heavy guitars, need I say more?
Punk Music was another British Invasion type of thing, or so we thought until we heard about the Ramones. The Ramones were the personification of three chord rock turned up to warp speed. Other great punk bands from this era were the original Punk pioneers the Sex Pistols. Banned from singing thier punk anthem God Save The Queen on British TV. They were the rebels which Rock music started out as to begin with.
Come to think of it, when you consider Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and the music they spawned wasn't that a music the youth used to rebel with and have some fun? So you see with the punk movement rock did a full circle thing. From banishment to acceptance to banishment again.
There are so many great bands from the era mentioned it's hard to pin one down. A true potpourri of musical tastes. And as the Rolling Stones say "It's only Rock and Roll and I like it.".

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