An audiovisual musical journey through the magical decade.

During the 1950s and '60s, the modern music emerging in the USA, Britain, and other global centers of innovation swept the youth of the entire Western world.

In Greece, most young people in the 1960s, raised in a withdrawn post-civil war environment, began to claim their share of the euphoria of the post-war landscape and turned towards the global trends of youth culture, distancing themselves from the traditional and "outdated" ways of entertainment of their parents.

Slowly at first and then overwhelmingly, and despite the meager media resources of the time, modern music flooded the Greek youth, not only in Athens and major cities but also in every corner of the country. Modern musical groups sprang up everywhere, sometimes simply adapting global sounds to the Greek reality and other times creating truly significant artistic work. Youth clubs opened everywhere, and young people enjoyed parties, concerts, and the characteristic Sunday morning music events in cinemas and theaters of the major cities.

The 1960s were crucial for the development of the country's music culture because, even though most of the bands that flourished then faded away by the end of the decade, they gave birth to the artists who shaped the subsequent music scene in the country up to the present day.

This magical era of youthful emancipation within the framework of modern musical creation and entertainment, also referred to as the "years of innocence," is uniquely documented in the book-album "The Greek Musical Groups of the 60s" by Nikos Sarris, published by Ogdoos Editions.

Following many years of personal research and interviews that the author conducted with members of the bands of the time, the book features 650 rare photographs and detailed information about 170 modern music groups that were created and active during the decade.

This revised edition from Ogdoos includes another significant innovation that makes this book a valuable guide to the Greek youth pop culture of the '60s. By scanning the QR codes scattered throughout the book's pages with their mobile phones, readers have the opportunity to listen to characteristic songs from all the bands that were fortunate enough to capture their work in recordings.

This is an exciting musical audiovisual journey to the era of innocence, nostalgic for those who lived it and highly interesting for those who were very young then or were not even born.