Call it the Age of Aquarius. Call it the “youth culture.” Call it “Beatlemania.” By any name, the cultural earthquakes of the 1960s were a time of revolution whose echoes are still reverberating around the world today in the 21st century.

Youth had a lot to do with the Sixties’ ground-breaking culture. In the United States alone, some 70 million post-World War II “Baby Boomers” became teenagers and young adults between 1960 and 1969. Constricted by the conservative culture of their parents, these youngsters burst out with changes that affected moral values, lifestyles, laws, education and entertainment.

The impact of youth was most keenly felt in fashion, entertainment and lifestyles, according to an online report, “1960-1969: American Cultural History” by S. Goodwin and B. Bradley of Lone Star College in Kingwood, TX. Their report shows that the Sixties were a time of such massive social change, that it can hardly be encapsulated in a single overview.

Literature of the period reflected much of what was happening in America’s social and political arenas during the 1960s. Among this period’s iconic books were Harper Lee’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” with its depiction of race relations in a small Southern town; Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique,” the bible of the feminist revolution; and disillusionment with “the system” shown in Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22″ and Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Authors whose books trace some of the major social themes of the era include “The Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, genesis of the environmental movement that described how the use of pesticides destroyed insect populations necessary for all life; “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, a creative nonfiction account of crime and the death penalty; “Unsafe at Any Speed,” by Ralph Nader, an account of the designed-in hazards of American car-making, focusing especially on the Chevrolet Corvair; and “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” by Tom Wolfe, describing the burgeoning drug culture in America through a road trip by author Kesey.

In fashion, miniskirts, white patent-leather “go-go” boots, long hair on boys and short hair on girls, and nearly skeletal models such as the waifish Twiggy defined the youthful costume. Carnaby Street in London was the site of many an up-to-the-minute fashion designer and upscale clothing shops.

Perhaps some of the biggest cultural icons of the period came from the world of rock ‘n roll. One of rock’s earlier icons in the 1950s, Elvis Presley, had returned from his military service to pursue a career known more for flashy outfits and outsider-makes-good movies such as “Viva Las Vegas” and “Blue Hawaii.” Meanwhile Broadway, home of musicals such as “My Fair Lady” and “The Sound of Music,” was turned more toward drama since musical productions were becoming so costly to produce. Ironically, Julie Andrews, who originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, was passed over in favor of Audrey Hepburn for the 1964 film. As if in compensation, Andrews landed the role of the redoubtable nanny in Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins” (1964), for which she won an Academy Award as best actress..

In her own way, Andrews was part of the cultural earthquake that became known as The British Invasion. Paramount among the “invaders” were The Beatles – John, Paul, George and Ringo – who set off the wave with their 1964 tour of America. Upbeat pop numbers such as “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “Love Me Do” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” drew millions of screaming teen-age girls to airports and concerts hoping for an up-close-and-personal glimpse of the Fab Four. After their first global popularity, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr left off touring for making music in the EMI recording studios in London. Starting with the 1966 album “Revolver,” the Beatles developed a style of music that epitomized the era of sweeping change in which they lived. Their masterpiece as a band was arguably 1967’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” in which they told a kind of story-in-song that featured sound with a psychedelic identity that matched the era’s “tune in, turn out, drop out” mood.

If the Beatles were rock’s artistes of the era, the Rolling Stones were its hard-rocking bad boys. Led by the indomitable Mick Jagger (who would still perform well into the 21st century), the Stones were out for sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” has become a classic working-man’s anthem of being exploited by “The Man.” The Stones’ reputation took a major hit on Dec. 6, 1969, when a member of the Hell’s Angels biker club – ironically hired to provide “security” at the event - stabbed a spectator at a free Stones’ concert in Altamont Speedway outside Livermore, Calif. The event was later captured in a 1970 documentary, “Gimme Shelter.”

In the world of art, one name stands about all the others during the 1960s: Andy Warhol. The white-haired, nearly albino denizen of New York’s heady world of art and hip became known through his cartoon-like paintings of everyday items such as Campbell’s Soup cans and Hollywood icons such as Marilyn Monroe. Warhol’s multiple renderings of his central images became part of his legacy in much the same way that Monet’s water lilies defined his era. While his subjects gained him prominence, his techniques also moved the edge of avant-garde farther along. Warhol was one of the first to use silk-screening rather than paint-on-canvas as his medium, reportedly because traditional painting took too long for the mercurial artist. Warhol used silk screening as his medium for the rest of his life.

The Sixties produced so many other notables who could be considered icons. In politics, there were President John F. Kennedy; his brother Robert Kennedy, onetime attorney general and 1968 presidential candidate, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., pre-eminent leader of the Civil Rights movement; and Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X, proponent of black nationality. It’s ironic that the youthful, creative energy that produced so much culturally also unleashed forces that resulted in the violent assassinations of all four of these men. By the time 1969 ended, the “youth decade” had grown up, sadder and wiser.