I love the Beatles, but they were so "sophisticated" in the song writing, they almost fit a "classical" genre. There were a lot of good ones. The Who, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and Cream to name a few real rockers, but I will go with The Rolling Stones.
I don’t know if they were the greatest but the ones I liked to listen to were The Animals and CCR.
The school dances in the 60s were all rock and roll with a few tragedies mixed in but I thought that it was depressing in a way and I was glad to see the 70s come along with some really super one hit wonders.
The 70s had some REALLY cool music in my opinion and I still look up some of those cool old hits.
I think the music died a long time before The Day The Music Died and it was just waiting to be buried.