The British invasion hadn't started yet, nor had corporate America scorched musical innovation by giving our best musical minds two options - either squeeze yourself into some marketal niche-like easy listening or go cut a record for a label that won't market you and can bail you forward to get you into the stores.
If the opposite had happened and rates went up and subsequently dropped (as is the plan in Philadelphia with our temporary sales tax increase), would we be so quick to label it a tax cut?