Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It often uses new recording techniques and effects and draws on non-Western sources such as the ragas and drones of Indian music.

It was pioneered by musicians including The Beatles, The Byrds and The Yardbirds, emerging as a genre during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom, such as Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and Pink Floyd. It reached a peak in between 1967 and 1969 with the Summer of Love and Woodstock Rock Festival, becoming an international musical movement and associated with a widespread counter-culture, before beginning a decline as changing attitudes, the loss of some key individuals and a back-to-basics movement, led surviving performers to move into new musical areas.

Psychedelic rock influenced the creation of psychedelic pop and psychedelic soul. It also bridged the transition from early blues- and folk music-based rock to progressive rock, glam rock, hard rock and as a result influenced the development of sub-genres such as heavy metal. Since the late 1970s it has been revived in various forms of neo-psychedelia.

Characteristics[link]

A sitar, much used on early records of the genre.

As a musical style psychedelic rock attempted to replicate the effects and enhance the mind-altering experiences of hallucinogenic drugs, incorporating new electronic and record effects, extended solo's and improvisation and was particularly influenced by eastern mysticism, reflected in use of exotic instrumentation, particularly from Indian music or the incorporation of elements of eastern music. Major features include:

• electric guitars, often used with feedback, wah wah and fuzzboxes;^[1]
• elaborate studio effects, such as backwards tapes, panning, phasing, long delay loops, and extreme reverb;^[2]
• exotic instrumentation, with a particular fondness for the sitar and tabla;^[3]
• a strong keyboard presence, especially organs, harpsichords, or the Mellotron (an early tape-driven 'sampler');^[4]
• extended instrumental solos or jams;^[5]
• complex song structures, key and time signature changes, modal melodies and drones;^[5]
• primitive electronic instruments such as synthesizers and the theremin;^[6][7]
• lyrics that made direct or indirect reference to drugs, as in Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" or Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze";^[8]
• surreal, whimsical, esoterically or literary-inspired, lyrics.^[9][10]

Etymology[link]

The term psychedelic was first coined in 1957 by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond as an alternative descriptor for hallucinogenic drugs in the context of psychedelic psychotherapy.^[11] The first musical use of the term psychedelic is thought to have been by the New York-based folk group The Holy Modal Rounders on their version of Lead Belly's "Hesitation Blues" in 1964.^[12] The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas, at the end of 1965. The term was first used in print in the Austin American Statesman in an article about the band titled "Unique Elevators shine with psychedelic rock", dated 10 February 1966, and theirs was the first album to use the term as part of its title, in The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, released in August that year.^[5] As the counter-cultural scene developed in San Francisco the terms acid rock and psychedelic rock were used in 1966 to describe the new drug-influenced music^[13] and were being widely used by 1967.^[14] The terms psychedelic rock and acid rock are often used interchangeably,^[8] but some commentators have distinguished the former, which generally evoked the effects of psychedelic drugs, and acid rock, which can be seen as a more extreme sub-genre that focused more directly on LSD, was often louder, made greater use of distortion and often consisted of long, improvised jams.^[15][16]

History[link]

Origins[link]

Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan in 1975

From the second half of the 1950s, Beat Generation writers like William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg^[17] wrote about and took drugs, including cannabis and Benzedrine, raising awareness and helping to popularise their use.^[18] In the same period Lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, or "acid" (at this point a legal drug), began to be used in the US and UK as an experimental treatment, initially promoted as a potential cure for mental illness.^[19] In the early 1960s the use of LSD and other hallucinogens was advocated by proponents of the new "consciousness expansion", such as Timothy Leary, Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley and Arthur Koestler,^[20][21]; their writings profoundly influenced the thinking of the new generation of youth.^[22] There had long been a culture of drug use among jazz and blues musicians, and, in the early 1960s, use of drugs (including cannabis, peyote, mescaline and LSD^[23]) had begun to grow among folk and rock musicians, who also began to include drug references in their songs.^[24]

Two of the most successful and influential acts of the era, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, were among the first to experiment with such references. Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (1965), which may have taken its title from a Kerouac novel,^[25] included the line, "Johnny's in the basement, mixing up the medicine", and his "Mr. Tambourine Man" (1965) requested "Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship". Whether this was intended as a drug reference was unclear, but the line would enter rock music when the song was a hit for the Byrds later in the year.^[14] Dylan indicated that he had taken cannabis, but has denied using hard drugs. Nevertheless, his lyrics would continue to contain apparent drug references.^[26] After being introduced to cannabis by Dylan, members of The Beatles began experimenting with LSD in 1965. The Beatles introduced audiences to many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound during this period, with guitar feedback in "I Feel Fine" (1964), "Norwegian Wood" from their 1965 Rubber Soul album using a sitar, and the employment of reversed audio tapes on their 1966 B-side "Rain".^[10] Drug references began to appear in their songs, in "Day Tripper" (1965), and more explicitly in "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966), from their album Revolver.^[27]

Big Brother and the Holding Company, c. 1966-67: Janis Joplin is seated in the foreground.

By the mid-1960s, the psychedelic life-style had already developed in California. This was particularly true in San Francisco, due in part to the first major underground LSD factory, established there by Owsley Stanley.^[14] There was also an emerging music scene of folk clubs, coffee houses and independent radio stations catering to a population of students at nearby Berkeley, and to free thinkers that had gravitated to the city.^[28] From 1964, the Merry Pranksters, a loose group that developed around novelist Ken Kesey, sponsored the Acid Tests, a series of events based around the taking of LSD (supplied by Stanley), accompanied by light shows, film projection and discordant, improvised music known as the psychedelic symphony.^[29][30] The Pranksters helped popularize LSD use through their road trips across America in a psychedelically-decorated school bus, which involved distributing the drug and meeting with major figures of the beat movement, and through publications about their activities such as Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968).^[26]

The Byrds, emerging from the Californian folk scene, and the Yardbirds from the British blues scene, have been seen as particularly influential on the development of the genre.^[10] Drug use and attempts at psychedelic music moved out of acoustic folk-based music towards rock soon after The Byrds "plugged in" to produce a chart topping version of Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man in the summer of 1965, which became a folk rock standard.^[31][32][33] A number of Californian-based folk acts followed them into folk-rock, bringing their psychedelic influences with them, to produce the "San Francisco Sound".^[10][29] Particularly prominent products of the scene were The Grateful Dead (who had effectively become the house band of the Acid Tests),^[30] Country Joe and the Fish, The Great Society, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Charlatans, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane.^[10] In 1966, The Byrds moved rapidly away from folk rock with their single "Eight Miles High", which made use of free jazz and Indian ragas, and the lyrics of which were widely taken to refer to drug use.^[10] The result of this directness was limited airplay, and there was a similar reaction when Dylan, who had also electrified to produce his own brand of folk rock, released "Rainy Day Women ♯ 12 & 35", with its repeating chorus of "Everybody must get stoned!".^[34] In Britain, the Yardbirds, with Jeff Beck as their guitarist, increasingly moved into psychedelic territory, adding up-tempo improvised "rave ups", Gregorian chant and world music (in particular Indian) influences to their songs, including "Still I'm Sad" (1965) and "Over Under Sideways Down" (1966), and singles such as "Heart Full of Soul" (1965), "Shapes of Things" (1966) and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (1966).^[35][36][37] They were soon followed by bands such as Procol Harum, The Moody Blues and The Nice.^[38]

Development in the USA[link]

The San Francisco music scene continued to develop as The Fillmore, the Avalon Ballroom, and The Matrix began booking local rock bands on a nightly basis. The first Trips Festival, sponsored by the Merry Pranksters and held at the Longshoremen's Hall in January 1966, saw The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company play to an audience of 10,000, giving many their first encounter with both acid rock, with its long instrumentals and unstructured jams, and LSD.^[39] Also from San Francisco, Blue Cheer played psychedelic-influenced rock in a blues-rock style.^[40][41] A major figure in the expansion of the genre was promoter Bill Graham, whose first rock concert in 1965 was a benefit that included Alan Ginsberg and the then unknown Jefferson Airplane on the bill. He produced shows attracting most of the major psychedelic rock bands and operated The Fillmore. When this proved too small he took over Winterland and then the Fillmore West (in San Francisco) and the Fillmore East (in New York City), where the major rock artists, from both the US and the UK, came to play.^[42]

Although San Francisco was the centre of American psychedelic music scene, many other American cities contributed significantly to the new genre. The first psychedelic single to reach the US top 10 was "Psychotic Reaction" by San Jose garage band Count Five in July 1966.^[8] Los Angeles boasted dozens of important psychedelic bands. Besides The Byrds, these included Iron Butterfly, Love, Spirit, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, The United States of America, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and the Electric Prunes;^[43] perhaps the most commercially successful were The Doors.^[44] Frank Zappa and his group The Mothers of Invention began to incorporate psychedelic influences in their first two albums Freak Out! (1966) and Absolutely Free (1967).^[45] The Beach Boys concept album Pet Sounds helped herald the psychedelia movement in America, with its artful experiments, psychedelic lyrics based on emotional longings and self-doubts, elaborate sound effects and new sounds on both conventional and unconventional instruments.^[37][46][47] New York City produced its share of psychedelic bands, such as folk pioneers The Fugs, The Godz, and Pearls Before Swine, besides the Blues Magoos, the Blues Project,^[48] Lothar and the Hand People^[49] and the blues-influenced Vanilla Fudge.^[50] The Detroit area gave rise to psychedelic bands the Amboy Dukes, and the SRC,^[51] and Chicago produced H. P. Lovecraft.^[52] Texas (particularly Austin) is often cited for its contributions to psychedelic music: besides the 13th Floor Elevators it produced acts including Bubble Puppy, Lost and Found, The Golden Dawn, The Zakary Thaks, and Red Crayola.^[53]

Development in the UK[link]

Cream, one of the psychedelic influenced bands of the British blues movement, c. 1966

In the UK before 1967 media outlets for psychedelic culture were limited to stations like Radio Luxembourg and pirate radio like Radio London, particularly the programmes hosted by DJ John Peel.^[54] The growth of underground culture was facilitated by the emergence of alternative weekly publications like IT (International Times) and OZ magazine which featured psychedelic and progressive music together with the counter culture lifestyle, which involved long hair, and the wearing of wild shirts from shops like Mr Fish, Granny Takes a Trip and old military uniforms from Carnaby Street (Soho) and Kings Road (Chelsea) boutiques.^[55] Soon psychedelic rock clubs like the UFO Club in Tottenham Court Road, Middle Earth Club in Covent Garden, The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, the Country Club (Swiss Cottage) and the Art Lab (also in Covent Garden) were drawing capacity audiences with psychedelic rock and ground-breaking liquid light shows.^[56] A major figure in the development of British psychedelia was the American promoter and record producer Joe Boyd, who moved to London in 1966. He co-founded venues including the UFO Club, produced Pink Floyd's first single, "Arnold Layne", and went on to manage folk and folk rock acts including Nick Drake, the Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention.^[57][58]

British psychedelic rock, like its American counterpart, had roots in the folk scene. Blues, drugs, jazz and eastern influences had featured since 1964 in the work of Davy Graham and Bert Jansch.^[59] However, the largest strand was a series of bands that emerged from 1966 from the British blues scene, but influenced by folk, jazz and psychedelia, including Pink Floyd, Traffic, Soft Machine, Cream, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (led by an American, but initially produced and managed in Britain by Chas Chandler of The Animals).^[38] The Crazy World of Arthur Brown added surreal theatrical touches to its dark psychedelic sounds, such as the singer's flaming headdress.^[60] Existing "British Invasion" acts now joined the psychedelic revolution, including Eric Burdon (previously of The Animals), and The Small Faces and The Who whose The Who Sell Out (1967) included psychedelic influenced tracks "I Can See for Miles" and "Armenia City in the Sky".^[61] The Rolling Stones had drug references and psychedelic hints in their 1966 singles "19th Nervous Breakdown" and "Paint It, Black", the latter featuring drones and sitar.^[10]

Peak years[link]

The Redmond Stage at the Woodstock Festival in 1969

Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release the double A-side "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", opening a strain of British "pastoral"^[62] or "nostalgic"^[10] psychedelia, followed by the release of what is often seen as their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, including the controversial track "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".^[63] They continued the psychedelic theme later in the year with the double EP Magical Mystery Tour and the number one single "Hello, Goodbye" with its B-side "I Am The Walrus".^[64] Also enigmatic and surreal was one of the most influential records of 1967, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum, which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967, and stayed there for six weeks.^[65] The Rolling Stones responded to Sgt Pepper later in the year with Their Satanic Majesties Request, and Pink Floyd produced what is usually seen as their best psychedelic work The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.^[10][66] In 1967 the Incredible String Band's The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion developed their folk music into full blown psychedelia, which would be a major influence on psychedelic rock.^[67] From 1967 Fairport Convention became a mainstay of the London Underground scene, producing their eponymous first album of American-inspired folk rock the following year.^[68] The Pretty Things' rock opera S.F. Sorrow, released in December 1968, featured both heavy psychedelic songs such as "Old Man Going" and "I See You" and poppy numbers like "S.F.Sorrow Is Born" and "Baron Saturday".^[69][70][71]

In America the Summer of Love of 1967 saw huge number of young people from across American and the world travel to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, boosting the population from 15,000 to around 100,000.^[72] It was prefaced by the Human Be-In event in March and reached its peak at the Monterey Pop Festival in June, the latter helping to make major American stars of Janis Joplin, lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix and The Who.^[73] Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow, the first album to come out of San Francisco during this era, which sold well enough to bring the city's music scene to the attention of the record industry: from it they took two of the earliest psychedelic hit singles: "White Rabbit" (1967) and "Somebody to Love" (1967).^[74] The Doors' first hit single "Light My Fire" (1967), running for over seven minutes, became one of the defining records of the genre, although their follow up album Strange Days only enjoyed moderate success.^[75] Santana, led by guitarist Carlos Santana, used Latin rhythms as the basis for their psychedelic music.^[8] These trends climaxed in the 1969 Woodstock festival, which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Santana.^[76] Psychedelic rock was glamorized on screen in Easy Rider (1969), which used songs including Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" as part of its soundtrack.^[8]

International expansion[link]

The Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful survivors of the psychedelic era, performing on Dutch television in 1968

The US and UK were the major centres of psychedelic music, but in the late 1960s scenes began to develop across the world, including continental Europe, Australasia, Asia and south and Central America.^[77]

In the later 1960s psychedelic scenes developed in a large number of countries in continental Europe, including the Netherlands with bands like The Outsiders,^[78] Denmark where it was pioneered by Steppeulvene,^[79] and Germany, where musicians began to fuse music of psychedelia and the electronic avant-garde. 1968 saw the first major German rock festival in Essen,^[80] and the foundation of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab in Berlin by Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Conrad Schnitzler, which helped bands like Tangerine Dream and Amon Düül achieve cult status.^[81]

The fledgling Australian and New Zealand rock scenes that formed in wake of Beatlemania were most influenced by British psychedelia, often with bands of first generation immigrants, who returned to further their musical careers.^[82] Among the most successful were The Easybeats, formed in Sydney but who recorded their international hit "Friday on My Mind" (1966) in London and remained there for their forays into psychedelic-tinged pop until they disbanded in 1970.^[83] A similar path was pursued by the Bee Gees, formed in Brisbane, but whose first album Bee Gees' 1st (1967), recorded in London, gave them three major hit singles and contained folk, rock and psychedelic elements, heavily influenced by the Beatles.^[84] The Twilights, formed in Adelaide, also made the trip to London, recording a series of minor hits, absorbing the psychedelic scene, to return home to produce covers of Beatles' songs, complete with sitar, and the concept album Once upon a Twilight (1968).^[85] The most successful New Zealand band, The La De Das, produced the psychedelic pop concept album The Happy Prince (1968), based on the Oscar Wilde children's classic, but failed to break through in Britain and the wider world.^[86] A thriving psychedelic music scene in Cambodia, influenced by psychedelic rock and soul broadcast by US forces radio in Vietnam,^[87] was pioneered by artists such as Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea.^[88] In Turkey, Anatolian rock artist Erkin Koray blended classic Turkish music and Middle Eastern themes into his psychedelic-driven rock, helping to found the Turkish rock scene with artists such as Cem Karaca, Mogollar and Baris Manco.^[89]

Los Gatos in 1967

Latin America proved a particularly fertile ground for psychedelic rock. The Brazilian psychedelic rock group Os Mutantes formed in 1966, although little known outside Brazil at the time, have since accrued a substantial international cult following.^[90] In the late 1960s, a wave of Mexican rock heavily influenced by psychedelia and funk emerged, especially in several northern border Mexican states, in particular, Tijuana, Baja California. Among the most recognized bands from this "Chicano Wave" (Onda Chicana in Spanish) were Three Souls in my Mind, Love Army and El Ritual.^[91] In Chile, from 1967 to 1973, between the ending of the government of President Frei Montalva and the government of President Allende, a cultural movement was born from a few Chilean bands that emerged playing a unique fusion of folkloric music with heavy psychedelic influences. The 1967 release of Los Mac's album Kaleidoscope Men (1967) inspired bands such as Los Jaivas and Los Blops, the latter going on to collaborate with the iconic Chilean singer-songwriter Victor Jara on his 1971 album El derecho de vivir en paz.^[92] Meanwhile in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires, a burgeoning psychedelic scene gave birth to three of the most important bands in Argentine rock: Los Gatos, Manal and Almendra.^[93]

Decline[link]

By the end of the 1960s psychedelic rock was in retreat. LSD had been made illegal in the US and UK in 1966.^[94] The murders of Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca by Charles Manson and his "family" of followers, claiming to have been inspired by Beatles' songs such as "Helter Skelter", has been seen as contributing to an anti-hippie backlash.^[95] At the end of the year, the Altamont Free Concert in California, headlined by The Rolling Stones, became notorious for the fatal stabbing of black teenager Meredith Hunter by Hells Angel security guards.^[96] Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys (whose much anticipated Smile project would not emerge until 2004),^[97][98] Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd were early "acid casualties", helping to shift the focus of the respective bands of which they had been leading figures.^[99] Some groups, such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream, broke up.^[100] Jimi Hendrix died in London in September 1970, shortly after recording Band of Gypsies (1970), Janis Joplin died of a heroin overdose in October 1970 and they were closely followed by Jim Morrison of the Doors, who died in Paris in July 1971.^[101] Many surviving acts moved away from psychedelia into either more back-to-basics "roots rock", traditional-based, pastoral or whimsical folk, the wider experimentation of progressive rock, or riff-based heavy rock.^[10]

In 1966, even while psychedelic rock was becoming dominant, Bob Dylan spearheaded the back-to-basics roots revival when he went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde.^[102][103] This, and the subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, John Wesley Harding (1967) and Nashville Skyline (1969), have been seen as creating the genre of country folk.^[103] Dylan's lead was also followed by The Byrds, joined by Gram Parsons to record Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968), helping to define the genre of country rock,^[104] which became a particularly popular style in the California music scene of the late 1960s, and was adopted by former folk rock artists including Hearts and Flowers, Poco and New Riders of the Purple Sage.^[104] Other acts that followed the back to basics trend in different ways were the Canadian group The Band and the Californian-based Creedence Clearwater Revival.^[105] The Grateful Dead also had major successes with the more reflective and stripped back Workingman's Dead and American Beauty in 1970.^[106] The super-group Crosby, Stills and Nash, formed in 1968 from members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies, were joined by Neil Young for Deja Vu in 1970, which moved away from many of what had become the "clichés" of psychedelic rock and placed an emphasis on political commentary and vocal harmonies.^[107]

After the death of Brian Epstein and the unpopular surreal television film, Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles returned to a more raw style with The Beatles (1968), Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), before their eventual break up.^[10] The back to basics trend was also evident in The Rolling Stones' albums starting from Beggar's Banquet (1968) to Exile on Main St. (1972).^[10] Fairport Convention released Liege and Lief in 1969, turning away from American-influenced folk rock toward a sound based on traditional British music and founding the sub-genre of electric folk, to be followed by bands like Steeleye Span and Fotheringay.^[108] The psychedelic-influenced and whimsical strand of British folk continued into the 1970s with acts including Comus, Mellow Candle, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, Forest and Trees and with Syd Barrett's two solo albums.^[109][110]

Influence[link]

Other genres[link]

The Monkees, one of the most successful acts to delve into psychedelic pop, pictured in 1967

As psychedelia emerged as a mainstream and commercial force, particularly through the work of the Beatles, it began to influence pop music, which incorporated hippie fashions, as well as the sounds of sitars, fuzz guitars, and tape effects.^[111] The Beach Boys' hit single "Good Vibrations" was one of the first pop songs to incorporate psychedelic lyrics and sounds.^[46][112] Scottish folk singer Donovan's transformation to 'electric' music gave him a series of pop hits, beginning with "Sunshine Superman", which reached number one in both Britain and the US, to be followed by "Mellow Yellow" (1966) and "Atlantis" (1968).^[10][113] American pop-oriented bands that followed in this vein included the Electric Prunes, the Blues Magoos and the Strawberry Alarm Clock.^[114] International acts such as the Bee Gees and the Easybeats were also prominent in the development of psychedelic pop.^[83][115] Psychedelic sounds were also incorporated into the output of early bubblegum pop acts like The Monkees and The Lemon Pipers.^[116]

Following the lead of Hendrix in rock, psychedelia began to have an impact on African American musicians, particularly the stars of the Motown label.^[117] This psychedelic soul was influenced by the civil rights movement, giving it a darker and more political edge than much acid rock.^[117] Building on the funk sound of James Brown, it was pioneered from about 1968 by Sly and the Family Stone and The Temptations. Acts that followed them into this territory the Supremes, The Chambers Brothers, The 5th Dimension,^[118] Edwin Starr and the Undisputed Truth.^[117] George Clinton's interdependent Funkadelic and Parliament ensembles and their various spin-offs, took the genre to its most extreme lengths making funk almost a religion in the 1970s,^[119] producing over forty singles, including three in the US top ten, and three platinum albums.^[120] While psychedelic rock began to waver at the end of the 1960s, psychedelic soul continued into the 1970s, peaking in popularity in the early years of the decade, and only disappearing in the late 1970s as tastes began to change.^[117] Acts like Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang and Ohio Players, who began as psychedelic soul artists, incorporated its sounds into funk music and eventually the disco which partly replaced it.^[121]

Rock music[link]

German kosmische musik band Can on stage in Hamburg in 1972

Many of the British musicians and bands that had embraced psychedelia went on to create progressive rock in the 1970s, including Pink Floyd, Soft Machine and members of Yes. King Crimson's album In the Court of the Crimson King (1969) has been seen as an important link between psychedelia and progressive rock.^[122] While bands such as Hawkwind maintained an explicitly psychedelic course into the 1970s, most dropped the psychedelic elements in favour of wider experimentation.^[123] The incorporation of jazz into the music of bands like Soft Machine and Can also contributed to the development of the jazz rock of bands like Colosseum.^[124] As they moved away from their psychedelic roots and placed increasing emphasis on electronic experimentation German bands like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Can and Faust developed a distinctive brand of electronic rock, known as kosmische musik, or in the British press as "Kraut rock".^[125] The adoption of electronic synthesisers, pioneered by Popol Vuh from 1970, together with the work of figures like Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music), would be a major influence on subsequent synth rock.^[126] In Japan, Osamu Kitajima's 1974 psychadelic rock album Benzaiten utilized electronic equipment such as a synthesizer and drum machine, and one of the record's contributors was Haruomi Hosono,^[127] who later started the electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (as "Yellow Magic Band") in 1977.^[128]

Psychedelic rock, with its distorted guitar sound, extended solos and adventurous compositions, has been seen as an important bridge between blues-oriented rock and later heavy metal. American bands whose loud, repetitive psychedelic rock emerged as early heavy metal included Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes and Steppenwolf.^[8] From England, two former guitarists with the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, moved on to form key acts in the genre, The Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin respectively.^[129] Other major pioneers of the genre had begun as blues-based psychedelic bands, including Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest and UFO.^[129][130] Psychedelic music also contributed to the origins of glam rock, with Marc Bolan changing his psychedelic folk duo into rock band T. Rex and becoming the first glam rock star from 1970.^[131] From 1971 David Bowie moved on from his early psychedelic work to develop his Ziggy Stardust persona, incorporating elements of professional make up, mime and performance into his act.^[132]

Neo-psychedelia[link]

1970s and 1980s[link]

Tame Impala onstage at the V Festival in 2009

There were occasional mainstream acts that dabbled in neo-psychedelia, including Prince's mid-1980s work and some of Lenny Kravitz's 1990s output, but it has mainly been an influence on alternative and indie-rock bands.^[133] Psychedelic rock began to be revived in the late 1970s/early 1980s by bands of the post-punk scene, including The Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Church, the Soft Boys,^[133] Siouxsie and the Banshees,^[134][135] The Cure,^[136] The Glove,^[137] and The Legendary Pink Dots.^[138] In the US in the early 1980s these bands were joined by the Paisley Underground movement, based in Los Angeles, with acts like Dream Syndicate, The Bangles and Rain Parade.^[139] New Wave band XTC published records under the pseudonym, The Dukes of Stratosphear from 1985.^[140] and even Gothic rock band The Damned incorporated psychedelic music.^[141] The late 1980s saw the birth of shoegazing in the UK, which, among other influences, took inspiration from 1960s psychedelia.^[142] Critic Simon Reynolds described this movement as "a rash of blurry, neo-psychedelic bands".^[142] With loud walls of sound, where individual instruments and even vocals were often indistinguishable, they followed the lead of noise pop and dream pop bands like My Bloody Valentine (often considered as the earliest shoegaze act),^[143] The Jesus and Mary Chain, and the Cocteau Twins.^[144] Major acts included Ride, Lush, Chapterhouse, and The Boo Radleys, who enjoyed considerable attention in the UK, but largely failed to break through in the US.^[145]

1990s to the present[link]

In the 1990s the Elephant 6 collective, including acts like The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power and of Montreal, produced eclectic psychedelic rock and folk.^[146] Other alternative acts to pursue psychedelia from the 1990s included The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Porno For Pyros and Super Furry Animals.^[133] Stoner rock also emerged, combining elements of psychedelic rock, blues-rock and doom metal. Typically using slow-to-mid tempo and featuring low-tuned guitars in a bass-heavy sound,^[147] with melodic vocals, and 'retro' production,^[148] it was pioneered by the Californian bands Kyuss^[149] and Sleep.^[150] In the UK the Madchester scene influenced the early sound of 1990s Britpop bands like Blur,^[151] and Oasis who drew on 1960s psychedelic pop and rock, particularly on the album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000).^[152] In the immediate post-Britpop era Kula Shaker incorporated swirling, guitar-heavy sounds of late-'60s psychedelia and with Indian mysticism and spirituality.^[153] In the new millennium neo-psychedelia was continued by bands directly emulating the sounds of the 60s like Tame Impala^[154] and The Essex Green,^[155] while bands like Animal Collective applied an experimental approach that combined genres from the 1960s and the present.^[156]

See also[link]

• List of psychedelic rock artists
• Psychedelic folk
• Psychedelic trance

Notes[link]