Psychedelic soul, sometimes called black rock, is a sub-genre of soul music, which mixes the characteristics of soul with psychedelic rock. It came to prominence in the late 1960s and continued into the 1970s, playing a major role in the development of funk music and disco.

Following the lead of Jimi Hendrix in psychedelic rock, in the late 1960s psychedelia began to have a widespread impact on African American musicians, particularly the stars of the Motown label. Influenced by the civil rights movement, it had a darker and more political edge than much acid rock. Building on the funk sound of James Brown, it was pioneered by Sly and the Family Stone with songs like "Dance to the Music" (1968), "Everyday People" (1968) and "I Want to Take You Higher" (1969), which had a sound that emphasized distorted electric rhythm guitar and strong basslines. Also important were the Temptations and their producer Norman Whitfield, who moved from a relatively light vocal group into much more serious material with "Cloud Nine" (1968), "Runaway Child, Running Wild" (1969) and "Psychedelic Shack" (1969).

Yoko Kanno (菅野 よう子, Kanno Yōko^?, born March 19, 1964) is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements. She was born in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. She has written scores for famous animated works, including Macross Plus, Turn A Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf's Rain, and is the most trusted composer by veteran and new-wave directors such as Yoshiyuki Tomino, Shinichiro Watanabe and Shoji Kawamori. Kanno has also composed music for pop artists, the most notable being Maaya Sakamoto and Kyōko Koizumi. She is also a skilled keyboardist, and is the frontwoman for The Seatbelts, who perform many of Kanno's compositions on the various original soundtracks for which she is responsible.

Some of Yoko Kanno's most famous soundtrack themes include "Kiseki no Umi" (Lodoss War), "Voices" (Macross Plus), "Tank!" (Cowboy Bebop), "Yakusoku wa Iranai" (Escaflowne), "Gravity" (Wolf's Rain), "Inner Universe" (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and Stand Alone Complex O.S.T. In regards to making the Stand Alone Complex soundtrack she said:

Scott Matthew (occasionally credited as Scotty Matthew) is a vocalist and lyricist born in Queensland, Australia. He currently resides and performs as an independent artist in New York City.

Scott Matthew was a member of the alt pop band Elva Snow, which he co-founded with ex-Morrissey member Spencer Cobrin. Two songs from their self-titled debut album, which boasted Matthew on vocals and Cobrin on drums, piano, guitar and composition, were included in feature film soundtracks; “Hold Me” was featured in 2004's The Last Run, directed by Jonathan Segal and starring Fred Savage, and “Could Ya” made an appearance in the 2005 film Splinter, directed by Kai Maurer. After the dissolution of Elva Snow, Matthew performed with the band Songs to Drink and Drive By under the free-base mp3 label Comfortstand.

Scott Matthew is perhaps best known to the public for his vocal contributions to the soundtracks of the anime series Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the anime film Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door, both produced by composer Yoko Kanno, among whose fans he is very well received as one of several faithful vocal collaborators. His performance of the alt-rock song "Lithium Flower", featured as the ending song for season one of Stand Alone Complex, garnered him national exposure in Japan as well as the United States when the show was aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. Matthew also wrote the lyrics to "Go Where No One's Gone Before", the main theme for the anime series L/R: Licensed by Royalty performed by Billy Preston.

Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934) is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction. He was convicted of the murders through the joint-responsibility rule, which makes each member of a conspiracy guilty of crimes his fellow conspirators commit in furtherance of the conspiracy's objective.

Manson believed in what he called "Helter Skelter," a term he took from the song of the same name by The Beatles. Manson believed Helter Skelter to be an impending apocalyptic race war, which he described in his own version of the lyrics to the Beatles' song. He believed his murders would help precipitate that war. From the beginning of his notoriety, a pop culture arose around him in which he ultimately became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre. The term was later used by Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi as the title of a book he wrote about the Manson murders.

Curtis Knight (b. Mont Curtis McNear, 9 May 1929, Fort Scott, Kansas - 29 November 1999) was an American musician who is known for his connection to Jimi Hendrix.

Knight was an artist in the 1960s Harlem music scene, usually fronting his own band "The Squires". This band gigged in clubs in New York City, and other surrounding areas. It was through Knight that Hendrix got involved with Ed Chalpin, a record producer who signed the future superstar to a contract which Hendrix soon forgot about and left for England to form "The Jimi Hendrix Experience".