Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles, genres and scenes, that may include
psychedelic rock,
psychedelic folk,
psychedelic pop,
psychedelic soul,
psychedelic ambient,
psychedelic trance, and others.
Psychedelic rock is also commonly called
acid rock. Psychedelic music can occur in almost every genre of music, including classical
Western art music.
Background
Psychedelic rock evolved in the 60s as an offshoot of the rock and roll movement combining elements of
rock, electronic music, eastern influences - particularly sitars, and other diverse elements. Inspired by the use of mind altering drugs like
cannabis,
mescaline,
psilocybin, and especially
LSD, psychedelic rock broke with traditional rock and laid the roots for
Krautrock and experimental rock genres of the seventies and eighties.
In 1965-1967,
The Beatles also were recording psychedelic rock with tracks like "
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "
Tomorrow Never Knows" to name a few, but were not strictly classified as psychedelic rock.
Cream and
Pink Floyd (with original founder
Syd Barrett) embraced psychedelic music fully becoming two of the first truly psychedelic bands.
Psychedelic music could also be interpreted as simply a "surreal and dreamy feeling" in a particular song, instead of a specific genre with rules to follow. In some cases, this simply requires writing one coherent song, then to experiment recording that song in the studio while under "psychedelic influence", yielding very surreal musical results. A classic example of this method is "Bass Strings", by
Country Joe And The Fish. This early track, written and recorded by Country Joe and the rest of his band in 1966, was obviously an upbeat, hasty, and offensive song of protest in a raw
jug band influenced style. In 1967, this song changed dramatically, not to meet more contemporary commercial standards, but rather to re-record it as an experimental track while under the influence of
LSD. The new psychedelic result was clearly self-evident in Country Joe's first studio album ("
Electric Music for the Mind and Body") when "Bass Strings" featured a much slower tempo, delayed vocals, added reverb, studio reversed cymbals, electric organ, desert traveler lyrics, and a continuous blues guitar solo which together make this song a very, in the true sense of the word, "psychedelic" track.
The Jefferson Airplane website states that (the album), "After Bathing at Baxter's" was the group's attempt to capture what the psychedelic experience sounded and felt like to them from the inside." Jimi Hendrix is also renowned for his talent and guitar virtuosity being able to emulate the psychedelic experience.
Neo-psychedelic music
Neo-psychedelic is a broad term used to describe groups with overt psychedelic influences. Much like traditional psychedelia, neo-psychedelia is associated with
experimental and
jam-oriented music. Many modern bands incorporate elements of traditional psychedelia into their music, such as the
Comets on Fire or
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. In addition, many
jam bands, like
Umphrey's McGee,
Phish,
Ozric Tentacles, and
Rusted Root, play psychedelia-influenced music. Other bands, like
Kwisp, create a new unique psychedelic sound. Bands such as
Porcupine Tree,
Spock's Beard, and
Ayreon touch upon Neo-psychedelic music, while applying it to progressive music. Modern Jazz groups such as
Medeski Martin & Wood are a good example of Neo-psychedelia. Live performances are altered dramatically by large sections of improvisation.
The Third Wave of PsychedeliaIn the summer of 2005, the label
Northern Star Records was founded by
Andy Oliver and
Scott Causer with the objective to make the genre prominent in mainstream society. They collated all the bands they could find who they considered were psychedelic and compiled the first of the legendary Psychedelica series which featured
Electric Prunes,
Brian Jonestown Massacre,
Silver Apples,
The Telescopes,
The High Dials,
The Hiss,
The Lovetones,
The Black Angels and about 30 others. The double compilation CD was praised by Billboard and Uncut as the new leaders in the genre.
Northern Star had become an overnight success and were viewed as the mentors of the "third wave of psychedelia" - a phrase coined by Oliver who saw it as a new movement and a logical 'next wave' in the history of psychedelic music.
The shoegaze genre also bordered on the psychedelic with its drones and ethereal dreamlike qualities and odd feedback. But, Causer felt the genre was repressed and underrated or berrated by the media unfairly and sought to alleviate the stigma by re-labelling it as "stargaze".
Also stigmatized and ignored but nonetheless worth noting - perhaps the most influential psychedelic band of modern times -
Ozric Tentacles - discovered a new and potent source of psychedelia in the mid eighties that propelled them into the next century, spawning and influencing a whole slew of other bands such as; most successfully
Eat Static,
Nodens Ictus and
Wooden Baby.
By the time the second Northern Star compilation "Psychedelica Volume 2" came out, the genre had become prominent in the mainstream press and was finally taken seriously as a major music movement.
Other neo-psychedelic bands of the third wave are:
The Warlocks,
The Hiss,
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club,
The Electric Soft Parade,
Hopewell,
Goldrush,
Spindrift,
Serena Maneesh,
The Gris Gris,
The High Dials, early
Verve,
The Parties,
The Boxing Lesson,
Mugstar,
Wolfmother and
Tame Impala.
Related musical genres
See also
Bibliography
Eye Mind:The Saga of The 13th Floor Elevators, Pioneers of the Psychedelic Sound by Paul Drummond Process Media 2007 isbn0-978-0-9760822-6-2 |424 pages
References and notes
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