Psychedelic Rock might just be the main genre in Rock history. Bred from a 1960’s counterculture aimed at taking psychedelic drugs so that you can experience a heightened feeling of reality through distortions, vibrations, vivid colorizations and lucid dreaming, the culture attempted to replicate LSD effects through vibrant pictures and sounds.
Psychedelic Rock is seen as an heavily effected instrumentation. Reverb echoes incessantly, tremolo replaces standard lead guitar lines, while distortion buzzes throughout. Lyrics attempted to relay visions and feelings produced of these cosmic inner journeys.
The sound was pioneered from the Beatles, and taken up by such bands since the Yardbirds, Cream, Pink Floyd along with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This rock band primarily related to inventing the word Psychedelic Rock could be the Austin, TX based The 13th Floor Elevators.
The movement hit its peak with The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request, Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, all eventually climaxing in 1969 at Woodstock, where psychedelic acts including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Santana played.
Several events led to the decline in interest in Psychedelic Rock. LSD was declared illegal, the web link between Sharon Tate’s murder by Charles Manson as well as the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” triggered a “hippie backlash”. “Acid casualties”, or people negatively suffering from hallucinogens and medicines generally speaking, became posters for avoiding psychedelic experiences: Syd Barrett’s insanity, the deaths of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin led to an even more raw “back to basics” trend in Rock.
However, due to the benefit of Psychedelic Rock, new genres were formed, including Progressive Rock and high Metal. Musicians who spent my youth listening to Psychedelia still planned to take components from the movement, and included a common aspects to their respective sounds.
From the late 1970’s, bands primarily inside the Post-Punk scene strived to recover Psychedelia, blending the distortions, reverb and phaser (et al) with the upbeat dance beats of latest Wave. Bands for example Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Soft Boys, and The Church utilized the 60’s nuances to full 80’s effect.Hence, Neo-Psychedelia came into existence.
Very good of those bands bled in to the 90’s, with the Shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine and also the Jesus of Mary Chain carrying over in the 80’s, the emergence of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Dandy Warhols, as well as the Electric 6 Collective such as Apples in Stereo, of Montreal, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Neo-Psychedelia can basically be summed up as any sort of music incorporating Psychedelic elements within its songs.
True Psychedelic Rock is untouchable, having ended using the decline with the counterculture. If a person would write original songs from the Psychedelic Rock style those songs can be Neo-Psychedelic.
Psychedelic Music was so powerful in the statement, primarily through its promise of experiencing heightened art, who’s will continue to dominate our musical trends even now. For happy to bet it will never fizzle out entirely.
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