Psychedelic Rock could well be the main genre in Rock history. Bred coming from a 1960’s counterculture aimed at taking psychedelic drugs as a way to notice a heightened a sense reality through distortions, vibrations, vivid colorizations and lucid dreaming, the culture experimented with replicate LSD effects through vibrant pictures and sounds.
Psychedelic Rock is characterized by heavily effected instrumentation. Reverb echoes incessantly, tremolo takes the place of standard lead guitar lines, while distortion buzzes throughout. Lyrics attempted to relay visions and feelings produced over these cosmic inner journeys.
The sound was pioneered through the Beatles, introduced up by such bands as The Yardbirds, Cream, Pink Floyd along with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The group primarily attributed to inventing the word Psychedelic Rock is 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 like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Santana played.
A number of events led to the loss of popularity of Psychedelic Rock. LSD was declared illegal, the link between Sharon Tate’s murder by Charles Manson along with the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” triggered a “hippie backlash”. “Acid casualties”, or people negatively afflicted with hallucinogens and drugs normally, became posters for avoiding psychedelic experiences: Syd Barrett’s insanity, the deaths of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin generated a much more raw “back to basics” trend in Rock.
However, due to selling point of Psychedelic Rock, new genres happen to be formed, including Progressive Rock and Heavy Metal. Musicians who spent my childhood years paying attention to Psychedelia still wished to take components from the movement, and included their most favorite aspects to their respective sounds.
In the late 1970’s, bands primarily in the Post-Punk scene strived to revive Psychedelia, blending the distortions, reverb and phaser (et al) using the upbeat dance beats of latest Wave. Bands like Siouxsie and also the Banshees, Echo along with the Bunnymen, The Soft Boys, and The Church utilized the 60’s nuances to full 80’s effect.Hence, Neo-Psychedelia had become.
The popularity of these bands bled in to the 90’s, with the Shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine along with the Jesus of Mary Chain carrying over in the 80’s, the emergence with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Dandy Warhols, along with the Electric 6 Collective such as the Apples in Stereo, of Montreal, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Neo-Psychedelia can basically be summarized as any kind of music incorporating Psychedelic elements within its songs.
True Psychedelic Rock is untouchable, having ended with the decline of the counterculture. If a person would write original songs in the Psychedelic Rock style those songs could be Neo-Psychedelic.
Psychedelic Music am powerful in its statement, primarily through its promise of experiencing heightened art, that it is constantly dominate our musical trends today. And i am willing to bet it will never fizzle out entirely.
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