American Psychedelic Rock: The Best of the 60s and 70s
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American Psychedelic Rock of the 60s and 70s was a time when music, fashion, and art were all about self-expression and breaking away from the establishment.
The Birth of Psychedelic Rock
Psychedelic rock, also referred to as psychedelia, is a diverse style of rock music that originated in the early 1960s. Psychedelic rock is characterized by distorted guitars, Brian Wilson-esque melodies, and drug-related lyrics. The genre is often associated with the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Beatles and the British Invasion
The Beatles, who started as a British Invasion band, were the first group to fully assimilate and popularize various elements of psychedelic music. The band’s rubber soul album marked the beginning of their turn towards more personal and introspective lyrics. The album also featured sitar on the track Norwegian Wood, which was an early instance of a psychedelic element being used in popular music. The band’s subsequent releases would continue to experiment with different aspects of psychedelia, paving the way for other artists to do the same.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
In the fall of 1966, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters traveled across America in a psychedelic painted school bus, spreading their gospel of mind expansion, wild experience, and radical new values. Along with LSD guru Timothy Leary, Kesey helped define the 1960s cultural revolution. In Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, we witness the birth of psychedelic rock through the adventures of Kesey, his Pranksters, the Grateful Dead, and other counterculture icons.
The Sound of Psychedelic Rock
Psychedelic rock, also known as acid 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. The music is intended to replicate and enhance the experience of psychedelic drugs, often using sonic techniques that attempt to replicate the experience of a drug trip.
Psychedelic Rock Influences
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. The music is intended to replicate and enhance the experience of taking psychedelic drugs, most notably LSD. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.
Psychedelic rock developed during the mid 1960s amidst the wider British Invasion of America led by the Beatles, Stones, and Who. American acts such as The Byrds, Love, and Alan Wilson of Canned Heat were amongst the first wave of performers to be labeled as “psychedelic.” The genre reached its peak in popularity between 1967 and 1968 with hit singles such as “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane, “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles, and “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf.
The Psychedelic Rock Sound
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that was popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was characterised by electronically-altered sounds, extended jams, and unusual time signatures, and was often used to evoke or enhance the experience of psychedelic drugs. The genre developed out of the British musical scene of the late 1960s, and reached its peak in the early to mid-1970s with bands such as Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, and Led Zeppelin.
The Legacy of Psychedelic Rock
Psychedelic Rock is a subgenre of rock music that emerged in the mid-1960s. The genre is characterized by a distorted, ‘trippy’ sound that was created using various effects pedals, such as the wah-wah pedal and the phaser.Psychedelic rock is often associated with the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s.
The End of Psychedelic Rock
The end of the 1960s saw the beginning of the end for psychedelic rock. The Beatles, the band that had pushed the boundaries of what was possible in rock music, had broken up, and other bands were either following suit or moving in new directions. Psychedelic rock was no longer the cutting-edge sound; it had become part of the establishment. The genre peaked commercially in 1967 with the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album that embodied all that was good about psychedelic rock but also all that was self-indulgent and self-conscious about it.
The Legacy of Psychedelic Rock
Psychedelic rock, also sometimes referred to as garage rock, is a style of rock music that emerged in the mid-1960s and became increasingly popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The genre is generally characterized by distorted guitars, trippy lyrics, and drug-related themes.
Psychedelic rock emerged in the mid-1960s as a subgenre of rock music. The term “psychedelic” was first coined in 1956 by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in a letter to Aldous Huxley; Osmond defined it as a “mind-expanding experience”. Psychedelic rock bands sought to replicate the experience of taking acid; they attempted to incorporate the exploration of LSD’s perceptual effects into their live performances and songs.
The Beatles were the first psychedelic rock band and their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) is often considered to be the genre’s defining work. Psychedelic rock reached its commercial peak in the late 1960s with hits such as Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” (1967), The Doors’ “Light My Fire” (1967), and The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” (1966). By the early 1970s, however, the popularity of psychedelic rock was on the decline; many bands broke up or abandoned their psychedelic sound in favor of other genres such as hard rock or glamrock. Psychedelic rock continued to be influential in underground circles, however; it laid the groundwork for genres such as punk rock, new wave, and heavy metal.
The legacy of psychedelic rock has been profound; although it is no longer a commercially successful genre, its influence can still be heard in many contemporary styles of music.
