Psychedelic Rock to Space Rock: How Pink Floyd Changed the Sound of Music

In this blog post, we explore how Pink Floyd took the sound of music in a new direction with their unique brand of psychedelic rock.

Psychedelic Rock

The first album by Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, is considered by many to be the first psychedelic rock album. The album’s title is derived from the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey. The album’s artwork, created by Pink Floyd’s lead singer and bassist, Syd Barrett, is said to be inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the foremost and most influential music band in history. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll, their sound – particularly on songs such as “She Loves You”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Help!” and “Yesterday” – ranged from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, incorporating classical elements and unconventional recording techniques. They also explored music styles beyond pop rock as seen on their later albums Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968) and Abbey Road (1969).

Pink Floyd

Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that became popular in the 1960s. It is characterized by its use of electronic sound effects and electronic instruments, as well as its unconventional song structures and improvisational techniques.

Originators of the style include the English band Pink Floyd, who were one of the first groups to experiment with using electronica in their music. They used early synthesizers and other electronic instruments to create sounds that were otherworldly and dreamlike. Other popular psychedelic rock bands include the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Santana.

The popularity of psychedelic rock declined in the 1970s, but it has seen a resurgence in recent years with bands like Tame Impala and The Flaming Lips.

Space Rock

Space Rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by a heavy use of effects pedals, synthesizers, and psychedelic elements. The genre emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s with Pink Floyd’s album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Pink Floyd

Psychedelic rock, also referred to as psychedelic pop, is a subgenre of rock music that emerged in the mid-1960s. Palo Alto, California’s Jefferson Airplane was the first group to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success with this new sound.

Psychedelic rock’s most defining characteristic is its incorporation of eastern modalities such as sitars, tablas and various other Hindustani instruments. This distinctive feature was prominently used by George Harrison of The Beatles on the band’s iconic 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar also had a profound influence on the genre, serving as a mentor to Harrison and helping to popularize sitars in Western music.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, British bands such as Pink Floyd, Hawkwind andsoft machine brought the sounds of psychedelia to a wider audience with their experimental approach to music making. These so-called “space rock” groups replaced traditional pop song structures with extended jams and lengthy instrumental passages that were heavily influenced by jazz and electronica.

Space rock was particularly popular in Europe, where many of the leading exponents hailed from countries such as Germany (Hawkwind), France (Magma) and Belgium (Universe). In contrast, American space rock bands such as Grateful Dead and Ace Frehley’s Comet tended to be more indebted to blues-based jam band traditions.

David Bowie

David Bowie, who passed away in 2016, is one of the most influential musicians of all time. Though he was primarily a pop and glam rock artist, his experimentation with different genres, sounds, and styles has inspired generations of musicians. One of his most influential periods was his foray into what is now known as space rock.

Between 1971 and 1972, Bowie released three albums that would come to define the space rock genre: The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. These albums saw Bowie embracing a more experimental sound, one that was heavily influenced by psychedelia and electronic music. He also began to experiment with theatricality and visual art, creating a stage persona for himself in the form of the alien rockstar Ziggy Stardust.

Bowie’s influence on space rock cannot be understated. His experimental approach to music-making opened up new possibilities for what rock could sound like, and his charismatic stage presence showed other artists that it was okay to be weird. Space rock would go on to influence subsequent genres like progressive rock and art rock, and Bowie’s influence can still be felt in the music of today.

How Pink Floyd Changed the Sound of Music

Pink Floyd was a progressive rock band that formed in 1965. The band was known for their experimental and psychedelic sound. They were one of the first bands to use synthesizers and sound effects to create a new soundscape in rock music. Pink Floyd’s influence can be heard in many subsequent bands, such as Radiohead and Muse.

The Dark Side of the Moon

Launched in 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon established Pink Floyd as one of the biggest rock bands in the world. The album was a commercial and critical success, spending 741 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, and is cited as one of the greatest albums of all time.

The album saw the band move away from their psychedelic roots into more experimental territory, with extended jams and soundscapes that would become their trademark. The opening track, “Speak to Me/Breathe”, sets the scene with its atmospheric heartbeat sound effects, before leading into the iconic “Money”, with its jazzy saxophone solo from guest player Dick Parry.

From there, the album takes the listener on a journey through Pink Floyd’s unique brand of space rock, touching on themes of sanity and insanity (“Brain Damage/Eclipse”), time (“Time”), and death (“The Great Gig in the Sky”). All these elements come together to create an unforgettable experience that is widely regarded as one of Pink Floyd’s finest achievements.

The Wall

In 1979, Pink Floyd released The Wall, one of the most iconic and influential albums of all time. The album is a concept album that tells the story of an isolated rock star named Pink, who is slowly driven insane by the pressures of fame and isolation. The Wall is a masterfully crafted work of art that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in rock music.

The album is incredibly ambitious, with sprawling and complex arrangements that incorporate classical, jazz, and rock elements. Pink Floyd utilized new recording techniques and technologies to create an immersive and psychedelic soundscape. The result was an album that sounded unlike anything else that had been released up to that point.

The Wall was a commercial and critical success, selling over 30 million copies worldwide. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time. The album’s impact can be heard in the music of subsequent generations of artists.

The Division Bell

The Division Bell is the fourteenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 28 March 1994 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and on 4 April by Columbia Records in the United States. The album was recorded in 1993 at Britannia Row and Astoria studios in London. It was Pink Floyd’s first album since The Wall not to be produced by Bob Ezrin.

The Division Bell received mixed reviews from critics, but was a commercial success, reaching number one in the UK and number two in the US. The album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of two million copies, and has sold more than four million copies worldwide.