Psychedelic Rock: The History and Sound of Psychedelic Rock

Psychedelic Rock: The History and Sound of
Psychedelic Rock
The psychedelic rock genre formed out of the hippie culture of San
Francisco in the late 1960s and quickly spread across the globe, giving rise
to some of the greatest rock bands of all time.
Psychedelic rock, also called psychedelia, is a style of rock music that
materialized in the late 1960s that was influenced by (and intended to
enhance) the experience of taking hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD.
Psychedelic rock incorporated elements of blues and folk rock and
eventually contributed to the evolution of hard rock and progressive rock.
Psychedelic rock musicians typically use the following effects and
techniques.
1. Sound effects: Psychedelic rock often includes trippy studio effects
like reverb, phasing, distortion, and reversed sound.
2. Inventive use of instruments: The sound of electric guitar with
feedback and a wah-wah pedal is emblematic of the genre.
Psychedelic rock musicians also incorporated Indian instruments,
like the sitar and tambura, into their sound, along with keyboard
instruments like the Mellotron (an analog sampler), harpsichord,
and electronic organ.
3. Improvisation: Lengthy improvised guitar solos are a focal point of
many psychedelic rock songs.
4. Abstract lyrics: Psychedelic rocks songs often include surreal and
abstract lyrics that may allude to hallucinogenic drug use.
The psychedelic rock era was a relatively short time period in rock music
history, existing only from 1965 to 1971.
5. Beginnings: Psychedelic rock originated on the American West coast
out of the hippie movement of the mid-to-late 1960s. First taking
root in the San Francisco Bay area, psychedelic rock's popularity
quickly spread throughout America and to Europe. The first known
band to categorize their music as psychedelic rock was Austin,
Texas-based rock band The 13th Floor Elevators. The band, led by
singer and guitarist Roky Erickson, even named their 1966 debut
album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators.
6. Psychedelic rock bands define the sound: Notable early West Coast
psychedelic bands included the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Big
Brother and the Holding Company, Moby Grape, the Quicksilver
Messenger Service, Iron Butterfly and Jefferson Airplane. Jefferson
Airplane's 1967 hit “White Rabbit”—inspired by the trippy imagery
in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland—reached
number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
7. Rock 'n' roll turns psychedelic: Around this time, influential rock
bands began to incorporate psychedelia into their music, as seen in
albums like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966), the Byrds' Fifth
Dimension (1966), the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties
Request (1967), and the Yardbirds' Shape of Things (1971). For the
Beatles, experimentation with the drug LSD led to albums like
Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and
Magical Mystery Tour (1967), all of which had a psychedelic sound.
8. British pioneers: New psychedelic rock icons began to spring up in

England. In general, British psychedelic rock was less aggressive and
more surreal than the edgier American style. Donovan's 1966
Sunshine Superman was one of the first obvious psych-pop albums,
while Cream's Disraeli Gears (1967) and the Who's Tommy (1969)
firmly established the groups on the psychedelia scene.
9. The rise of Pink Floyd: While the Beatles' popularity never waned,
Pink Floyd emerged to become the new star of the British
psychedelic music scene. On Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at
the Gates of Dawn (1967), songwriter Syd Barrett composed a slew
of groundbreaking and hypnotic acid rock tracks that instantly
made the album a classic of the times. A few months before the
album's release, Pink Floyd headlined a massive counterculture
fundraiser concert in London called the 14-Hour Technicolor
Dream. British avant-garde psychedelic band Soft Machine and
counterculture luminaries like Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, and John
Lennon also appeared at the concert.
10. Decline: In the last years of the ’60s, both the United States
and the United Kingdom outlawed LSD, the genre's most influential
drug. The 1969 Woodstock music festival marked one of the last
notable performances in the psychedelic era and featured sets by
Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson
Airplane. That same year, Charles Manson and his followers claimed
the Beatles' song “Helter Skelter” inspired them to commit murder,
which only added to the growing anti-hippie sentiment. Psychedelic
legends Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all died of drug
overdoses between 1970 and 1971. Most bands who were still
together at this time transitioned away from psychedelic rock and
towards hard or progressive rock.

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8. British pioneers: New psychedelic rock icons began to spring up in

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