Psychedelic Rock: The History and Sound of Psychedelic Rock

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. 1. Sound effects: Psychedelic rock often includes trippy studio effects like reverb, phasing, distortion, and reversed sound.
2. 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. 3. Improvisation: Lengthy improvised guitar solos are a focal point of many psychedelic rock songs.
4. 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.

1. 1. 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.
2. 2. 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.
3. 3. 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.
4. 4. 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.
5. 5. 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.
6. 6. 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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