From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Psychedelic Music
Stylistic origins:	rock and roll, jazz, folk music
Cultural origins:	Psychedelic drug use
Typical instruments:	drums, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, tape loops, found objects, various Indian instruments
Mainstream popularity:	c. 1965-1967, later evolved into progressive rock
Subgenres
Psychedelic rock - Psychedelic folk - Psychedelic pop - Psychedelic soul - Psychedelic ambient - Psychedelic trance - Psychedelic techno - Psychedelic breakbeat

Psychedelia in music (or also psychedelic music, less formally) is a term that refers to a broad set of popular music styles, genres and scenes, that may include psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, psychedelic pop, psychedelic soul, psychedelic ambient, psychedelic trance, psychedelic techno, and others. Psychedelic rock is also commonly called acid rock. It can be argued, however, that psychedelia can and does occur in almost every genre of music, including classical Western art music.

Contents 1 Background 2 Screwed & Chopped Music 3 Neo-psychedelic music 4 Related musical genres 5 See also 6 Bibliography 7 External links 8 References and notes

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(December 2007)

Psychedelic rock evolved in the 60s as an offshoot of the rock and roll movement combining elements of rock, reggae, and other diverse elements. Involving the use of mind altering drugs like cannabis, mescaline, psilocybin, and especially LSD, psychedelic rock broke with traditional rock and laid the roots for psychedelic metal and experimental rock genres. In the USA bands like the Vanilla Fudge, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane lead the way for later bands like 13th Floor Elevators, Bubble Puppy, and Third Bardo to name a few. A few years later The Who and The Beatles picked up on the psychedelic movement with tunes like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to name a few but were not technically classified as psychedelic rock. Cream and Pink Floyd embraced psychedelic music fully becoming two of the first truly psychedelic bands.

Psychedelia could also be interpreted as simply a "surreal and dreamy feeling" in a particular song, instead of a specific genre with rules to follow. In some cases this simply requires writing one coherent song, then to experiment recording that song in the studio while under "psychedelic influence", yielding very surreal musical results. A classic example of this method is "Bass Strings", by Country Joe And The Fish. This early track, written and recorded by Country Joe and the rest of his band in 1966, was obviously an upbeat, hasty, and offensive song of protest in a raw jug band influenced style. In 1967 this song changed dramatically, not to meet more contemporary commercial standards, but rather to re-record it as an experimental track while under the influence of LSD. The new psychedelic result was clearly self-evident in Country Joe's first studio album ("Electric Music For The Mind And Body") when "Bass Strings" featured a much slower tempo, delayed vocals, added reverb, studio reversed cymbals, electric organ, desert traveler lyrics, and a continuous blues guitar solo which together make this song a very, in the true sense of the word, "psychedelic" track.

Much psychedelic rock was performed at the Woodstock Music And Arts Festival in 1969.

Band that are considered original psychedelic:

MC5, The Litter, Iron Butterfly, The Beatles, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Sopwith Camel, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Kevin Ayers-era Soft Machine, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe and the Fish, Grateful Dead, the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck-era ), 13th Floor Elevators, the Holy Modal Rounders, the Charlatans, the Magic Mushrooms, the Human Expression, Gong

==

The style was developed in Houston, Texas by DJ Screw[1], which remains the location most associated with the style. The late DJ Screw, a South Park, Houston, Texas|South Houston DJ, is credited with the creation of and early experimentation with the genre. DJ Screw began making mixtapes of Houston rappers' slowed-down music in the early 1990s. Originally, this process involved mixing two copies of the same record, slowed down either on the turntables using pitch shift or, later, through use of an after-mixer device. Phasing, Flanging and echo effects were originally the result of the two records being played at millisecond intervals.

Some Houston-area artists (e.g. Ganksta N-I-P and Willie D) began to incorporate the slowed tempo into rap songs. Willie D's Die, from the album I'm Goin Out Lika Soldier, featured a slowed-down sample of Scarface's line "Balls and my word" (from the feature film) well before chopped and screwed gained more mainstream acceptance.

The genre was associated with both the use of marijuana and the consumption of "syrup," prescription cough syrup which can contain the narcotic drugs codeine or hydrocodone in combination with other things like promethazine (not the dissociative-anesthetic drug dextromethorphan found in over-the-counter Robitussin, as is often mistaken). This has been credited with influencing the genre's psychedelic style.

Please help improve this article by expanding this section. See talk page for details. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded.

Main article: Neo-psychedelia

Neo-psychedelic is a broad term used to describe groups with overt psychedelic influences. Much like traditional psychedelia, neo-psychedelia is associated with experimental and jam-oriented music.^[1]Many modern bands incorporate elements of traditional psychedelia into their music, such as the Comets on Fire. In addition, many jam bands, like Umphrey's McGee, Phish, Ozric Tentacles, and Rusted Root, play psychedelia-influenced music. Other bands, like Kwisp, create a new unique psychedelic sound. Bands such as Porcupine Tree, Spock's Beard, and Ayreon touch upon Neo-psychedelic music, while applying it to progressive music. However, the art-rock band Tool leads the pack commercially in the neo-psychedelic genre, maintaining number one albums and sold out stadium shows. Much like Pink Floyd, they have over the top psychedelic shows, but with a darker edge.

Modern Jazz groups such as Medeski Martin and Wood are a good example of Neo-psychedelia. Live performances are altered dramatically by large sections of improvisation.

The Third Wave of Psychedelia

In the summer of 2005, the label Northern Star Records was founded by Andy Oliver and Scott Causer with the objective to make the genre prominent in mainstream society. They collated all the bands they could find who they considered were psychedelic and compiled the first of the legendary Psychedelica series which featured Electric Prunes, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Silver Apples, The Telescopes, The High Dials, Floorian, The Hiss, The Lovetones, The Black Angels, The Dolly Rocker Movement and about 30 others. The double compilation CD was praised by Billboard and Uncut as the new leaders in the genre.

Northern Star had become an overnight success and were viewed as the mentors of the "third wave of psychedelia" - a phrase coined by Oliver who saw it as a new movement and a logical 'next wave' in the history of psychedelic music.

The shoegaze genre also bordered on the psychedelic with its drones and ethereal dreamlike qualities and odd feedback. But Causer felt the genre was repressed and underrated or berrated by the media unfairly and sought to alleviate the stigma by re-labelling it as "stargaze". Bands such as The Electric Mainline , The Voices and The December Sound took on this form and went on to be lauded by the NME and The Times.

Also stigmatized and ignored but nonetheless worth noting - perhaps the most influential psychedelic band of modern times - Ozric Tentacles - discovered a new and potent source of psychedelia in the mid eighties that propelled them into the next century, spawning and influencing a whole slew of other bands such as; most successfully Eat Static and Nodens Ictus, Wooden Baby, Zub Zub, The Ullulators, and The Oroonies.

By the time the second Northern Star compilation "Psychedelica Volume 2" came out, the genre had become prominent in the mainstream press and was finally taken seriously as a major music movement.

Neo-psychedelic bands of the third wave consist of: The Black Angels, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Lovetones, The Warlocks, The Nova Saints, The December Sound, The Hiss, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Electric Soft Parade, Hopewell, Goldrush, The Stevenson Ranch Davidians, The Quarter After, Spindrift, The Deaths, Belles Will Ring, Serena Maneesh, The Lea Shores, Sunsplit, The Morning After Girls, The Gris Gris, The High Dials, The Flower Machine.

• Acid breaks
• Acid house
• Acid jazz
• Acid rap and trip hop
• Acid rock and stoner rock
• Acid techno
• Acid trance
• Psychedelic trance
• Screwed & Chopped

• Psychedelic
• Psychedelic art
• Psychedelic drug
• Psychedelic era
• Psychedelic literature

• Joynson, Vernon (December 1984). The Acid Trip: A Complete Guide to Psychedelic Music. Babylon Books, pp.. ISBN 0-9071-8824-9. 
• Sculatti, Gene; Davin Seay (April 1985). San Francisco Nights: The Psychedelic Music Trip, 1965-1968. St Martins Pr, pp. 192. ISBN 0-3126-9903-4. 

• Lysergia reviews, inverviews, and psychedelic history and information