History Main / PsychedelicRock

Psych-rock also distinguishes itself through [[WordSaladLyrics surreal lyrics]], more concerned with spirituality, tripping, existentialism or literature than SillyLoveSongs - some bands such as JeffersonAirplane and TheBeatles exhibited a particular affinity for LewisCarroll's ''Alice in Wonderland'' books, feeling kinship with the book's whimsical, hallucinatory style -, extended instrumental solos and [[EpicRocking song lengths]] and love of exotic instrumentation. The psychedelic rockers were the first people to introduce and popularise the sitar and tabla in a pop song context, and made heavy use of "exotic", modal melodies influenced by Indian raga and drone music.

Psych-rock tends to come in three flavours (with examples provided by [[TheBeatles The Fab Four]]):

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon), Music/TheRollingStones' ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' and Music/PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by Hell's Angels acting as security guards while Music/TheRollingStones were playing "Under My Thumb") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

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1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon), TheRollingStones' ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' and Music/PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by Hell's Angels acting as security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Under My Thumb") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

PsychedelicRock in its purest form doesn't have such an easy time gaining mainstream success as in TheSixties, but it still shows up from time to time and continues to thrive in indie/AlternativeRock scenes. The genre's role in expanding the sonic boundaries of pop and rock also won't be forgotten soon.

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: Music/The13thFloorElevators (who coined the term "psychedelic rock"), Music/TheYardbirds, [[Music/JimiHendrix The Jimi Hendrix Experience]], SanFrancisco bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Music/JeffersonAirplane, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, Music/TheGratefulDead, the Music/SteveMillerBand, and Moby Grape, and LosAngeles bands such as Music/TheByrds, TheDoors, Love, [[Music/FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]], and Music/TheBeachBoys (closer to baroque pop than psychedelia, but whatever). This time just before the boom of Psychedelia also saw other artists join the movement, such as earlier British Folk Pioneer Donovan releasing one of the first Psychedelic Rock albums with 1966's Sunshine Superman. This period saw the crystallisation of other psych-rock tropes, such as DesignStudentsOrgasm artwork for albums and singles and live shows with lots of freaky lighting. Psychedelia also spread to other genres, influencing the appearance of psychedelic soul (a combination of {{Funk}} and psychedelic rock) and psychedelic pop (which borrowed psych-rock's sunny, hallucinogenic sound but not the heavy drug intake, substituting SillyLoveSongs and other pop-song themes instead).

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon), TheRollingStones' ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by Hell's Angels acting as security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Under My Thumb") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

While psychedelic-rock retreated from the spotlight after the end of TheSixties, it mutated and continued to evolve and thus never really became a DeadHorseGenre. Several of its offshoots appeared in TheSeventies, such as space rock (pioneered by Hawkwind), jam bands (GratefulDead's fault), heavy metal and progressive rock ({{Yes}}, for example, drew members from three psych-rockbands), while its sonic innovations and hallucinatory atmosphere remained a heavy influence on rock music as a whole, witnessed by PinkFloyd's seventies material. However, punk proved to be another blow to the genre, railing against the {{New Age Retro Hippie}}s with whom the genre had been associated.

<<|MusicTropes|>>

* Intense, head-trip psychedelia, deploying loud guitars, aggressive performances and lots of solos. This sort of intense psychedelia, named "acid-rock", paved the way for Music/HeavyMetal later. A sort of bridge between the two extremes of optimistic and pure-fucking-NightmareFuel. A good example of this would be "Strawberry Fields Forever".
** However, psychedelia doesn't necessarily have to be loud to be intense. "I Am the Walrus" manages to be perfectly loopy and bizarre and find a balance between EarWorm-yness and NightmareFuel.
* Creepy, terrifying psychedelia that's less about [[EpicRocking rocking the fuck out]] and more about NightmareFuel or HighOctaneNightmareFuel. Think: "Revolution 9", "Blue Jay Way" and "Tomorrow Never Knows".

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: Music/The13thFloorElevators (who coined the term "psychedelic rock"), Music/TheYardbirds, [[Music/JimiHendrix The Jimi Hendrix Experience]], SanFrancisco bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Music/JeffersonAirplane, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, Music/TheGratefulDead, the Music/SteveMillerBand, and Moby Grape, and LosAngeles bands such as Music/TheByrds, TheDoors, Love, [[Music/FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]], and Music/TheBeachBoys (closer to baroque pop than psychedelia, but whatever). This period saw the crystallisation of other psych-rock tropes, such as DesignStudentsOrgasm artwork for albums and singles and live shows with lots of freaky lighting. Psychedelia also spread to other genres, influencing the appearance of psychedelic soul (a combination of {{Funk}} and psychedelic rock) and psychedelic pop (which borrowed psych-rock's sunny, hallucinogenic sound but not the heavy drug intake, substituting SillyLoveSongs and other pop-song themes instead).

TheEighties led to the appearance of "neo-psychedelia", an indie form of psych-rock drawing additionally from jangle pop and space rock, as seen in The FlamingLips, MercuryRev, {{XTC}} (especially their side-project ''The Dukes of Stratosphear'' and any material made after they stopped touring) and The Teardrop Explodes. Neo-psychedelia evolved into the harsher noise rock and noise pop of TheJesusAndMaryChain and SonicYouth, while its brighter elements were taken by Madchester bands such as TheStoneRoses and the HappyMondays as they briefly became a national phenomenon in late-80s UK. Neo-psychedelia itself proved to be a massive influence on {{Shoegazing}} a/k/a what MyBloodyValentine sound like, while {{Space-Rock}} crossed with punk and Music/GarageRock gave us {{Spacemen 3}}. Spacemen 3 broke up and one of their offshoots, {{Spiritualized}}, lost the punk and garage influences and created a straight-up [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly fusion of shoegaze, space rock and psychedelic rock]], a style also seen in TheVerve's early 1992-1995 material. Psychedelic influences continued to bubble in AlternativeRock during TheNineties and 2000s, with notable offshoots emerging such as "post-rock" (SigurRos), psychedelic rap (Music/NewKingdom) and stoner metal ({{Kyuss}}, Monster Magnet, ElectricWizard).

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon), TheRollingStones' ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Sympathy for the Devil") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

* Intense, head-trip psychedelia, deploying loud guitars, aggressive performances and lots of solos. This sort of intense psychedelia, named "acid-rock", paved the way for HeavyMetal later. A sort of bridge between the two extremes of optimistic and pure-fucking-NightmareFuel. A good example of this would be "Strawberry Fields Forever".

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon), TheRollingStones' ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Gimme Shelter") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: Music/The13thFloorElevators (who coined the term "psychedelic rock"), Music/TheYardbirds, [[Music/JimiHendrix The Jimi Hendrix Experience]], SanFrancisco bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Music/JeffersonAirplane, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Music/GratefulDead, the Music/SteveMillerBand, and Moby Grape, and LosAngeles bands such as Music/TheByrds, TheDoors, Love, [[Music/FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]], and Music/TheBeachBoys (closer to baroque pop than psychedelia, but whatever). This period saw the crystallisation of other psych-rock tropes, such as DesignStudentsOrgasm artwork for albums and singles and live shows with lots of freaky lighting. Psychedelia also spread to other genres, influencing the appearance of psychedelic soul (a combination of {{Funk}} and psychedelic rock) and psychedelic pop (which borrowed psych-rock's sunny, hallucinogenic sound but not the heavy drug intake, substituting SillyLoveSongs and other pop-song themes instead).

Psychedelic rock basically came out of disparate influences but was for all intents and purposes [[TropeCodifier codified]] by TheBeatles, since [[AsYouKnow as we know]], TheBeatles invented absolutely everything. The 1965 album ''Rubber Soul'' showed the band's first flirtations with the genre, letting George Harrison play sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and containing Lennon's first song about universal love (a favourite trope of psychers), "The Word". Their first actual psych-rock was "Rain", a B-side to the 1966 single "Paperback Writer" that boasted a bright guitar riff and the first rock song to use backmasking. They dived completely into psychedelia with ''Revolver'' (witness "Tomorrow Never Knows"' sitar drone, booming drums, dizzying special effects and processed vocals) and the famous paragon of psychedelic rock, ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''.

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: The13thFloorElevators (who coined the term "psychedelic rock"), The Yardbirds, [[JimiHendrix The Jimi Hendrix Experience]], SanFrancisco bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, the GratefulDead, the SteveMillerBand, and Moby Grape, and LosAngeles bands such as The Byrds, TheDoors, Love, [[FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]], and TheBeachBoys (closer to baroque pop than psychedelia, but whatever). This period saw the crystallisation of other psych-rock tropes, such as DesignStudentsOrgasm artwork for albums and singles and live shows with lots of freaky lighting. Psychedelia also spread to other genres, influencing the appearance of psychedelic soul (a combination of {{Funk}} and psychedelic rock) and psychedelic pop (which borrowed psych-rock's sunny, hallucinogenic sound but not the heavy drug intake, substituting SillyLoveSongs and other pop-song themes instead).

PsychedelicRock is a style of rock that began in TheSixties under heavy influence from the psychedelic culture. Its main goal is ostensibly to create the audio equivalent of a [[EverythingsBetterOnDrugs drug trip]].

TheEighties led to the appearance of "neo-psychedelia", an indie form of psych-rock drawing additionally from jangle pop and space rock, as seen in The FlamingLips, MercuryRev, {{XTC}} (especially their side-project ''The Dukes of Stratosphear'' and any material made after they stopped touring) and The Teardrop Explodes. Neo-psychedelia evolved into the harsher noise rock and noise pop of TheJesusAndMaryChain and SonicYouth, while its brighter elements were taken by Madchester bands such as TheStoneRoses and the HappyMondays as they briefly became a national phenomenon in late-80s UK. Neo-psychedelia itself proved to be a massive influence on {{Shoegazing}} a/k/a what MyBloodyValentine sound like, while {{Space-Rock}} crossed with punk and Music/GarageRock gave us {{Spacemen 3}}. Spacemen 3 broke up and one of their offshoots, {{Spiritualized}}, lost the punk and garage influences and created a straight-up [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly fusion of shoegaze, space rock and psychedelic rock]], a style also seen in TheVerve's early 1992-1995 material. Psychedelic influences continued to bubble in AlternativeRock during TheNineties and 2000s, with notable offshoots emerging such as "post-rock" (SigurRos) and stoner metal ({{Kyuss}}, Monster Magnet, ElectricWizard).

TheEighties led to the appearance of "neo-psychedelia", an indie form of psych-rock drawing additionally from jangle pop and space rock, as seen in The FlamingLips, MercuryRev, {{XTC}} (especially their side-project ''The Dukes of Stratosphear'' and any material made after they stopped touring) and The Teardrop Explodes. Neo-psychedelia evolved into the harsher noise rock and noise pop of TheJesusAndMaryChain and SonicYouth, while its brighter elements were taken by Madchester bands such as TheStoneRoses and the HappyMondays as they briefly became a national phenomenon in late-80s UK. Neo-psychedelia itself proved to be a massive influence on {{Shoegazing}} a/k/a what MyBloodyValentine sound like, while {{Space-Rock}} crossed with punk and GarageRock gave us {{Spacemen 3}}. Spacemen 3 broke up and one of their offshoots, {{Spiritualized}}, lost the punk and garage influences and created a straight-up [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly fusion of shoegaze, space rock and psychedelic rock]], a style also seen in TheVerve's early 1992-1995 material. Psychedelic influences continued to bubble in AlternativeRock during TheNineties and 2000s, with notable offshoots emerging such as "post-rock" (SigurRos) and stoner metal ({{Kyuss}}, Monster Magnet, ElectricWizard).

TheEighties led to the appearance of "neo-psychedelia", an indie form of psych-rock drawing additionally from jangle pop and space rock, as seen in The FlamingLips, MercuryRev, {{XTC}} (especially their side-project ''The Dukes of Stratosphear'' and any material made after they stopped touring) and The Teardrop Explodes. Neo-psychedelia evolved into the harsher noise rock and noise pop of TheJesusAndMaryChain and SonicYouth, while its brighter elements were taken by Madchester bands such as TheStoneRoses and the HappyMondays as they briefly became a national phenomenon in late-80s UK. Neo-psychedelia itself proved to be a massive influence on {{Shoegazing}} a/k/a what MyBloodyValentine sound like, while space-rock crossed with punk and GarageRock gave us {{Spacemen 3}}. Spacemen 3 broke up and one of their offshoots, {{Spiritualized}}, lost the punk and garage influences and created a straight-up [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly fusion of shoegaze, space rock and psychedelic rock]], a style also seen in TheVerve's early 1992-1995 material. Psychedelic influences continued to bubble in AlternativeRock during TheNineties and 2000s, with notable offshoots emerging such as "post-rock" (SigurRos) and stoner metal ({{Kyuss}}, Monster Magnet, ElectricWizard).

TheEighties led to the appearance of "neo-psychedelia", an indie form of psych-rock drawing additionally from jangle pop and space rock, as seen in The FlamingLips, {{XTC}} (especially their side-project ''The Dukes of Stratosphear'' and any material made after they stopped touring) and The Teardrop Explodes. Neo-psychedelia evolved into the harsher noise rock and noise pop of TheJesusAndMaryChain and SonicYouth, while its brighter elements were taken by Madchester bands such as TheStoneRoses and the HappyMondays as they briefly became a national phenomenon in late-80s UK. Neo-psychedelia itself proved to be a massive influence on {{Shoegazing}} a/k/a what MyBloodyValentine sound like, while space-rock crossed with punk and GarageRock gave us {{Spacemen 3}}. Spacemen 3 broke up and one of their offshoots, {{Spiritualized}}, lost the punk and garage influences and created a straight-up [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly fusion of shoegaze, space rock and psychedelic rock]], a style also seen in TheVerve's early 1992-1995 material. Psychedelic influences continued to bubble in AlternativeRock during TheNineties and 2000s, with notable offshoots emerging such as "post-rock" (SigurRos) and stoner metal ({{Kyuss}}, Monster Magnet, ElectricWizard).

* Creepy, terrifying psychedelia that's less about [[EpicRocking rocking the fuck out]] and more about NightmareFuel or HighOctaneNightmareFuel. Think: "Revolution 9" and "Tomorrow Never Knows".

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon), TheRollingStones's ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Gimme Shelter") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon), TheRollingStone's ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Gimme Shelter") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'', ''Magical Mystery Tour'', and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon) and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. Psych-rock's ubiquity led many bands to jump on the bandwagon to variable success - TheWho did a reasonably good job of it, TheRollingStones [[{{YMMV}} maybe]] failed and their attempt at psychedelia ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' is largely [[DisContinuity ignored by fans]]. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Gimme Shelter") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

Thanks to their stated goal, the psych-rockers really pushed the envelope in terms of sonics and radically broke from the then-dominant folk-rock and blues-rock scenes. Psychedelic rock heavily emphasises sound, sometimes even over actual songs, for the purpose of creating a hallucinatory atmosphere. To this end, psychedelic rock's main characteristic is heavy use of overdubs and elaborate studio effects (with particular love for phasers/flangers, reversing/backmasking, [[GratuitousPanning panning]] and [[LiveFromKhazadDum reverb and echoes]]) to create a dense atmosphere.

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'' and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon) and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. Psych-rock's ubiquity led many bands to jump on the bandwagon to variable success - TheWho did a reasonably good job of it, TheRollingStones failed miserably and their "psychedelic album" ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' is largely [[DisContinuity ignored by fans]]. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Gimme Shelter") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.

TheEighties led to the appearance of "neo-psychedelia", an indie form of psych-rock drawing additionally from jangle pop and space rock, as seen in The FlamingLips, {{XTC}} (especially their side-project ''The Dukes of Stratosphear'' and any material made after they stopped touring) and The Teardrop Explodes. Neo-psychedelia evolved into the harsher noise rock and noise pop of TheJesusAndMaryChain and SonicYouth, while its brighter elements were taken by Madchester bands such as TheStoneRoses and the HappyMondays as they briefly became a national phenomenon in late-80s UK. Neo-psychedelia itself proved to be a massive influence on {{Shoegazing}} a/k/a what MyBloodyValentine sound like, while space-rock crossed with punk and garage-rock gave us {{Spacemen 3}}. Spacemen 3 broke up and one of their offshoots, {{Spiritualized}}, lost the punk and garage influences and created a straight-up [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly fusion of shoegaze, space rock and psychedelic rock]], a style also seen in TheVerve's early 1992-1995 material. Psychedelic influences continued to bubble in AlternativeRock during TheNineties and 2000s, with notable offshoots emerging such as "post-rock" (SigurRos) and stoner metal ({{Kyuss}}, Monster Magnet, ElectricWizard).

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: The13thFloorElevators (who coined the term "psychedelic rock"), The Yardbirds, [[JimiHendrix The Jimi Hendrix Experience]], SanFrancisco bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, the GratefulDead, the SteveMillerBand, and Moby Grape, and LosAngeles bands such as TheDoors, Love, [[FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]], and TheBeachBoys (closer to baroque pop than psychedelia, but whatever). This period saw the crystallisation of other psych-rock tropes, such as DesignStudentsOrgasm artwork for albums and singles and live shows with lots of freaky lighting. Psychedelia also spread to other genres, influencing the appearance of psychedelic soul (a combination of {{Funk}} and psychedelic rock) and psychedelic pop (which borrowed psych-rock's sunny, hallucinogenic sound but not the heavy drug intake, substituting SillyLoveSongs and other pop-song themes instead).

Psych-rock tends to come in three flavours (with examples provided by The Fab Four):
* Sunny, optimistic psychedelia. Easily identifiable by its cheerful character and that many of the songs use jangly 12-string guitars borrowed from TheByrds (who themselves plunged headfirst into psychedelia later). As a reference, think of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
* Intense, head-trip psychedelia, deploying loud guitars, aggressive performances and lots of solos. This sort of intense psychedelia, named "acid-rock", paved the way for HeavyMetal later. A sort of bridge between the two extremes of optimistic and pure-fucking-NightmareFuel. A good example of this would be "Tomorrow Never Knows".

* Creepy, terrifying psychedelia that's less about [[EpicRocking rocking the fuck out]] and more about NightmareFuel or HighOctaneNightmareFuel. Think: "Revolution 9".

Psychedelic rock basically came out of disparate influences but was for all intents and purposes [[TropeCodifier codified]] by TheBeatles, since [[AsYouKnow as we know]], TheBeatles invented absolutely everything. The 1965 album ''Rubber Soul'' showed the band's first flirtations with the genre, letting George Harrison play sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and containing Lennon's first song about universal love (a favourite trope of psychers), "The Word". Their first actual psych-rock was "Rain", a B-side to the 1966 single "Paperback Writer" that boasted a bright guitar riff and the first rock song to use backmasking. They dived completely into psychedelia with ''Revolver'' - witness "Tomorrow Never Knows"' sitar drone, booming drums, dizzying special effects and processed vocals -, and made arguably the SugarWiki/MostTriumphantExample of psychedelic rock in popular imagination, ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''.

Psychedelic rock basically came out of disparate influences but was for all intents and purposes [[TropeCodifier codified]] by TheBeatles, since [[AsYouKnow as we know]], TheBeatles invented absolutely everything. The 1965 album ''Rubber Soul'' showed the band's first flirtations with the genre, letting George Harrison play sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and containing Lennon's first song about universal love (a favourite trope of psychers), "The Word". Their first actual psych-rock was "Rain", a B-side to the 1966 single "Paperback Writer" that boasted a bright guitar riff and the first rock song to use backmasking. They dived completely into psychedelia with ''Revolver'' - witness "Tomorrow Never Knows"' sitar drone, booming drums, dizzying special effects and processed vocals -, and made arguably the MostTriumphantExample of psychedelic rock in popular imagination, ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''.

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: The13thFloorElevators (who coined the term "psychedelic rock"), The Yardbirds, San Francisco bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape, TheDoors, The JimiHendrix Experience Love and TheBeachBoys (closer to baroque pop than psychedelia, but whatever). This period saw the crystallisation of other psych-rock tropes, such as DesignStudentsOrgasm artwork for albums and singles and live shows with lots of freaky lighting. Psychedelia also spread to other genres, influencing the appearance of psychedelic soul (a combination of {{Funk}} and psychedelic rock) and psychedelic pop (which borrowed psych-rock's sunny, hallucinogenic sound but not the heavy drug intake, substituting SillyLoveSongs and other pop-song themes instead).

1967 proved to be the sort of "Holy Year" for psych-rock, boasting TheBeatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'' and assorted singles ("Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", the super-avant-garde "I Am the Walrus", "All You Need Is Love"), JimiHendrix's ''Are You Experienced'' and ''Axis: Bold as Love'', {{Cream}}'s ''Disraeli Gears'', TheWho's ''The Who Sell Out'' (where they jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon) and PinkFloyd's debut ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn''. Psych-rock's ubiquity led many bands to jump on the bandwagon ot variable success - TheWho did a reasonably good job of it, TheRollingStones failed miserably and their "psychedelic album" ''Their Satanic Majesties Request'' is largely [[DisContinuity ignored by fans]]. However, psych-rock's wave started to crest soon afterwards, as the overall optimism of the movement vanished and bands embraced increasingly harder drugs (amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, etc.) which led them to increasingly heavier music. While Miles Davis did pioneer psychedelic-jazz-rock with ''In a Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew'' in 1969, most of the rock world moved on to other sounds. This change was best shown by TheBeatles, who abandoned psychedelia after their unsuccessful film/soundtrack ''Magical Mystery Tour'', choosing to return to their roots with [[NewSoundAlbum ''The White Album'']]. The Manson family murders and the violent Altamont festival (where a fan was stabbed to death by security guards while TheRollingStones were playing "Gimme Shelter") served to only worsen the overall atmosphere.