History Main / PsychedelicRock

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/back-masking, [[GratuitousPanning panning]] and [[EchoingAcoustics reverb and echoes]]) to create a dense atmosphere. Despite this, psychedelic rock is often lumped with BluesRock due to the two genres mixing in the 1960s and 1970s, the use of extensive improvised solos in psychedelic rock, and because of the rise of the very psychedelic-blues oriented stoner rock in the 1990s, which led many to re-examine the genres as a single entity.

* Music/{{Genesis}} (only for one album prior to their better-known ProgressiveRock output)
** 1969 - ''Music/FromGenesisToRevelation''

* [[Music/Ghost1984 Ghost]] ([[NamesTheSame The Japanese band]], not Music/{{Ghost}})

* Music/{{Space}} (also AlternativeDance)

* Music/SydArthur
* Music/{{Tame Impala}}

* Music/ToddRundgren

** 1968 - ''Music/{{Friends}}''

** 1967 - ''Music/{{Smile}}''

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: Music/The13thFloorElevators (who [[TropeNamer coined the term]] "psychedelic rock"), Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/TheYardbirds, [[Music/JimiHendrix The Jimi Hendrix Experience]], UsefulNotes/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 UsefulNotes/LosAngeles bands such as Music/TheByrds, Music/TheDoors, Music/IronButterfly, Music/{{Love}}, [[Music/FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]], and Music/PinkFloyd.

Other bands besides the Beatles that contributed to the genre's development in the same period included: Music/The13thFloorElevators (who [[TropeNamer coined the term]] "psychedelic rock"), Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/TheYardbirds, [[Music/JimiHendrix The Jimi Hendrix Experience]], UsefulNotes/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 UsefulNotes/LosAngeles bands such as Music/TheByrds, Music/TheDoors, Music/IronButterfly, Love, [[Music/FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]], and Music/PinkFloyd.

Psychedelic rock basically came out of disparate influences[[note]]BluesRock and avant-garde ClassicalMusic probably being the main ancestors. Oddly, the first rock song to reference psychedelia was an obscure 1960 [[{{Instrumentals}} instrumental]] by SurfRock band The Gamblers called "LSD-25". The band members said they saw the name in a magazine article and thought it sounded cool[[/note]] but was for all intents and purposes [[TropeCodifier codified]] by Music/TheBeatles, since [[AsYouKnow as we know]], Music/TheBeatles invented absolutely everything. The 1965 album ''Music/RubberSoul'' showed the band's first flirtations with the genre, letting Music/GeorgeHarrison play sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and containing Music/JohnLennon'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 a track played backwards. They dived completely into psychedelia with ''Music/{{Revolver|Beatles Album}}'' (witness "Tomorrow Never Knows"' sitar drone, booming drums, dizzying special effects and processed vocals) and the famous paragon of psychedelic rock, ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.

* 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 and would soon become dominated by stoner rock in the 1990s and 2000s. A good example of this would be "Strawberry Fields Forever", "She Said, She Said", and "Helter Skelter".

* Creepy, terrifying psychedelia that's less about [[EpicRocking rocking the fuck out]] and more about trying to be experimental and/or trippy. Think: "Revolution 9", "Blue Jay Way" and "Tomorrow Never Knows". [[note]]The last two may be SocietyMarchesOn as to what is creepy. In contemporary reviews ''adults'' were terrified; younger people and acidheads thought of them as insightful.[[/note]]

* Music/YvesTumor (usually mixed with PBRAndB, experimental pop, TripHop and plunderphonics, but ''Heaven to a Tortured Mind'' is a much more straightforward psych-rock album)

* Music/The13thFloorElevators (TropeNamers, also GarageRock)

** 1967 - ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' [[note]]With Music/VelvetUnderground[[/note]]

* Music/VelvetUnderground (also AlternativeRock and ArtRock)

** 1969 - ''Music/TheVelvetUnderground''