Psych-rock

**Psychedelic rock** *(or psych-rock)* is a sub-genre of rock music influenced by various elements of the psychedelic experience and is affected by the so-called psychedelic culture around which such experiences has been formed over the last four decades. Psych-rock is an inherently experimental approach to rock music, often utilizing novel recording techniques and effects processing in order to achieve and communicate something integral to the psychedelic experience (i.e.: delays and reverbs which mimic the sonic hallucinatory elements of the psychedelic experience, reverse tape loops, samples over laying the music, drones created by various exotic instruments and processed through pitch shiftering, phasing, flanging, modulating, time stretching and other such effects modules or pedals.

### Common Characteristics of Psych-Rock Music

* Complex song structures
* Circular or cyclical chord progressions
* Surrealistic lyrics
* Non-western instrumentation
* Washed out, reverberated vocals
* Emphasis on texture and atmosphere

## Etymology

***This section is taken directly of of Wikipedia's page on Pychedelic Rock which can be viewed here.***

The term "psychedelic" was first coined in 1956 by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond as an alternative descriptor for hallucinogenic drugs in the context of psychedelic psychotherapy. The first musical use of the term psychedelic is thought to have been by the New York-based folk group The Holy Modal Rounders on their version of Lead Belly's "Hesitation Blues" in 1964. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were The 13th Floor Elevators from Texas, at the end of 1965. The term was first used in print in the *Austin American Statesman* in an article about the band titled "Unique Elevators shine with psychedelic rock", dated 10 February 1966, and theirs was the first album to use the term as part of its title, in *The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators*, released in August that year.

As the countercultural scene developed in San Francisco the terms acid rock and psychedelic rock were used in 1966 to describe the new drug-influenced music and were being widely used by 1967. The terms psychedelic rock and acid rock are often used interchangeably, but some commentators have distinguished the former, which generally evoked the effects of psychedelic drugs, and acid rock, which can be seen as a more extreme subgenre that focused more directly on LSD, was often louder, made greater use of distortion and often consisted of long, improvised jams.

## Known Psych Rock bands that incorporate grunge

* Animal Holograms
* Caustic Resin
* Love Battery
* Headswim
* Nativo Radiactivo
* Screaming Trees
* Thee Hypnotics
* Truly

## References

1. ↑ N. Murray, *Aldous Huxley: A Biography* (Hachette, 2009), ISBN 0-7481-1231-6, p. 419.
2. ↑ M. Hicks, *Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions* (University of Illinois Press, 2000), ISBN 978-0-252-06915-4, pp 59–60.
3. ↑ M. Hicks, *Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions Music in American Life* (Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000), ISBN 0-252-06915-3, pp. 64–6.
4. ↑ "Logical Outcome of fifty years of art", *LIFE*, 9 September 1966, p. 68.
5. ↑ J. DeRogatis, *Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock* (Milwaukie, Michigan: Hal Leonard, 2003),ISBN 0-634-05548-8, pp. 8–9.
6. ↑ R. B. Browne and P. Browne, *The Guide to United States Popular Culture* (Popular Press, 2001), ISBN 0-87972-821-3, p. 8.
7. ↑ Eric V. d. Luft, *Die at the Right Time!: A Subjective Cultural History of the American Sixties* (Gegensatz Press, 2009), ISBN 0-9655179-2-6, p. 173.

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8. ↑ "Acid rock", *Allmusic*. Retrieved 20 March 2012.