the.com/psychedelic rock

Rock music that tried to play what LSD felt like, mostly in the key of why not

means A late-1960s rock subgenre built on distortion, extended improvisation, studio effects, and modal or droning structures meant to evoke altered states of consciousness.

from The word 'psychedelic' was coined in the 1950s by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond, from Greek 'psyche' (mind/soul) and 'delos' (manifest/visible) — literally 'mind-manifesting.' He proposed it in correspondence with Aldous Huxley as a cleaner alternative to clinical or sensational terms for drugs like LSD and mescaline. The word drifted from clinical vocabulary into counterculture slang by the mid-1960s, and bands scrambling to name the lysergic, feedback-laced sound they were inventing simply bolted it onto 'rock.'

birthplace
san francisco and london, roughly simultaneously, 1966
key tool
the wah-wah pedal, abused lovingly
studio trick
backwards tape loops, because forwards was too sober
legacy
split into prog, metal, and your uncle's van mural
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