Psychedelia; Change in Pace
In the early 1960’s, many young adults were attempting to go against to normalcy that was normally introduced to them at a young age. Therefore, during this era, the amount of drug use was greatly increased, with the youth using drugs such as LSD & Marijuana. This use of drugs led to a whole new era, allowing people to experiment more often, with music included. This is known to the general public as Psychedelia or Psychedelic music. Personally, this is one of my more favorite types of music during the 1960’s, due to the wide range of sounds that it offers and the influence it had throughout the era.
Psychedelia, itself, had an incredible influence to American Culture, as it birthed the an entire new genre of music known as Acid Rock. This genre resulted in many unique and revolutionary sounds. Several of the most famous sounds in records had been birthed from the impact of psychedelics. Some notable musicians in the genre were Grateful Dead, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors.
Even more of the most popular artists/bands during the era had their own experience with Psychedelic music. The Beatles’ admitted & showed their involvement with psychedelic drugs due to many references within the songs found in the release of their album, “Revolver” which has been labelled by many fans & John Lennon himself, as the “the acid album”. Additionally, The Beatles’ style was also influenced by psychedelics as one of the Beatles’ popular singles, “Paperback Writer”, was created when band member, John Lennon while under the influence, stated that he accidentally played a tape backwards on his recorder at home, which sparked some new ideas.
Psychedelia influence is even seen with the costumes featured for The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. Showing that Psychedelia influence had not only affected the music being produced at the time, but to society in general based off the way people acted/looked during this era.
Other popular groups involved in Psychedelia was the band, The Byrds. Prior to the era of Psychedelia, The Byrds were known as a Los Angeles folk rock band. It is believed that they’re the introduction point to psychedelic music in Los Angeles. This led to San Francisco becoming/emerging as the movement’s capital on the West Coast. Through the efforts of The Byrds, several regular-folk bands followed The Byrds into the folk rock genre, and had brought their psychedelic influences with them. Overall, Psychedelia had an enormous influence to American Culture affecting many different genres of music and with the way people perceived/looked showing an immediate byproduct due to the rise of Psychedelia.
