The music scene in London in the late 1960s was under the heavy influence of Psychedelia music and of course Psychedelia brought along its own culture as well. Naturally the musical styles of Psychedelia came as a result of new musical experimentation that drives many new genres, while the culture was largely apart of external factors, as well as adaptations to previous music styles.
Psychedelia music comes right after an interesting period of music in London that is not yet coined by musicologists. This period lasted from about 1964 to 1968, and in my last blog it was suggested to be its own genre of “Freakbeat,” or the result of British Beat music fused with guitar “freak-outs” that influence Psychedelia. Psychedelia music was very much influenced by guitarists’ experimentation with different effects such as phasing, reverb, echo, and distortion, as well as frequently changing between less common time signatures. As well as guitar experimentation, much of which evolved from jazz and blues music, tracks began to feature tape loops, which repeated strange sound sequences and nonsensical lyrics that may have appealed to the drug usage of the time.
The drug Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, commonly referred to as LSD, was legal in the UK until 1967. LSD gave the user the effects of dechronicization (an altered sense of time), depersonalization (a sense of unity with his or her environment), and dynamization (the sensation of having plain objects bend and dissolve into moving, dancing structures) (Hicks, 1999) (Leary, 1966). LSD became greatly popular and easily accessible to concert and festivalgoers.
Just before this time the National Health Service also made contraception available for women. This was also revolutionary at the time as it provided empowerment to women that drove part of this free spirited feeling around Psychedelia music. Music was always a large part of any genre, but in this case the musical culture around Psychedelia sometimes took the spotlight over the actual music in the late 1960s.
Psychedelia music comes right after an interesting period of music in London that is not yet coined by musicologists. This period lasted from about 1964 to 1968, and in my last blog it was suggested to be its own genre of “Freakbeat,” or the result of British Beat music fused with guitar “freak-outs” that influence Psychedelia. Psychedelia music was very much influenced by guitarists’ experimentation with different effects such as phasing, reverb, echo, and distortion, as well as frequently changing between less common time signatures. As well as guitar experimentation, much of which evolved from jazz and blues music, tracks began to feature tape loops, which repeated strange sound sequences and nonsensical lyrics that may have appealed to the drug usage of the time.
The drug Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, commonly referred to as LSD, was legal in the UK until 1967. LSD gave the user the effects of dechronicization (an altered sense of time), depersonalization (a sense of unity with his or her environment), and dynamization (the sensation of having plain objects bend and dissolve into moving, dancing structures) (Hicks, 1999) (Leary, 1966). LSD became greatly popular and easily accessible to concert and festivalgoers.
Just before this time the National Health Service also made contraception available for women. This was also revolutionary at the time as it provided empowerment to women that drove part of this free spirited feeling around Psychedelia music. Music was always a large part of any genre, but in this case the musical culture around Psychedelia sometimes took the spotlight over the actual music in the late 1960s.