Come enter the void with me :) (a lil blog on Psychedelic music)

Psychedelic music is to emulate the use of mind altering drugs through the art of music.  So the songs are very unorthodox sounds, weird instruments and such recorded on tape.  This genre was more popular in the 60s where there was a wide use of LSD.  The music is drawn less from western music, and more Indian influenced.

    Characteristics of psychedelic music: 
-Exotic instruments like a sitar or Theremin (Theremin in good vibrations)
-Complex arrangements of music like the Beatles We Can Work It Out (conducted in a 12/8 pattern)
-Electric guitar feed back (I feel Fine and Heroin)
- more use of a keyboard (Strawberry fields forever)
-more studio work (hard to replicate on stage)

            Bands started in to psychedelic music in the mid 60s. The first Psychedelic album is The Beatles Revolver; which has all the codes and conventions of psychedelic music.  And at the same time, The Beach Boys were writing some psychedelic tracks like, “Good Vibrations” which has early drafts during the making of pet sounds.  Pink Floyds song, “Astronomy Domine” is very weird and psychedelic, but doesn’t have much of the codes above.  The Rolling stones, copying the Beatles (as always), went in to psychedelic music, and made songs like “Shes Like A Rainbow”.  The Velvet underground had psychedelic tracks like “heroin” and “Sunday morning”, constantly referencing drugs.  Let’s get to analyzin’ some songs shall we.





 

This song is VERY psychedelic; from the backwards stuff, to the weird vocals.  The lyrics in it also MAYBE talking about a drug high,(like entering the “void”), but I’m not John Lennon so I don’t know.

 not one of the Beach boys more famous, but is very weird and psychedelic.  The song is about wind chime, which is a lil weird, itself. It has Unorthodox instrumentation, like,   more use of organ and stringed something or other. The music is drowning like you want to sleep.

This song is about the use of the drug heroin.  It’s a drowning beat and has weird instruments like the electric viola.  At the end of the song it has a ton of feed back that at times over powers the singer. 

 THE END