Psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock
Jimi Hendrix on stage at Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden in June 1967
Stylistic origins	Rock psychedelia folk garage rock jazz blues electronic novelty music surf
Cultural origins	Mid 1960s, United States and United Kingdom
Derivative forms	Art rock hard rock heavy metal industrial music jam band krautrock neo-psychedelia glam rock occult rock progressive rock proto-prog shoegaze
Subgenres
Acid rock[a] · raga rock · space rock
Fusion genres
Psychedelic soul psychedelic funk psychedelic pop stoner rock zamrock
Regional scenes
Turkey Australia Latin America New Zealand Zambia
Local scenes
Canterbury scene San Francisco Sound
Other topics
British underground experimental rock folk rock freak scene Haight-Ashbury hippies jam band psychedelic folk
^ "Acid rock" may also be a synonym.[1]

Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation.^[2] Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.^[3]

Originating in the mid-1960s among British and American musicians, the sound of psychedelic rock invokes three core effects of LSD: depersonalization, dechronicization (the bending of time), and dynamization (when fixed, ordinary objects dissolve into moving, dancing structures), all of which detach the user from everyday reality.^[3] Musically, the effects may be represented via novelty studio tricks, electronic or non-Western instrumentation, disjunctive song structures, and extended instrumental segments.^[4] Some of the earlier 1960s psychedelic rock musicians were based in folk, jazz, and the blues, while others showcased an explicit Indian classical influence called "raga rock". In the 1960s, there existed two main variants of the genre: the more whimsical, surrealist British psychedelia and the harder American West Coast "acid rock". While "acid rock" is sometimes deployed interchangeably with the term "psychedelic rock", it also refers more specifically to the heavier, harder, and more extreme ends of the genre.

The peak years of psychedelic rock were between 1967 and 1969, with milestone events including the 1967 Summer of Love and the 1969 Woodstock Festival, becoming an international musical movement associated with a widespread counterculture before declining as changing attitudes, the loss of some key individuals, and a back-to-basics movement led surviving performers to move into new musical areas. The genre bridged the transition from early blues and folk-based rock to progressive rock and hard rock, and as a result contributed to the development of sub-genres such as heavy metal. Since the late 1970s it has been revived in various forms of neo-psychedelia.