Psychedelia

In the mid 1960s a number of bands became associated with the hippy counter-culture. These bands started by playing blues but the music was altered by the cultural context in which it was performed. An important factor in mutating blues into psychedelia was indulgence by musicians in consciousness altering substances. Till that time amplification had been employed simply to amplify. Now however they experimented with distorting musical signals as a way of complementing the altered perceptions of acid-users.

Another factor was the affection within the hippy community for religions like Hinduism which for them seemed esoteric. With this came a corresponding interest among psychedelic bands in the droning raga music of India.

The psychedelic bands performed long free-form jams for fans to dance to while affected by drugs. They also produced tracks within more standard song structures that nonetheless were different in that they challenged societal norms and assumptions in the themes they presented.

Many psychedelic bands arose originally in San Fransisco but the movement soon became an international one. Key psychedelic bands in the US included The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane (named for blues artist Blind Lemon Jefferson), Big Brother And The Holding Company (featuring vocalist Janis Joplin), The Doors and The Santana Blues Band. In the UK prominent psychedelic acts were Pink Floyd (named for obscure blues artists Pink Anderson and Floyd Council) and Small Faces. In Australian we had bands like The Masters Apprentices.

The popularity of psychedelic bands passed in the 1970s but the impact of psychedelia itself has been long-lasting. Many of its most successful acts went onto become progressive supergroups (such as Pink Floyd and the re-named Jefferson Starship). Key characteristics of the music were incorporated into other much more long-lasting genres like metal and funk. There have also been occasional psychedelic revivals as with a small movement of UK bands circa 1990 that included Jesus Jones and The Soup Dragons. And the demand for music one can enjoy while in an altered state of consciousness can be observed today in trance.

But possibly the most important legacy of the psychedelic bands is the way in which they succeeded, as part of the counter culture, in disseminating attitudes that went onto alter modern mores. This can be felt even now in the everyday acceptance of a more relaxed and permissive society.