Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom. The first psychedelic rock band were 13th Floor Elevators in 1965 and the genre then went into the mainstream due to The Beatles. The genre was already growing rapidly in California some of the more famous being The Charlatans, The Doors and the Grateful Dead. MGMT have listed bands such as The Beatles and The Grateful Dead as inspirations in interviews. After the 1970’s the genre fell into decline but more recently it is being used to influence a lot of new artists and bands.A key musical technique used is a strong reliance on keyboards and synthesizers. The first bands to use early synthesizers were The Beatles in 1967 and they are one of the most influential bands ever. Synthesizers are now extremely popular and are common place in lots of songs. MGMT use a lot of synthesizers too as it is common with psychedelic rock bands. The Beatles album ‘Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was an encyclopedia of psychedelia and was extremely creative with unpredictable changes in rhythm, texture and melody. MGMT have stated the Beatles as major influences to them personally and the genre of music as a whole.
As a musical style psychedelic rock features electric guitars, often used with feedback, exotic instrumentation, with a particular fondness for Indian instruments such as the sitar and a strong emphasis on extended instrumental solos or jams. Lyrics are surreal, esoterically or literary-inspired. Also basic song structures aren’t often used with many songs having no set chorus and have key and time changes. All these features are found in most MGMT songs with their most obvious psychedelic track being ‘Siberian Breaks’ which uses all these common musical features.
MGMT themselves found success with their album Oracular Spectacular in 2008 which helped them become a mainstream artist. They mainly became popular because of their more pop influenced singles whilst the rest of the more experimental music on their album wasn’t as well known. This became a negative thing for the band as they gathered a lot fans who weren’t interested in their psychedelic and alternative music. The follow up album Congratulations steered away from the well known pop songs and deeper into their psychedelic influences and as a result this album has become widely successful to an alternative audience and they have seemed to of lost their mainstream following which they see a positive thing. This willingness to avoid the mainstream is a common theme for lots of alternative and psychedelic bands who would rather stick to making music they like themselves rather than write pop songs to become successful. The concept of ‘selling out’ is something these bands try to avoid as much as possible as many fans believe getting popular means a band loses their credibility.
A good example of a psychedelic rock band poster and iconography of the genre in general is this poster for The Doors on the left. The picture is very surreal with an image of a large dreamlike face and what looks like a peacock tail. The text is hard to read bubble text and uses colours which conventionally aren’t used together. The right image is of an MGMT poster which also uses surreal imagery and similar bubble text. It is clear to see that MGMT have used the same surreal themes and iconography to establish themselves to their audience that they are a psychedelic rock band.
One of the most obvious traits of psychedelic rock is the influence of drugs. This is how the genre first started and one of the reasons it declined in the 1970’s is that psychedelic drugs became illegal. It is clear from interviews and song lyrics that MGMT also use these drugs as an influence, many songs being about drugs themselves such as ‘It’s Working’. Bands of the genre including MGMT have stated that drugs help them become more creative and inspired musically which is why the song structures can sometimes seem random and lyrics are surreal and sometimes have no meaning.
Fashion is not a main focus on psychedelic rock, as I touched on before the bands would rather focus on making music than their image. However there is a main style commonly found. The stereotypical hippie images are connected to the genre, where people generally don’t care what they look like and usually wear second hand clothes, lots of tie dye and no shoes. As the image shows MGMT have adopted this style. They more recently wear formal suits but these have obvious psychedelic imagery with bright mismatched colours and patterns.
Fashion is not a main focus on psychedelic rock, as I touched on before the bands would rather focus on making music than their image. However there is a main style commonly found. The stereotypical hippie images are connected to the genre, where people generally don’t care what they look like and usually wear second hand clothes, lots of tie dye and no shoes. As the image shows MGMT have adopted this style. They more recently wear formal suits but these have obvious psychedelic imagery with bright mismatched colours and patterns.
The band steers away from modern technology in society such as Facebook which is shown through lyrics in their song ‘Flash Delirium’; ‘stab your Facebook, sell, sell, sell!’ The bands ideology and the main ideology of the genre is to get away from the trappings and distractions of contemporary society and focus on what is important. The genre is linked with hippie culture which can be seen through this ideology that material processions aren’t important. They feel that award shows and success aren’t important instead it’s about promoting this ideology and having loyal fans who share it. An example of this is the picture on the right of the band attending the Grammys which they often criticise themselves for as they felt that they didn’t fit in with the rest of the people such as Lady Gaga attending.
Psychedelic rock is a genre which tries to avoid the mainstream musically and culturally with surreal iconography and lyrics. Complex song structures and heavy use electronic and Indian instruments are put together to make a very different style of music. The genre is not just a music genre but a lifestyle choice which has a subculture of drug use primarily influencing it and it is closely linked with hippie culture.
Psychedelic rock is a genre which tries to avoid the mainstream musically and culturally with surreal iconography and lyrics. Complex song structures and heavy use electronic and Indian instruments are put together to make a very different style of music. The genre is not just a music genre but a lifestyle choice which has a subculture of drug use primarily influencing it and it is closely linked with hippie culture.
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