Garage psychedelia
| Acid rock | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1960s, United States |
| Typical instruments | |
| Derivative forms | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Local scenes | |
| San Francisco Sound | |
| Other topics | |
Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. The term, which derives its name from lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), is sometimes deployed as a synonym of "psychedelic rock", but it may also refer to a more musically intense or heavy subgenre or variation of the psychedelic rock style. Acid rock is generally defined by distorted guitars, lyrics with drug references, and long improvised jams. Distinctions between other genres can be tenuous; it may also encompass certain garage rock, 1960s punk, proto-metal and heavy, blues-based hard rock.
The style may distinguish itself from other psychedelic styles by having a harder, louder, or heavier sound. Developing mainly from the American West Coast, acid rock did not focus on novelty recording effects or whimsicalness as much as subsequent British psychedelia. Rather, American groups emphasized the heavier qualities associated with both the positive and negative extremes of the psychedelic experience.
As the movement progressed into the late 1960s and 1970s, elements of acid rock split into two directions, with hard rock and heavy metal on one side and progressive rock on the other. In the 1990s, the stoner metal genre combined acid rock with other hard rock styles such as grunge, updating the heavy riffs and long jams found in acid rock and psychedelic-influenced metal.
"Acid rock" is loosely defined. Rock journalist Nik Cohn called it a "fairly meaningless phrase that got applied to any group, no matter what its style". It was originally used to describe the background music for acid trips in underground parties in the 1960s (e.g. the Merry Pranksters' "Acid Tests") and as a catchall term for the more eclectic Haight-Ashbury bands in San Francisco. The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia believed that acid rock is music you listen to while under the influence of acid, further stating that there is no real "psychedelic rock" and that it is Indian classical music and some Tibetan music "designed to expand consciousness".
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