Psychobilly
| Psychobilly | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1970s England |
| Typical instruments | Electric guitar (often hollowbody), upright bass, drums |
| Derivative forms | Gothabilly |
| Regional scenes | |
| Europe (particularly England, Germany, and Denmark), United States (particularly southern California), Japan, Brazil, Canada | |
| Other topics | |
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Timeline of alternative rock List of psychobilly bands |
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Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rock and roll, rockabilly, and rhythm and blues. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly. Merriam-Webster defines it as "music that blends punk rock and rockabilly"; another dictionary defines it as "loud frantic rockabilly music." About.com defines psychobilly as "tak[ing] the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ramp[ing] up its speed to a sweaty pace, and combin[ing] it with punk rock and imagery lifted from horror films and late-night sci-fi schlock,...[creating a] gritty honky tonk punk rock." Psychobilly, "while rooted in the twang of rockabilly, owes just as much to the sound of straight up three-chord punk, often with a dose of thrash metal."
Psychobilly is often characterized by lyrical references to science fiction, horror and exploitation films, violence, lurid sexuality, and other topics generally considered taboo, though often presented in a comedic or tongue-in-cheek fashion. Psychobilly bands and lyrics usually take an apolitical stance, a reaction to the right- and left-wing political attitudes which divided other British youth cultures. It is often played with an upright double bass, instead of the electric bass which is more common in modern rock music, and the hollowbody electric guitar, rather than the solid-bodied electric guitars that predominate in rock. Many psychobilly bands are trios of electric guitar, upright bass and drums, with one of the instrumentalists doubling as vocalist.
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