Psychedelic/Space Rock rewrite request

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   Hi,

This is a formal request to help clean up and update the information that we have as introduction to this specific area of 'psychedelic/space rock".  This is my first version at this time, and I mainly concentrated on making sure that there was continuity, because the original kinda switches gears/ideas when it runs out of gas.

Again, the posted definition makes it sound like there was no "psychedelic/space rock" anywhere else.  That is not true. San Francisco was highly active in that area, albeit the description of "space rock" was not exactly used, but "psychedelic" was. What made Winterland, Fillmore and a few other spots so famous? ... you got it ... the psychedelia in all of these and the amazing light shows, and the incredible art work that has become a historic picture of what the time and places were all about. New York, had its own "psychedelia". Paris had its own. Germany had its own, that later became called "krautrock", and would be possibly better described as "psychedelic" and "space rock", specially in the very early days.

Here is a re-wording of what we already have ... which is less xenophobic and blends the ability and talents of the ProgArchives gene pool to include more connections and information in regards to this topic to just the "British Invasion". If you were in Latin America, you also had the "American Invasion". If you were in Brazil, you also had the "African Invasion" ... all of which endup influencing all music, specially popular music and its variations, of which, progressive is not totally immune.

Prog Archives is very strong and lists an incredible amount of foreign bands, more than anyone else, and we should probably display that "international feel" a lot better, and stop suggesting that one country was more important. In general, it was NOT one country ... it was the fact that the Media, and specially Television, helped make America and England probably more visible around the world which made it appear like they were better and more important. 

This is a very important consideration, when it comes to discussing the arts, since, all of a sudden, the ability to see something else, and more examples, and different people, becomes such an incredible and mind-blowing event, that it affected people's lives, and that would, naturally, also influence the arts in any one place around the world.

Here we go:

Psychedelic/Space Rock definition Psychedelic Progressive Rock

Progressive rock music has its roots in the mid 1960's psychedelic cultural phenomena around the world.

During that time the British Invasion (of music!), and the American Invasion (of music) and other bands from around the world, began to expand the sonic possibilities of music, and what one could do, use, and appreciate.

Many groups slowly started to abandon the usual verse-chorus-verse patterns of most popular music, and moved towards more fluid, free-form oriented structures (both song and otherwise), that were found in other styles of music that were being heard for the first time. These would include Eastern Music, sometimes principles of free-form Jazz, Blues and many other idioms. Sometimes these would be all mixed in together like a blender, sometimes it would be subtle, and other times ... there is no description for the ideas used and worked with.

Along with many of these thoughts and principles that added to the strength of the sound, it was a time, when a new instrument hit the airwaves. 

The synthesizer. 

And this instrument helped emphasize the spontaneous emotions, and many other compositional constructions and designs, into an experiment, sometimes improvised, sometimes pre-conceived in ideas, with no practical definition as to what the result might be. Later a version of this in Germany, became defined as "krautrock", and it basically meant ... no rules, no definitions, no preconceived notions ... just play ... and in at least one case, it was the veritable Burroughs of LIterature ... throw it all up and then glue this and that and that together and you have a composition! 

The fine tuning and learning about the synthesizer and its many possibilities, also helped create and define many new tools in music, pedals and other effects that helped define a lot of this music. The thought has been thrown around, as to what happens if the electricity is not there ... will it still be progressive, psychedelic, and space rock, and the answer is yes, it will, because the main thrust of the music was the experiential side of it, not just the effect itself, although it could be said that many bands abused the priviledge in music.

But it became a new language. A new sound that defied the description and went over any and many styles of music, not just one.

Experimenting with new studio technology that was now much more visible than ever before, or electronically altering instruments and voices, became a part of this altered approach. They all gave a voice to our time, place and space, while also helping interpret many other feelings that we had inside about anything from music to life.

In those early days, rock groups like THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, CREAM and many others stand as descriptive and popular examples of the Psychedelic Music, however, they also displayed the first examples of how what they did could also be done within a popular music context. But, sadly, in concert, a lot of their work was not about the "single", or the "hit", as much as it was about their very distinct rock expressions, that were aggressive and very experimental, while also being quite improvised in their performances. We've all seen pictures of Jimi Hendrix playing his guitar with his mouth!

(Side note: And even to this day, the improvisation side of these people is not what is appreciated. The hits and the singles are what we remember the most, not the very fabric that helped create the music in the first place. We can "improvise" in jazz, but we can't "improvise" in rock music!)

The boundary dividing the "Experimental" and "Progressive" classification is a thin and at times contested one for this era. The pioneering psychedelic progressive rock bands to be found at www.progarchives.com will in most cases be found in the Proto-Prog section of the site. Amongst these pioneering outfits are acts like THE BEATLES, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE AND VANILLA FUDGE. Artists such as PINK FLOYD will not be found there though, as their career extended well beyond these first, formative years of the genre.

Psychedelic progressive rock music may contain the elements previously described in varying combinations, but the artistic perspective of progressive rock is another factor. Some psychedelic rock bands stuck to the mid 1960's beat rock style in purist form, not partaking in the experimental development of the impressionistic possibilities of psychedelic rock music others spearheaded. The evolution of the psychedelic depth within a progressive context could be seen for instance in the 1960's recordings of ARCADIUM and BABY GRANDMOTHERS. One good example of early 70's Continental European progressive psychedelic rock is the album by AHORA MAZDA, and from Britain JADE WARRIOR's early efforts fuse psychedelic rock and ethnic music. Current artists exploring the vintage 60's/70's style and sound are acts like THE SPACIOUS MINDS and ACID MOTHER'S TEMPLE.

The entire Western pop culture scene was influenced by the psychedelic culture to some extent, including other prog genres such as Folk Music, who lists many folks that should be correctly mentioned as "progressive" because of their experimental abilities and status.

Germany, as mentioned above, had their own experiences, and these, unlike those mentioned in England, or America, they had a much larger connection to the other arts that is not always seen, or discussed. What became known as "krautrock" was a serious attempt to create the musical version of what Jean Luc Godard, a few years earlier, had called "anti-film" ... by making sure that what others had, specially in the Anglo-American sound and markets, was not going to be used or done the same way. The fact that many composers that are very well known in Classical Music in Germany at the time, were also next to these folks is often dismissed and not studied, and shows that there was a much wider interest in the study of music, than just create a pop song, or some kind of a trip for you to enjoy under the influence, if it was necessary. Not to mention their relationship to the other arts!

It would not be correct to say that the "British Psychedelic" movement was any more important than the "American Psychedelic" movement, because both of them were around en masse and Krautrock, was much more concerned with their own individual expression, than they were about "music", or "this" or "that" ... and as Edgar Froese stated in a Television Special about the time and place ... it was about Germany finding its own person ... in a time when they had no history, no art, nothing but ... themselves. So one could say that the "person" had to find their own identity before they would be able to express themselves with an art ... specially music, that is not usually an individual endeavour which is the history of music in the past 75 years, with rock and jazz.

The pioneering early 70's bands in this genre represent the progressive rock sound of Germany, experimenting with long instrumental improvisations, emphasizing the use of psychedelic effects (and in some cases the drugs themselves!) and weird electronic sounds tha thelped create a very different atmosphere than what we were used to, or familiar with. They also helped create the very sounds and atmosphere that Edgar Froese termed as "Stratosfear" ... which was a very obvious comment as to how so many people saw not only th emusic of Tangerine Dream, but many others at the time! 

Some examples are artists like AMON DÜÜL, ASH RA TEMPEL, CAN, GÄA, NECRONOMICON and YATHA SIDHRA. The PROGRESSIVE ELECTRONIC style emerged from Krautrock. Some of the most influential artists of this genre, such as TANGERINE DREAM and KLAUS SCHULZE, explored a distinct psychedelic musical style at first, which was influential for the development of the "space rock" sound

Edited by moshkito - April 21 2011 at 16:20