Psychedelic rock grew from the mid-1960s counterculture, studio experimentation and a desire to make music feel less linear and predictable. Longer songs, unusual instruments, tape effects, drones and distorted guitar all became part of the new vocabulary.
San Francisco and communal culture
Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and other Bay Area groups connected extended improvisation with the social world of the counterculture and the growing festival circuit.
British psychedelia
The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Cream and others approached psychedelia through studio construction, whimsical songwriting, blues experimentation and increasingly ambitious album formats.
Why it matters
Psychedelia opened rock toward progressive music, heavy rock, electronic experimentation and the idea that an album could create an entire imaginary world.