The Realization of Others and the Development of Psychedelic Rock

My name is Nick Iwanicki, I’m a Junior history major from Chicago, Illinois.

After studying the development of rock becoming a more progressive genre in the first week of this course, one of the things that I was surprised with was how little early members of the counter culture knew about their movement. In many of the interviews given by people who participated in the counter-culture and the music scene, they always seem to mention that they had no idea that there were other people “like them” that existed. However, events like the Royal Albert Poetry Reading brought subscribers of alternative lifestyles together in a way that gave them a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves. This allowed people to feel much more comfortable sharing creative ideas and confidant that there would be an audience for their works. The psychedelic rock of the time period seems to reflect this, as more emphasis was placed on musical innovation and intellectual expression within music. During this period, music made an important transition from simply creating something popular that meant little or nothing to the listener, and instead giving them something original that was intended to make them think.

Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix were only a few of the groups that attempted to push the limits on what was possible as a musician. Bob Dylan was an exceedingly popular folk singer before he “went electric,” marking an important break with tradition that The Beatles emulated when they began to experiment with their music and write about contemporary problems. Jimi Hendrix too, attempted to expand the horizons of what was possible with a guitar while writing songs about the impending doom of mankind and other topics that previously would not have been included in the repertoire of a popular musician.

Without the realization that there were other people who enjoyed what were considered to be underground lifestyles I feel that the counter culture movement might never have become mainstream. This could have caused groups like The Beatles and Pink Floyd to continuously repress their creative and thoughtful impulses within their music. Even more would have been prevented from signing record deals with labels that desired three-minute songs. Had this been the case, many of the early experiences of progressive music, including psychedelic rock, might never have occurred. I find this interesting because I feel that without the driving force behind exploring what was possible and attempting to use music as a template of conversation, the music that we listen to today would have developed into something that we might not readily recognize.