Psychedelic rock (“acid rock”) tried to render the experience of expanded consciousness in music. Its hallmarks are guitar effects (fuzz, wah-wah, reverse recording), long improvisations, unusual sound colours, Eastern modes and instruments (the sitar), and surreal lyrics.
Its landmark records are The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's, the explosive guitar of Jimi Hendrix, the early Pink Floyd, and The Doors. Psychedelia was the direct forerunner of progressive and hard rock, and its sonic experiments feed rock music to this day. Its peak came with the 1967 “Summer of Love” in San Francisco (Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead), and psychedelia itself became the soundtrack of the counterculture.
