Is "Dedicated to Bobby Jameson" the new "Light My Fire"? This playlist features a full-range of classic psych songs followed by a contemporary psych track it may have inspired.
Hypnotic, trance-like melodies/harmonies
Unusual or complex chord progressions (read this about the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields”)
Various forms of distortion (guitar feedback, fuzz, reverb etc.)
What is psychedelic music and how has it evolved? Psych utilizes a few select instruments to expressly explore emotions that words and vocals can’t. By layering, distorting, and soloing, psych rock drives us to look inward. Not to think, but to feel. Feel for dimensions that rarely come to the surface. Before you think that pop music helps us find joy or sadness in a similar way. Consider that psych rock involves a much broader range of emotions. Not so much extremes on opposite ends of each other, but gray areas that are hard to define. It’s a good feeling. It’s an excited feeling. It might be a dark feeling. Psych music, without taking drugs, opens our minds to a world of feeling without words.