View source for Psychedelic pop

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{{Short description|Genre of pop music}}
{{Redirect|pop-psych|pop psychology|popular psychology}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Psychedelic pop
| stylistic_origins = *[[Pop music|Pop]]<ref name=AllmusicPsychedelicpop/>
*[[psychedelic music|psychedelia]]<ref name=AllmusicPsychedelicpop/>

| cultural_origins  = Mid-1960s, United States and United Kingdom
| instruments       = 
| derivatives       = *[[Neo-psychedelia]]<ref name="AllMusicNeoP"/>
| subgenrelist      = 
| subgenres         = 
| fusiongenres      = 
| regional_scenes   = 
| other_topics      = * [[List of psychedelic pop artists|List of artists]]
* [[hypnagogic pop]]
* [[psychedelic folk]]
* [[psychedelic funk]]
* [[psychedelic rock]]
* [[psychedelic soul]]
}}
{{Psychedelic sidebar}}

'''Psychedelic pop''' (or '''acid pop''')<ref name="McPadden2016"/> is a genre of [[pop music]] that contains musical characteristics associated with [[psychedelic music]].<ref name=AllmusicPsychedelicpop>{{cite web|author=Anon|date=n.d.|url=http://www.allmusic.com/style/psychedelic-pop-ma0000011915|title=Psychedelic Pop|website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref> Developing in the mid-to-late 1960s, elements included "[[acid trip|trippy]]" features such as [[fuzz guitar]]s, tape manipulation, backwards recording, [[sitar]]s, and [[The Beach Boys|Beach Boys]]-style harmonies, wedded to melodic songs with tight song structures.<ref name="AllmusicPsychedelicpop" /> The style lasted into the early 1970s.<ref name="AllmusicPsychedelicpop" /> It has seen revivals in subsequent decades by [[neo-psychedelic]] artists.<ref name=AllMusicNeoP/>

==Characteristics==
{{Further|Psychedelic music}}

According to [[AllMusic]], psychedelic pop was not too "freaky", but also not very "[[bubblegum pop|bubblegum]]" either.<ref name="AllmusicPsychedelicpop" /> It appropriated the effects associated with straight psychedelic music, applying their innovations to concise pop songs.<ref name="AllmusicPsychedelicpop" /> The music was occasionally confined to the studio, but there existed more organic exceptions whose psychedelia was bright and melodic.<ref name="AllmusicPsychedelicpop" /> AllMusic adds: "What's [strange] is that some psychedelic pop is more interesting than average psychedelia, since it had weird, occasionally awkward blends of psychedelia and pop conventions – [[the Neon Philharmonic]]'s 1969 album ''[[The Moth Confesses]]'' is a prime example of this."<ref name="AllmusicPsychedelicpop" />

==Notable works (1966–1969)==
{{See also|Psychedelic rock}}
'''1966'''
* ''[[Pet Sounds]]'' by [[the Beach Boys]] – The album came as an indirect result of bandleader [[Brian Wilson]]'s experimentation with [[psychedelic drug]]s. Music journalist Mike McPadden credits it with sparking a psychedelic pop revolution. He says that while psychedelic rock had existed before ''Pet Sounds'', mainly among [[garage band]]s like the [[13th Floor Elevators]], ''Pet Sounds'' inspired mainstream pop acts to take part in the psychedelic culture.<ref name="McPadden2016">{{cite web|last1=McPadden|first1=Mike|title=The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and 50 Years of Acid-Pop Copycats|url=http://www.thekindland.com/the-beach-boys-pet-sounds-and-50-years-of-acid-1433|website=The Kind|date=May 13, 2016|access-date=June 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109101317/http://www.thekindland.com/the-beach-boys-pet-sounds-and-50-years-of-acid-1433|archive-date=November 9, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|As albums that followed in the wake of ''Pet Sounds'', McPadden cites ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' ([[the Beatles]], 1967), ''[[Triangle (The Beau Brummels album)|Triangle]]'' ([[the Beau Brummels]], 1967), ''[[The Magic Garden]]'' ([[the 5th Dimension]], 1967), ''[[Captain Sad and His Ship of Fools]]'' ([[the Cowsills]], 1968), ''[[Head (soundtrack)|Head]]'' ([[the Monkees]], 1968), ''[[The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands]]'' ([[The Turtles]], 1968), ''[[Odessa (Bee Gees album)|Odessa
]]'' ([[The Bee Gees]], 1969), ''[[The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette]]'' ([[The Four Seasons (band)|The Four Seasons]], 1969), ''[[Odessey and Oracle]]'' ([[The Zombies]], 1969), and ''[[Intercourse (The Tokens album)|Intercourse]]'' ([[The Tokens]], 1971).<ref name="McPadden2016"/>}}
* ''[[Revolver (Beatles album)|Revolver]]'' by [[the Beatles]] – According to AllMusic, the album ensured that psychedelia emerged from its underground roots and presented in the mainstream as psychedelic pop.<ref name="AllmusicPsychedelicpop" /> Biographer [[Ian MacDonald]] wrote that the album "had initiated a second pop revolution – one which, while galvanising their existing rivals and inspiring many new ones, left all of them far behind".{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=192}}
* "[[Good Vibrations]]" by the Beach Boys – Proclaimed by journalist [[Barney Hoskyns]] as the "ultimate psychedelic pop record" from Los Angeles in its time.{{sfn|Hoskyns|2009|p=128}} ''[[Popmatters]]'' added: "Its influence on the ensuing psychedelic and progressive rock movements can't be overstated ... [it] changed the way a pop record could be made, the way a pop record could sound, and the lyrics a pop record could have."<ref name="12songs2015">{{cite magazine|last1=Interrante|first1=Scott|title=The 12 Best Brian Wilson Songs|url=http://www.popmatters.com/post/193278-the-12-best-brian-wilson-songs/|magazine=[[Popmatters]]|date=May 20, 2015}}</ref>
'''1967'''
* "[[Penny Lane]]" and "[[Strawberry Fields Forever]]" by the Beatles – the double A-sided single is described by AllMusic as a prototype for psychedelic pop.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/explore/essay/british-psychedelic-t684 |title=British Psychedelia |publisher=Allmusic |access-date=2011-06-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101142207/http://www.allmusic.com/explore/essay/british-psychedelic-t684 |archive-date=January 1, 2011 }}</ref>
* ''[[Evolution (Hollies album)|Evolution]]'' was a transitional album between [[The Hollies]]' conventional pop sound and what the Oxford 'Encyclopedia of Popular Music' described as the "full-blown psychedelic glory of ''[[Butterfly (Hollies album)|Butterfly]].''"<ref>'Evolution (Hollies album),' in Oxford 'Encyclopedia of Popular Music.' Edited by Colin Larkin, 2009 https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095941837</ref>
* "[[Arnold Layne]]" and "[[See Emily Play]]" by [[Pink Floyd]] – Two singles written by [[Syd Barrett]] that helped set the pattern for pop-psychedelia in Britain.{{sfn|Kitts|Tolinski|2002|p=6}}
'''1968'''
* ''[[Odessey and Oracle]]'' by [[the Zombies]] – AllMusic's Bruce Eder characterizes the album as "some of the most powerful psychedelic pop/rock ever heard out of England".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/odessey-and-oracle-r22698 |title=Odessey and Oracle |first=Bruce|last=Eder |website=[[Allmusic]] }}</ref> According to ''Record Bin''{{'}}s Joshua Packard, the album was a "psychedelic pop spectacle". "[[Care of Cell 44]]", its opening track, "presents the band as bearers of a new kind of psychedelia, one that relied less on psychotropics and more on the natural abilities of the band. ...  [the album] has gained a well-deserved reputation for being one of the greatest pop records of the '60s."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Packard|first1=Joshua|title=Record Bin: The psychedelic pop spectacle of The Zombies' "Odessey and Oracle"|url=http://nooga.com/171439/record-bin-the-psychedelic-pop-spectacle-of-the-zombies-odessey-and-oracle/|website=Record Bin|date=October 31, 2015}}</ref>

==Decline and revivals==
{{see also|Neo-psychedelia}}

By the end of the 1960s, psychedelic folk and rock were in retreat. Many surviving acts moved away from psychedelia into either more back-to-basics "[[roots rock]]", traditional-based, pastoral or whimsical folk, the wider experimentation of [[progressive rock]], or riff-laden heavy rock.{{sfn|Bogdanov|Woodstra|Erlewine|2002|pp=1322–1323}}{{verification needed|date=June 2016}} Psychedelic influences lasted a little longer in pop music, stretching into the early 1970s.<ref name=AllmusicPsychedelicpop/>

Psychedelic pop became a component of the [[neo-psychedelic]] style. There were occasional mainstream acts that dabbled in the genre, including [[Prince (musician)|Prince]]'s mid-1980s work and some of [[Lenny Kravitz]]'s 1990s output, but it has mainly been the domain of alternative and indie rock bands.<ref name=AllMusicNeoP>{{cite web|website=[[AllMusic]]|date=n.d.|url=http://www.allmusic.com/style/neo-psychedelia-ma0000012252|title=Neo-Psychedelia}}</ref> [[Animal Collective]] saw commercial success in the 2000s; their 2009 album ''[[Merriweather Post Pavilion (album)|Merriweather Post Pavilion]]'' featured a reverb-heavy psychedelic pop sound that exerted a wide influence on music of the subsequent decade.<ref name="theringer1">{{cite web |last1=Kloczko |first1=Justin |title=Heavy Reverb: The Still-Resonant Psych-Pop Influence of 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' |url=https://www.theringer.com/music/2019/1/4/18167715/animal-collective-merriweather-post-pavilion-10th-anniversary-panda-bear-avey-tare |website=The Ringer |date=January 4, 2019}}</ref>

==List of artists==
{{Main article|List of psychedelic pop artists}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|editor-last1=Bogdanov|editor-first1=Vladimir|editor-link1=Vladimir Bogdanov (editor)|editor-last2=Woodstra|editor-first2=Chris|editor-last3=Erlewine|editor-first3=Stephen Thomas|editor-link3=Stephen Thomas Erlewine|title=All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=1-pH4i3jXvAC}}|year=2002|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-653-3}}
* J. Kitts and B. Tolinski, eds, ''Guitar World Presents Pink Floyd'' (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2002), {{ISBN|0-634-03286-0}}, p.&nbsp;6.

{{Pop music}}
{{Psychedelic music}}

[[Category:Pop music genres]]
[[Category:Psychedelic music]]
[[Category:American styles of music]]