Acid rock

{{short description|Subgenre of psychedelic rock music}} {{Redirect|Heavy psych|the album|Heavy Psych}} {{Distinguish|Acidic rock}}

{{Infobox music genre | name = Acid rock | stylistic_origins = {{flatlist| * Rock{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}} * psychedelia{{sfn|Hull|2003|p=380}} * garage rock{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}} * hard rock{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}}{{efn|name=s}} * blues{{sfn|Knowles|2010|p=199}} * folk rock{{sfn|Jasinski|2012}} * psychedelic rock{{sfn|Drabløs|2016|p=64}}{{sfn|Freeman|Freeman|1996|p=10}}{{efn|"Psychedelic rock" may also be a synonym.<ref name="syn"/>}} }} | cultural_origins = Mid-1960s, United States | derivatives = * Hard rock{{sfn|Bill|1984|p=37}}{{efn|name=s|Either an influence or derivative according to the sources.}} * krautrock<ref name="Reynolds1996">{{cite magazine|title= Krautrock|first= Simon|last= Reynolds|magazine= Melody Maker|date= July 1996|author-link= Simon Reynolds}}</ref> * heavy metal<ref name="loyola">{{cite journal|title=Loyola Entertainment Law Journal|journal=Loyola Entertainment Law Journal|date=1986|volume=6|page=90|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eRdMAQAAIAAJ&q=+%22acid+rock%22}}</ref> * progressive rock{{sfn|Holm-Hudson|2013|p=85}} | fusiongenres = * Stoner metal<ref name=AMStonerrock>{{AllMusic|class=style|id=stoner-metal-ma0000011961|label=Stoner Metal}}.</ref> | local_scenes = San Francisco Sound | other_topics = * List of artists * acid punk * proto-metal * bad trip | footnotes = {{notelist}} }} {{Psychedelic sidebar}}

'''Acid rock''' is a loosely defined type of rock music{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}} that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}} movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. While the term has sometimes been used interchangeably with "psychedelic rock", acid rock also specifically refers to a more musically intense, rawer, or heavier subgenre or sibling of psychedelic rock. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, distorted guitars, wah-wah and fuzztone pedals, while often containing lyrics with drug references and long improvised jams.

Compared to other forms of psychedelic rock, acid rock features a harder, louder, heavier, or rawer sound. Much of the style overlaps with 1960s garage rock, proto-metal, and early heavy, blues-based hard rock. It developed mainly from the American West Coast, where groups did not focus on the novelty recording effects and whimsy of British psychedelia or San Francisco's psychedelic folk rock groups; instead, the subgenre emphasized the heavier aspects of West Coast blues rock.

As the movement progressed into the late 1960s and 1970s, elements of acid rock split into two directions, with hard rock and heavy metal on one side and progressive rock on the other. In the 1990s, the stoner metal genre combined acid rock with other hard rock styles such as grunge and doom metal, updating the heavy riffs and long jams found in acid rock and psychedelic-influenced metal.

==Definitions== {{See also|Psychedelic music|Psychedelic rock}} "Acid rock" is loosely defined.{{sfn|Gammond|1991|p=3}} In 1969, as the genre was still solidifying, rock journalist Nik Cohn called it a "fairly meaningless phrase that got applied to any group, no matter what its style".{{sfn|Hull|2003|p=380}} The term was originally used to describe the background music for acid trips in underground parties in the 1960s (e.g. the Merry Pranksters' "Acid Tests"){{sfn|Wolfe|1968|p=223}} and as a catchall term for the more eclectic Haight-Ashbury bands in San Francisco.{{sfn|Knowles|2010|p=199}} The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia believed that acid rock is music you listen to while under the influence of acid, further stating that there is no real "psychedelic rock" and that it is Indian classical music and some Tibetan music "designed to expand consciousness".{{sfn|Rolling Stone Magazine Staff|1989|p=195}}

{{quote box | quote = Psychedelia was sometimes referred to as "acid rock". The latter label was applied to a pounding, hard rock variant that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage-punk movement ... When rock began turning back to softer, roots-oriented sounds in late 1968, acid-rock bands mutated into heavy metal acts. | source = —Frank Hoffman, ''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound'' (2004){{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}} | align = left | width = 25% }}

The term has often been deployed interchangeably with "psychedelic rock" or "psychedelia", particularly during the genre's nascence.<ref name="syn">{{harvnb|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725|loc="Psychedelia was sometimes referred to as 'acid rock.'"}}; {{harvnb|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8|loc="acid rock, also known as psychedelic rock"}}; {{harvnb|DeRogatis|2003|p=9|loc="now regularly called 'psychedelic' or 'acid'-rock"}}; {{harvnb|Larson|2004|p=140|loc="known as acid rock or psychedelic rock"}}</ref> However, the distinction between the heavier "acid rock" and the more general or inclusive genre of "psychedelic rock" has been well established.<ref name=AMgenre/> According to Per Elias Drabløs, "acid rock is generally considered a subgenre of psychedelic rock",{{sfn|Drabløs|2016|p=64}} while Steve and Alan Freeman state the two terms are more or less synonymous, and that "what is usually referred to as acid rock is generally the more extreme end of [the psychedelic rock genre]".{{sfn|Freeman|Freeman|1996|p=10}} This would mean psychedelic rock that is heavier, louder, or harder.<ref name=AMgenre>{{AllMusic|class=style|id=acid-rock-ma0000012327}}</ref>{{sfn|McLauchlin|2015|p={{page needed|date=June 2016}}}}{{sfn|Jasinski|2012}} Additionally, music critics later retroactively labelled the bridge between acid rock, hard rock and early heavy metal acts as "heavy psych".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Terich |first=Jeff |date=2013-04-25 |title=10 Essential Heavy Psych Albums |url=https://www.treblezine.com/10-essential-heavy-psych-albums/ |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=Treble |language=en-US}}</ref>

When defined specifically as a hard rock variant of psychedelia, acid rock is distinguished as having evolved from the 1960s garage punk movement, with many of its bands eventually transforming into heavy metal acts.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}}{{refn|group=nb|Exemplary acts of "garagey" psychedelia include Blues Magoos, the Electric Prunes, and the Music Machine, all of which may fall under the label of acid rock.{{sfn|Bisbort|Puterbaugh|2000|p=31}}}} Percussionist John Beck defines "acid rock" as synonymous with hard rock and heavy metal.{{sfn|Beck|2013|p=335}}{{refn|group=nb|Hard rock and heavy metal have been described by writer Steve Valdez as evolving from psychedelic rock.{{sfn|Henderson|Stacey|2014|p=539}}}} The term eventually encompassed heavy, blues-based hard rock bands.{{sfn|Knowles|2010|p=199}} Musicologist Steve Waksman wrote that "the distinction between acid rock, hard rock, and heavy metal can at some point never be more than tenuous".{{sfn|Waksman|2001|p=262}} {{clear left}}

==Origins and ideology== {{Further|Psychedelia|Counterculture of the 1960s}} [[File:A female demonstrator offers a flower to military police on guard at the Pentagon during an anti-Vietnam demonstration. Arlington, Virginia, USA.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|A group of Flower Power demonstrators, 1967]]

Many bands associated with acid rock aimed to create a youth movement based on love and peace, as an alternative to workaholic capitalist society.{{sfn|Szatmary|2014|p={{page needed|date=April 2016}}}} David P. Szatmary states, "a legion of rock bands, playing what became known as 'acid rock,' stood in the vanguard of the movement for cultural change."{{sfn|Szatmary|2014|p=158}} Szatmary also quotes from the ''San Francisco Oracle'', an underground newspaper published between 1966 and 1968, to explain how rock music was perceived at that time and how the acid rock movement emerged: "Rock music is a regenerative and revolutionary art, offering us our first real hope for the future (indeed, for the present)."{{sfn|Szatmary|2014|p=158}}

When played live at dance clubs, performances were accompanied by psychedelic-themed light shows{{sfn|Misiroglu|2015|p=10}} in order to replicate the visual effects of the acid experience.{{sfn|McEneaney|2009|p=45}} According to Kevin T. McEneaney, the Grateful Dead "invented" acid rock in front of a crowd of concertgoers in San Jose, California on December 4, 1965, the date of the second Acid Test held by author Ken Kesey. Their stage performance involved the use of strobe lights to reproduce LSD's "surrealistic fragmenting" or "vivid isolating of caught moments".{{sfn|McEneaney|2009|p=45}} The Acid Test experiments subsequently launched the psychedelic subculture.{{sfn|McEneaney|2009|p=46}} Author Steve Turner recognises the Beatles' success in conveying an LSD-inspired worldview on their 1966 album ''Revolver'', especially with the track "Tomorrow Never Knows", as having "opened the doors" to acid rock.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Steve|title=Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year|year=2016|publisher=HarperLuxe|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-06-249713-0|page=626}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|''Rolling Stone'' attributes the development of the Los Angeles and San Francisco music scenes, including subsequent releases by the Beach Boys, Love and the Grateful Dead, to the influence of ''Revolver'', particularly the song "She Said She Said".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-beatles-songs-20110919/she-said-she-said-19691231 |title=100 Greatest Beatles Songs: 37. 'She Said, She Said'|publisher=rollingstone.com|date=19 September 2011|access-date=16 December 2016}}</ref>}} Former Atlantic Records executive Phillip Rauls recalls: "I was in the music business at the time, and my very first recognition of acid rock ... was, of all people, the Beach Boys and the song 'Good Vibrations' ... That [song's electro theremin] sent so many musicians back to the studio to create this music on acid."{{sfn|Romano|2010|pp=17–18}}{{refn|group=nb|Rauls believed that, at the time, "acid rock" was used to refer to "progressive rock".{{sfn|Romano|2010|pp=17–18}} Writer Vernon Joyson observed flirtations with acid rock in the Beach Boys' albums ''Pet Sounds'' (1966) and the unfinished ''Smile''.{{sfn|Joyson|1984|p=8}}}}

[[File:Jefferson Airplane early 1966.jpg|thumb|right|Jefferson Airplane, early 1966]]

According to Laura Diane Kuhn, the heavier form of psychedelic rock known as acid rock developed from the late 1960s California music scene.{{sfn|Kuhn|1999|p=1507}} The Charlatans were among the first Bay Area acid rock bands. Jefferson Airplane was the first Bay Area acid rock band to sign a major label and achieve mainstream success.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=141–144}} By July 1967, ''Time'' magazine wrote, "From jukeboxes and transistors across the nation pulses the turned-on sound of acid-rock groups: the Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, Moby Grape".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899555-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080203145742/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899555-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 3, 2008 |title=Youth: The Hippies |magazine=Time |issue=July 7, 1967}}{{subscription required}}</ref> In 1968, ''Life'' magazine referred to the Doors as the "kings of acid rock".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Powledge |first=Fred |title=Wicked Go The Doors |magazine=Life |issue=April 12, 1968}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Joyson notes that the Doors' acid rock music was markedly different from their San Francisco contemporaries; that the Doors "took the acid experience less literally".{{sfn|Joyson|1984|p=59}}}}

Other bands credited with creating or laying the foundation for acid rock include garage rock bands such as the 13th Floor Elevators and Count Five.{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}}{{sfn|Moore|2015|p=126}} The blues rock group the Paul Butterfield Blues Band are also credited with spawning the harder acid rock sound,<ref name="northjersey">{{cite web|last1=Roberts|first1=Randall|title=Laying the odds on the Rock Hall of Fame nominees|url=http://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/music/laying-the-odds-on-the-rock-hall-of-fame-nominees-1.635201?page=all|website=NorthJersey.com|access-date=1 May 2016}}</ref> and their 1966 instrumental "East-West", with its early use of the extended rock solo, has been described as laying "the roots of psychedelic acid rock"<ref name="paulbutterfield">{{cite web|last1=Erlewine|first1=Michael|title=East-West Live - The Paul Butterfield Band|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/east-west-live-mw0000184524|website=AllMusic|access-date=1 May 2016}}</ref> and featuring "much of acid-rock's eventual DNA".<ref name="ultimateclassic">{{cite web|last1=Giles|first1=Jeff|title=How the Paul Butterfield Blues Band Earned Its Spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame|url=http://ultimateclassicrock.com/paul-butterfield-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame/|website=Ultimate Classic Rock|date=16 December 2014 |access-date=1 May 2016}}</ref> The Beatles' June 1967 album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' was a major influence on American acid rock groups.{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}}

==Development and characteristics==

=== Garage-psych === {{See also|Garage rock|Garage psychedelia}}

Originating in the early 1960s, garage rock was a mainly-American movement that involved R&B-inspired garage bands powered by electric guitars and organs.<ref name="Hann (Garage Punk)"/> It was mainly the domain of untrained teenagers fixated on sonic effects, such as wah-wah and fuzz tone, and relied heavily on riffs.{{sfn|Reynolds|2012|p=150}} The music later blurred into psychedelia.<ref name="Hann (Garage Punk)">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jul/30/10-of-the-best-garage-punk|title=10 of the best: garage punk|last=Hann|first=Michael|date=July 30, 2014|website=The Guardian|access-date=June 18, 2016}}</ref> American garage bands retained the rawness and energy of garage rock, while incorporating its use of heavy distortion, feedback, and layered sonic effects into their versions of psychedelic music, which spawned early examples of "acid rock".<ref name=garage>{{AllMusic|class=style|id=psychedelic-garage-ma0000002800|label=Psychedelic/Garage}}.</ref> Bisport and Puterbaugh, who defined acid rock as an intense or raw form of psychedelia, include "garagey" psychedelia under the label of "acid rock" due in part to its "energy and intimation of psychic overload".{{sfn|Bisbort|Puterbaugh|2000|p=31}} Exemplary garage-psych acts include Blues Magoos, the Electric Prunes, and the Music Machine.{{sfn|Bisbort|Puterbaugh|2000|p=31}}

{{listen|pos=right |filename=Psychotic Reaction - Count Five.ogg|title=Count Five – "Psychotic Reaction" (1966) |description=Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction", among the first successful acid (or psychedelic) rock songs, contained the characteristics that would come to define acid rock: the use of feedback and distortion replacing early rock music's more melodic electric guitars.{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}} }}

The earliest known use of the terms "garage punk" or "garage rock" appeared in Lenny Kaye's track-by-track liner notes for the 1972 anthology compilation ''Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968'', to describe a song by the Shadows of Knight, as "classic garage punk". At the time, the term "punk rock" referred to the garage rock of the 1960s, with the compilation's liner notes containing one of the earliest known uses of the term.<ref name="austen">{{cite book |last1=Austen |first1=Jake |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYa5olqdl4UC&q=1960s+punk+rock+garage&pg=PA168 |title=TV-a-Go-Go |date=2005 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-1-56976-241-7}}</ref><ref name="billboard">{{cite magazine |last1=Shaw |first1=Greg |date=Jan 14, 1978 |title=New Trends of the New Wave |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=piQEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22acid+rock%22+%22nuggets%22&pg=PT59 |access-date=23 November 2015 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref>{{sfn|Nobles|2012|p=32}} Musicologist Simon Frith cites ''Nuggets'', as a showcase for the garage psychedelia of the 1960s, with the compilation epitomizing an overlap between 1960s garage rock and early psychedelia.{{sfn|Eder|2001|p=95}}{{sfn|Frith|2004|p=98}}{{sfn|Case|2010|p=265}} Bands such as the Count Five, with their 1966 single "Psychotic Reaction", contained some of the earliest characteristics that would later come to define acid rock, such as the emphasizing of guitar feedback and distortion over traditional rock instrumentation.{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}}

Another group included on the ''Nuggets'' album, the 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, Texas, began as a straight garage rock band before becoming one of the original early acid rock bands and pioneers of psychedelic rock in general, with a sound consisting of guitar effects, screeching vocals, and "occasionally demented" lyrics.{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=1135}} Their debut album, ''The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators'', featuring the garage rock hit "You're Gonna Miss Me", was among the earliest psychedelic rock albums.<ref name=miss>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/song/youre-gonna-miss-me-mt0011386883|title=You're Gonna Miss Me - Song review|work=allmusic.com|author=Unterberger, Richie}}</ref>{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=1135}} At around the same time, New York City's the Blues Magoos were referring to their wailing garage and blues rock as "psychedelic music", which would also be increasingly labeled "acid rock".{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}}

Music critic Lester Bangs writing in 1981 in his essay "Protopunk: The Garage Bands" noted that during the mid-1960s, American garage rock bands such as the Count Five, the Seeds, the Standells, the Music Machine and the Electric Prunes began to draw influences from the early psychedelic music scene: "The next phase of protopunk coincided with the rise of psychedelia and the fall of folk rock in 1966. Now the garage bands entered their golden age, as new technical developments like fuzztone and the electric 12-string guitar put truly awesome sonic possibilities within the reach of the most limited musicians. What’s more, just about the time they were also discovering acid, all these guys found out about instant ragas: to approximate the sounds of the mystic East, all they had to do was play scales up and down their fretboards".<ref name=":02">{{cite book |last=Bangs |first=Lester |title=The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll |date=1981 |publisher=Picador Books |isbn=0-679-73728-6 |editor1=Anthony De Curtis |edition=Second |pages=357–361 |chapter=Protopunk: The Garage Bands |quote= |editor2=James Henke}}</ref>

===Distinctions from other psychedelic rock=== {{Main|Psychedelic rock}}

[[File:Jimi Hendrix 1967 uncropped.jpg|thumb|left|Jimi Hendrix performing in 1967]]

Acid rock often encompasses the more extreme side of the psychedelic rock genre, frequently containing a loud, improvised, and guitar-centered sound.{{sfn|Freeman|Freeman|1996|p=10}} Alan Bisbort and Parke Puterbaugh write that acid rock "can best be described as psychedelia at its rawest and most intense ... Bad trips as well as good, riots as well as peace, pain as well as pleasure - the whole spectrum of reality, not just the idyllic bits, were captured by acid rock."{{sfn|Bisbort|Puterbaugh|2000|p=31}} "Acid rock" has also been described as more heavily electric and containing more distortion ("fuzz") than typical psychedelic rock.{{sfn|Luft|2009|p=173}} By the late 1960s, in addition to the deliberate use of distortion and feedback, acid rock was further characterized by long guitar solos and the frequent use of electronic organs.{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}} Lyric references to drug use were also common, as exemplified in Jefferson Airplane's 1967 song "White Rabbit" and Jimi Hendrix Experience's 1967 song "Purple Haze".{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}} Lyrical references to drugs such as LSD were often cryptic.{{sfn|Kuhn|1999|p=1507}}

{{listen | pos = right | filename = Sky Pilot Animals.ogg | title = The Animals – "Sky Pilot" (1968) | description = Crossover in the two major psychedelic rock variants (acid rock and British-influenced psychedelic rock) did occur; the Animals' song "Sky Pilot" was among the few songs of the era to juxtapose the elaborate orchestration of ''Sgt. Pepper''-influenced, British-style psychedelic rock with the more Hendrix-influenced, electric guitar-centered American acid rock style.{{sfn|Perone|2001|p=56}} }}

At a time when many British psychedelic bands played whimsical or surrealistic psychedelic rock, many 1960s American rock bands, especially those from the West Coast, developed a rawer or harder version of psychedelic rock containing garage rock energy.<ref name=garage/> When contrasted with whimsical British psychedelia, this harder American West Coast variant of psychedelic rock has been referred to as acid rock.{{sfn|Brend|2005|p=88}}{{refn|group=nb|British psychedelia was often more arty in its experimentation, and it tended to stick within pop song structures.<ref name=britpsych>{{AllMusic|class=style|id=british-psychedelia-ma0000012038|label=British Psychedelia}}</ref> Along with its whimsical and surrealist tendencies, British psychedelic rock was generally not as minimalist and not as aggressive as its American counterpart, often featuring longer song arrangements and incorporating Eastern instruments such as sitars.<ref name="britannica">{{cite web|last1=O'Brien|first1=Lucy M.|title=Psychedelic Rock|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/psychedelic-rock|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref>}} American psychedelic rock and garage bands such as the 13th Floor Elevators epitomized the frenetic, darker and more psychotic sound of American acid rock, a sound characterized by droning guitar riffs, amplified feedback, and guitar distortion.<ref name="britannica"/> Hoffman writes that acid rock lacked the recording studio "gimmickry" that typified the more Beatles-influenced strain of psychedelic rock, though acid rock experimented in other ways with electrified guitar effects.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}}

Tonal distortion was also one of the defining characteristics of the San Francisco Sound.{{sfn|Dasher|1985|p=67}} The acid rock of the San Francisco Sound heavily incorporated musical improvisation, jamming, repetitive drum beats, experimental sound and tape effects, and intentional feedback.{{sfn|Misiroglu|2015|p=10}} San Francisco acid rock generally took a non-commercial approach to song-writing: it often involved almost free jazz-like, free-form hard rock improvisations alongside distorted guitars, and lyrics often were socially conscious, trippy, or anti-establishment.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=140–141}} Many of the musicians in the scene, including bands such as the Charlatans and the Quicksilver Messenger Service, became involved in Ken Kesey's LSD-driven psychedelic scene, known as the Merry Pranksters.{{sfn|Misiroglu|2015|p=10}}

===Transition to hard rock and heavy metal=== {{Main|Hard rock|Heavy metal music}}

Heavy metal evolved from psychedelic music and acid rock{{sfn|Brown|1986|p=148}} and added psychedelic/acid rock to the basic structure of blues rock.{{sfn|Weinstein|2009|p=19}} In the 1960s, the heavy, blues-influenced, psychedelic hard rock sound of bands such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Deep Purple, and Cream was classified as acid rock.{{sfn|Knowles|2010|p=199}} Other acid rock groups such as Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, and Vanilla Fudge served as examples of early heavy metal, or proto-metal, creating stripped-downed, loud, intense, and "fuzzy" acid rock or hard rock.{{sfn|Knowles|2010|p=199}} Bands such as Blue Cheer, Cream, and the hard rock group The Amboy Dukes have all been described as "leading practitioners" of the harder variant of psychedelic rock known as "acid rock".{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}} Many acid rock bands would subsequently become heavy metal bands.<ref name=AMgenre />

{{listen | pos = left | filename = In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida sample.ogg | title = Iron Butterfly – "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (1968) | description = Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is sometimes described as an example of the transition from acid rock into heavy metal,{{sfn|Rood|1994|p=6}} a movement that proved to be massively influenced by their album of the same name.{{sfn|Bukszpan|Dio|2003|p=288}} }}

The influence of acid rock was evident in the sound of heavy metal in the 1970s.{{sfn|Rood|1994|p=6}} Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is sometimes described as an example of the transition between acid rock and heavy metal{{sfn|Rood|1994|p=6}} or the turning point in which acid rock became "heavy metal".<ref name="houstonpress">{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Nathan|title=The Warning: The 10 Heaviest Albums Before Black Sabbath|url=http://www.houstonpress.com/music/the-warning-the-10-heaviest-albums-before-black-sabbath-6779079|website=Houston Press|access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref> "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" serves a notable example of 1960s and early 1970s acid rock or heavy psychedelia, and the band would continue to experiment with distorted, "fuzzy", heavy psychedelia into the 1970s.{{sfn|Unterberger|2002|p=563}} Both Iron Butterfly's 1968 album ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'' and Blue Cheer's 1968 album ''Vincebus Eruptum'' have been described as influential in the transition of acid rock into heavy metal.{{sfn|Bukszpan|Dio|2003|p=288}} Heavy metal's acid rock origins can further be seen in the loud acid rock of groups such as Steppenwolf, who contributed their song "Born to Be Wild" to the soundtrack of the 1969 film ''Easy Rider'', which itself glamorized the genre.{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}} Ultimately, Steppenwolf and other acid rock groups such as Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Led Zeppelin paved the way for the electrified, bluesy sound of early heavy metal.{{sfn|Kirkpatrick|2011|pp=27–28}}

[[File:Sabs.jpg|thumb|right|Black Sabbath, 1970]]

Coven is an American rock band formed in Chicago in the late 1960s. They had a top 40 hit in 1971 with the song "One Tin Soldier", the theme song of the movie ''Billy Jack.'' In addition to pioneering occult rock with lyrics and aesthetics that explicitly dealt in themes of Satanism and witchcraft, they are recognized by metal fans and metal historians as being the band that introduced the "Sign of the horns" to rock, metal and pop culture, as seen on their 1969 debut album release ''Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 18, 2021 |title=The Forgotten Mother of Metal Music and Birth of the "Devil's Horns" |url=https://atomicredhead.com/2021/08/18/the-forgotten-mother-of-metal-music-and-birth-of-the-devils-horns/ |access-date=June 15, 2023 |website=Atomic Redhead |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Trapp |first=Philip |date=April 21, 2021 |title=Where Did Metal's 'Devil Horns' Hand Gesture Really Come From? |url=https://loudwire.com/where-did-metal-devil-horns-hand-come-from/ |access-date=June 15, 2023 |website=Loudwire |language=en}}</ref> By the early 1970s, bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath combined the loud, raw distortion of acid rock with occult lyrics, further forming a basis for the genre now known as "heavy metal".{{sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=687}} At a time when rock music began to turn back to roots-oriented soft rock, many acid rock groups instead evolved into heavy metal bands.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}} As its own movement, heavy metal music continued to perpetuate characteristics of acid rock bands into at least the 1980s,{{sfn|Dasher|1985|p=67}} and traces of psychedelic rock can be seen in the musical excesses of later metal bands.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2004|p=1725}} In the 1990s, the stoner metal genre combined acid rock with other hard rock genres such as grunge, updating the heavy riffs and long jams found in the acid rock and psychedelic-influenced metal of bands such as Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Hawkwind, and Blue Öyster Cult.<ref name=AMStonerrock/>

In addition to hard rock and heavy metal, acid rock also gave rise to the progressive rock movement.{{sfn|Godfrey|Leigh|1998|p=2}} In the 1970s, elements of psychedelic music split into two notable directions, evolving into the hard rock and heavy metal of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin on one side and into the progressive rock of bands such Pink Floyd and Yes on the other.{{sfn|Henderson|Stacey|2014|p=539}} Bands such as Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer kept the psychedelic musical movement alive for some time, but eventually moved away from drug-themed music towards experiments in electronic music and the addition of classical music themes into rock music.{{Sfn|Browne|Browne|2001|p=8}}

==List of artists== {{Main|List of acid rock artists}}

==Footnotes== {{reflist|group=nb}}

==References== {{Reflist|20em}}

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History|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317477297|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4KsBwAAQBAJ&q=%22acid+rock%22+music&pg=PA10}} * {{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Hank|title=Houston Legends: History and Heritage of Dynamic Global Capitol|date=2015|publisher=Morgan James Publishing|isbn=9781630474690|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UCLbBQAAQBAJ&q=%22acid+rock%22+%2213th+floor%22&pg=PA126}} *{{cite book |first=Mark A. |last=Nobles |title=Fort Worth's Rock and Roll Roots |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLDefXZ98poC&pg=PA32 |date=2012 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-8499-7 }} * {{cite book|last1=Perone|first1=James E.|title=Songs of the Vietnam Conflict|date=2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313315282|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHQqoUcbd8gC&q=%22acid+rock%22+%22british%22+hendrix+vietnam&pg=PA56|access-date=27 April 2016}} *{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |title=Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o5wGKnxoTAwC&pg=PT150 |year=2012 |publisher=Counterpoint LLC |isbn=978-1-59376-477-7 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} * {{cite book|author=Rolling Stone Magazine Staff |chapter=Talking with the Legend of Rock and Roll (Jerry Garcia) |title=The Rolling Stone Interviews: 1967–1980 |date=15 September 1989 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-03486-5}} * {{cite book|last1=Romano|first1=Will|title=Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock|date=2010|publisher=Backbeat Books|location=Milwaukee, WI|isbn=978-0-87930-991-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2lVMAgAAQBAJ|page=17}} * {{cite book|last1=Rood|first1=Karen Lane|title=American culture after World War II|date=1994|publisher=Gale Research|isbn=9780810384811|url=https://archive.org/details/americanculturea00rood|url-access=registration|quote=but its influence is apparent in the heavy-metal sound.}} * {{cite book|last1=Unterberger|first1=Richie|title=All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul|date=2002|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=9780879306533|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-pH4i3jXvAC&q=%22ultimate+spinach%22+%22acid+rock%22&pg=PA1172}} * {{cite book|last1=Weinstein|first1=Deena|title=Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture|date=2009|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=9780786751037|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ag-T6ppMowC&q=%22acid+rock%22+%22heavy+metal%22&pg=PA16}} * {{cite book|last1=Waksman|first1=Steve|title=Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience|date=2001|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674005471|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DWxyYapaBwC&q=%22acid+rock%22+%22hard+rock%22+%22heavy+metal%22&pg=PA262}} * {{cite book|last=Wolfe |first=Tom |title=The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test |year=1968 |publisher=Black Swan |isbn=0-552-99366-2}} * {{Cite book|title = Rockin' in time: a social history of rock-and-roll|last = Szatmary|first = David P.|publisher = Pearson|year = 2014}} * {{cite book|title=Academic American Encyclopedia|date=1985|publisher=Grolier|edition=Vol 16}} *{{cite book|ref=fuzz|title=Fuzz, Acid and Flowers: A Comprehensive Guide to American Garage, Psychedelic and Hippie Rock (1964–1975)|year=1997 |publisher=Borderline }} {{refend}} {{Psychedelic music}} {{Rock music}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acid Rock}} Category:Acid rock Category:Psychedelic rock Category:20th-century music genres Category:1960s in American music Category:1960s neologisms Category:Rock music genres Category:American styles of music