Psychedelic soul

Psychedelic soul (originally called black rock or conflated with psychedelic funk) is a form of soul music which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s. The style saw African-American soul musicians embrace elements of psychedelic rock, including its production techniques, instrumentation, effects units such as wah-wah and phasing, and drug influences. It came to prominence in the late 1960s and continued into the 1970s, playing a major role in the development of funk and disco.

Pioneering acts working in the genre included Sly and the Family Stone, Isaac Hayes, the Temptations, the Chambers Brothers, and Parliament-Funkadelic.

Etymology

In 1967, New York band the Freak Scene used the phrase "psychedelic soul" as the title of their debut album, Psychedelic Psoul, stylized as "psoul". However, the term "psychedelic soul" to refer to a style of music would be coined the following year in 1968. In 1972, British magazine Beat Instrumental wrote a piece on the Temptations, stating that when Dennis Edwards replaced David Ruffin in 1968, the group began branching out into "what was then christened 'psychedelic soul' by the media."

History

Origins

Following the lead of Jimi Hendrix as he moved from soul to psychedelic rock, the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s began to have a widespread impact on African-American musicians, particularly the stars of the Motown label. Influenced by the civil rights movement, this style had a darker and more political edge than much contemporary psychedelic rock. The Temptations and their producer Norman Whitfield moved from a relatively light vocal group into more hard-edged and topical material like "Cloud Nine" (1968), "Runaway Child, Running Wild" (1969), and "Psychedelic Shack" (1969). Sly and the Family Stone also helped pioneer the sound with songs like "Dance to the Music" (1968), "Everyday People" (1968) and "I Want to Take You Higher" (1969), which combined psychedelic rock with funk and emphasized distorted electric guitar and strong basslines.