This compilation will focus on the development of psychedelic rock over the years, from when it gained popularity in the 1960s to today. This genre originated from the attempts to imitate perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs and utilized electronic sound effects and new recording techniques that were not a part of traditional rock. I became interested in this corpus partly because of Tame Impala, who is one of my favorite artists. After watching a video that dissected the multiple layers of his hit song "The Less I Know The Better", I wanted to dive deeper into the structure of this genre and understand exactly what and how popular artists are producing such music.
My corpus will consist of popular psychedelic rock bands across distinct periods: The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, MGMT, and Tame Impala. I expect that the latter two groups will have a different style from the former two groups, as the advance in technology might have contributed to the development in electronic music techniques. Yet, I imagine that the use of electric guitars will stay constant throughout the eras. Even though I am planning on analyzing four bands in this corpus, it definitely does not cover the entirety of the genre. Psychedelic rock was the most popular when it first began in 1960s, but it died down in the 70s and 80s. As a result, there wasn't any notable tracks produced during those eras until it resurged in the 2000s. I would consider this a limitation of my corpus -- I would love to discuss the changes to the genre when it was not as popular, but I mainly want to focus on the different layers of its composition.
I also have not decided on individual tracks yet, but I do believe that Tame Impala's "The Less I Know The Better" will be one of them because of its widespread popularity and unique techniques.