Chosen Song and Genre

                                                                                                                                 
 The song I have chosen to make my video for is "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" by Australian psychedelic band Tame Impala. The song is from the bands 2012 album “Lonerism” and is probably their best known song. The song already has a video directed by Joe Pelling & Becky Sloan; however this video consists entirely of animation, therefore this is a feature I shall try to avoid in the production of my own video.

Psychedelic music originates from the hippie and psychedelic sub-culture that developed in the 60’s. It aimed to replicate the mind altering experiences of psychedelic drugs such as marijuana, LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. Psychedelic music tends to feature effected guitar sounds, studio recording effects, surreal, drug related or literary inspired lyrics, the use of synthesizers, more complex song structure than standard pop songs, focus on instrumental parts of songs and eastern musical influence; such as drones and the use of Indian instruments such as sitars. Some key artists of the original psychedelic movement included The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, early Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart.  

Towards the end of the 60’s and into the 70’s the popularity of psychedelic music started to die out with the end of the mainstream hippy movement and the illegalisation of most drugs. However its influence could still be heard in other forms of music into the 70’s such as heavy rock, glam rock and progressive rock. Psychedelic music received a revival into the early 80’s post-punk era known as neo-psychedelia through key artists such as The Teardrop Explodes and albums such as Siouxie and The Banshee’s “A Kiss In the Dream House”. Since then psychedelic music has had some sort of influence on popular music cultures; such as its influence on the late 80’s/early 90’s dance influenced “Madcheshter” scene bands such as The Happy Mondays, the 60’s influenced bands such as The Stone Roses from the same era and also “Shoegaze” bands in the late 80’s such as My Bloody Valentine that mixed elements of psychedelic music with noise rock and post-punk. Neo-psych has gained particular attention again in recent years through the popularity of bands such as Temples, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Allah La’s and also the brimming psychedelic scene in Perth, Australia where Tame Impala and their fellow Australians Pond come from.