Psychedelia
Hallucinogens trip into mainstream music
Written by Kylie Hynes, Contributing Writer
Illustration by Delilah Quasius, Contributing Illustrator and Designer
Content warning: Moda Madison does not condone the use of psychedelic drugs for recreational purposes. Information for this article was taken from scholarly sources, with respect to the roots of indigenous communities that have utilized these practices for thousands of years.
When I think about psychedelics, a particular aesthetic comes to mind. Swirling pinks and oranges, kaleidoscopic patterns and flowers galore. Trippy motifs, full of color and movement. Mind-altering, trance-inducing plants and pills leave the mind hazy and sharp at the same time. Psychedelics not only created their own aesthetic but an entire subculture in the 1960s referred to as “psychedelia.” This psychedelic craze had music, art and style singing LSD’s mind-altering tune in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but recent years have seen a revival of psychedelia culture, especially in music.
LSD’s unmatched ability to enhance creativity and the listening experience not only revolutionized the music-making process but the entire music industry. Ever since its synthesis in 1938 by Albert Hoffman, psychedelics bloomed into a revolution in the 1960s, launching dozens of genres and sounds that focused on acid, shrooms and all of the portals they opened (Gordon, 2020).
Both histories have been forever intertwined, so it’s not surprising that pairing the use of psychedelics with music can explain the success of some of the world’s most famous musicians. According to psychedelic researcher Mendel Kaelen, hallucinogens and music can be such a powerful combination because listeners become more responsive to the message intrinsically carried in music under the effects of psychedelics (Gordon, 2020).
What ties together the acid-inspired music of past decades past and modern music are the effects of psychedelic drugs, namely LSD, on the brain. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known as acid, disrupts the serotonergic system, which stretches to the brain’s visual and auditory processing centers, influencing both how we see and what we hear (Weiss, 2018). This is why music inspired by LSD tends to recreate the experience of a psychedelic trip.
Psychedelics elicit an emotional response to sound that makes the drug so effective at inspiring artists. While LSD’s visual effects are evident in lyrics, the drug’s auditory effects are perceptible in the sound of the music itself. Due to the drug’s disruption of the temporal and posterior frontal cortical areas, LSD can make sounds echo and bleed into different sounds (Weiss, 2018). More generally, acid leads to a loss of the inhibitions usually placed on the brain’s visual and auditory systems, eliciting sounds and images otherwise inaccessible.
The creative freedom prompted by the use of psychedelics has inspired artists and their music for decades. In the same way the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Doors, Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan frequently and ardently expressed their love for the infamous psychedelic substance in the ‘60s, modern musicians have been increasingly transparent about the way the same drugs have influenced their creative processes.
In the latter half of the last decade, psychedelic influences have reemerged in nearly every genre of music. LSD is no longer limited to the psychedelic genres it created in the ‘60s but has inspired all kinds of musicians to defy the conventions of their genres. Notable artists like Travis Scott, Harry Styles and Kacey Musgraves, amongst others, have been outspoken about their use of LSD in the making of their most successful albums.
If the psychedelia aesthetic were personified, Harry Styles would be it. From his music itself to his album covers to his fashion choices, the pop star is everything psychedelia represents. Though I’m not sure I ever thought I’d see the clean-cut One Directioner have any connection to psychedelics, his “Fine Line” album and the story of its making proved me wrong. Styles told Rolling Stone in a 2018 profile that he’d taken a lot of shrooms at the Shangri-La studio in Malibu while recording “Fine Line.” During his music-making process, he would listen to the old psychedelic greats while tripping and lying in the grass (Gordon, 2020).
Equally fond of the use of LSD in their song-writing process is country/folk star Kacey Musgraves, whose grammy-winning album “Golden Hour” was inspired by an acid trip. Having listened to this album, perhaps too many times, it’s not difficult to hear the influence of psychedelics in her lyrics, especially in songs like “Slow Burn” and “Oh, What a World,'' which both allude to and explicitly mention psychedelics. Speaking affectionately of LSD, Musgraves mentioned once in an interview that the drug “opens your mind in a lot of ways. It doesn’t have to be scary,” proving that her Instagram handle isn’t @spaceykacey for nothing (Gordon, 2020).
Clearly unafraid of LSD, rapper Travis Scott is an outspoken proponent of the substance. After releasing “Astroworld,” his wildly successful psychedelic rap album, Scott describes his next album as “psychedelic rock.” As someone who has been transparent about his use of LSD and is familiar with its effects on the mind, it’s no surprise that Scott is talented at creating similar experiences for his listeners. Scott and his audio engineers understand how to create a sound space to feel like mixing channels that never stop—giving the illusion that the sounds are surrounding you—making listeners feel like they really are inside a virtual space of a drugged-out haze (The Fordham Ram, 2021).
Because the influence of psychedelia in music extends far beyond these three musicians and their respective genres, it’s undeniable that psychedelics have changed the music industry in more ways than one. Whether the sounds of the music itself are taking you on a trip or the lyrics leave your head in the clouds, the influence of psychedelics is ingrained in the way we make and experience music. Legendary musicians of the past and iconic present artists created and revived the colorful, creative and boundary-breaking culture of psychedelia.
Sources:
Gordon, E. (2020). 13 musicians Influenced by Psychedelics. Popdust.
Kaye, C. (2020). The Modern Musician's Psychedelic Influence. Truffle Report.
N.a. (2021). Welcome to Astroworld: Travis Scott's Psychedelic Rap Playground. The Fordham Ram.
Weiss, S. (2018). This is what LSD does to a Musician's Creative Process. VICE.
Williams, H. (2018). How LSD Influenced Western Culture. BBC Culture.