Monday, April 20, 2009

What is Psych Folk Music?

     For anyone who has lived through or studied the changing mentality that affected so much of everything in the 1960, it is easily understandable that a number of musical styles and sounds developed and then died away during this time. The 60s were the heyday of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and PCP, and these hallucinogens affected the type of music preferred by their users. 

      Psychedelic is a termed used for these specific types of things because the word refers to experiences of unknown types of thoughts, sounds and images, usually restricted to the mind. It offers a creative freedom of sorts. So, when referring to music, a genre called psychedelic rock was a style that was meant to recreate the interesting effects of the drugs. The surreal music made use of electric and slide guitars and concerts for the music featured imaginative effects and creative but bizarre backgrounds. In a time of such political and emotional turmoil, the mentality of peace and love over war also effected the psychedelic musical movement.
 
     When two popular styles of music, psychedelic rock and folk, were mixed together, a new creation came about. Psych Folk rose to popularity in the 60s and was greatly influenced by both American and British artists. A strong wave of Psych Folk hit the charts during the well known British Invasion. Psych Folk is an interesting mix of folk style song lyrics combined with the surreal musical effects of the psychedelic rock. The topics of Psych Folk, much like the popular topics of the time period, usually centered around nature, peace, love, and harmony as opposed to war and strife.
 
    Psych Folk remained popular through the decade, but began to lose listeners by the 70s when the public wanted a different sound. Many of the Psych Folk singers of the 60s worked to create a new image for themselves, and thus was born the genre of folk rock. In Britain, electric rock was the result of the revamping of Psych Folk. This new form of rock was the preferred genre of many well know bands, such as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and The Byrds. The song stylings of these popular folk rock bands were greatly influenced by the Psych Folk bands that came before.
 
     In the 21st century, the almost dead genre of Psych Folk found a revival as people began to turn their eyes toward all things retro. New Psych Folk bands have emerged and have found strong cult followings.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Heal Your Body and Your Spirit

We’ve often discussed the many ways that music can help to benefit the health and well being of the soul, and today we’re going to reiterate some of the information we’ve passed along about the physical and mental benefits that music can provide people suffering not only from common illness, but mental and emotional stresses as well. In fact, we believe that music and art can provide healing therapies that many traditional medicines often overlook. If you’re interested in learning more about how music and art therapy can help you, read on for more information.

You may find it interesting to note that art and music are both utilized in a wide variety of therapies. Professional therapists often use both music and art in their efforts to heal the human mind. Because the human mind such a complicated machine, the utilization of simple tools like music and art for healing proves fascinating to most.

If you're interested in learning more about the potential of music to heal your ailments, consider doing your own homework and your own research on the healing power of certain genres of music. You may believe that music therapy and music in healing is a hokey alternative choice to mainstream medicine. However, thanks to scientific evidence proving the success of music therapy, even the skeptics have to stop and take notice.

In order to reap the benefits music can offer in terms of health and well-being, one should select music that relieves tension and can help the body relaxed. In most cases, individuals who choose hard rock or heavy metal music do not reap healing benefits. However, individuals who select music of the more soothing genre find themselves with a noticeable relief of symptoms in a relatively short period of time. Typically, artists who promote peace and all-encompassing human ideals produce music that can be counted among the healthy.

It is argued that music can relieve levels of stress they are by improving symptoms and relieving subsequent elements elsewhere in the body. Either way, the key to finding healing through music is simple as selecting the right music.