FRtR > Essays > The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol Connection > - 3

The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol Connection - 3



*** Quote ***

The Music scene in the USA at the end of the sixties

The pop music scene in The USA was split in to three main scenes in the middle of the sixties.

  1. Folk Rock Scene that mainly came out from Greenwhich Village, a part of New York, with Bob Dylan as one of several central persons (1965 - 6).
  2. The San Francisco Sound (1966 - 7) was a natural wanderer of The Folk Rock Sound, but they brought in more Beatlesque harmonies in their music.The Beach Boys and Jefferson Airplane are good examples of the San Francisco Sound.
  3. On the West Coast (Los Angeles) there was also an active scene with bands like Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and The Doors.
Jim Morrison of The Doors was the first man who took real theater on to the rock stage. Morrison was inspired by Greek Theater and he gave improvised performances out of shorthand scripts moving as the occasion and the audience and the spirit allowed at their concerts.
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were more into highly advanced pop music with ironic and politically views on the society.

The bands from Los Angeles had more in common with The Velvet Underground, but they still where quite different. The Mothers of Invention were very accurate in their playing. The Velvets were more abstract and their songs sounded almost different each time. The Doors were also abstract, but particularly Jim Morrison had a very entertaining side. The Velvets where more introvert than any other band at the time. But the biggest difference between the west coast bands and the Velvets must be the volume that the bands played on. The Velvets always turned their amps up to the highest level, and the audiences that saw them had never heard anything as loud as the way the Velvets sound.

The Velvet Underground was also part of a small but not a particularly active rock music scene. Other bands who started in New York City around the Velvets where the Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders. Except these bands the Velvets rather hung out with people who where more in to other kind of music style`s and art.

previous - next