Italian Progressive Rock as Indigenous Psychedelia

Abstract

ABSTRACTProgressive rock was Italy’s manifestation of psychedelic music. The product of a meeting of conservatory-trained musicians and countercultural interests, progressive rock constituted much of the soundtrack to Italy’s own psychedelic renaissance as expressed in rock festivals and youth activism. More grounded in classical and Italian song traditions than in the blues, this music represented Italy’s psychedelicizing its own heritage. It was another mode of psychedelic rock, more cerebral and formal than unbridled and improvisational. Understanding progressive rock as Italy’s psychedelic music acknowledges the existence of different versions of psychedelia around the world and raises the idea of indigenous psychedelias.