Freakbeat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Freakbeat is a subgenre of rock music that was at its peak between the years 1966 and 1970.

The term was created many years after the fact, by a music writer describing an era that can be seen as the missing link between the early to mid-1960s mod/R&B scene, and the psychedelic rock and progressive rock genres that emerged in the late 1960s. Many freakbeat bands could also be described as being part of the garage rock genre.

As guitar-based rock and roll and pop music morphed into rock music and psychedelic rock in the mid to late 1960s, freakbeat emerged as a definable subgenre of its own. The music was typically created by four-piece beat music combos experimenting with newly-emerging studio production techniques.

The scene was more prevalent in the United Kingdom than the United States, unusually centred around a scene consisting of of a series of venues in the London suburb of Bexleyheath. The defining elements of the freakbeat sound include: muscular productions with strong direct drum beats, loud and frenzied guitar riffs, extreme effects such as fuzztone and flanging, distortion, and compression and phasing on the vocals or drums.

Key proponents of freakbeat music included The Creation, The Move, Fire, and the Wimple Winch.