Freakbeat

For the compilation, see English Freakbeat series.

Freakbeat is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music developed mainly by harder-driving British mod groups during the British Invasion and Swinging London period of the mid-to late 1960s. The genre bridges R&B, beat and early psychedelia.^[1][2]

"Freak-out music" redirects here. For other uses, see Freak Out (disambiguation).

Freakbeat
Other names	Freak beat
Stylistic origins	British Invasion R&B beat garage rock psychedelic rock
Cultural origins	Mid-1960s, United Kingdom
Other topics
British rock English Freakbeat series music of the United Kingdom (1960s) Nederbeat Nederpop

Etymology

During the mid-to late 1960s, music publications used the term "freak-out music" to describe a subset of psychedelic rock bands. In the United Kingdom, NME referred to the Creation as "freak-out music", though the writer stated the group "denied categorically that they're anything to do with the freak-out scene".^[3][4] In drug slang, "freak-out" referred to having a "bad trip".^[5] In December 1966, Beat Instrumental wrote a piece on freak-out music, stating:^[4]

This “freak-out” music takes a bit of explaining. Count Five, with their hit “Psychotic Reaction,” have already made it onto the charts in both America and Britain. The Fingers, Kim Fowley, the Yardbirds, John’s Children, and the Monkees are also part of this growing movement making an impact on the charts. But the Mothers of Invention are regarded as the most way-out of them all.

In 1986, English music journalist Phil Smee would coin "freakbeat" when compiling the Rubble series of compilations to retrospectively define mid-1960s British "freak-out" music.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} AllMusic writes that "freakbeat" is loosely defined, but generally describes the more obscure but hard-edged artists of the British Invasion era.^[2][11][12]

Compilations

Much of the material collected on Rhino Records's 2001 box-set compilation Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 can be classified as freakbeat.^[13]

The English Freakbeat series is a group of five compilation albums, released in the late 1980s, that were issued by AIP Records. The LPs featured recordings that were released in the mid-1960s by English rock bands in R&B and beat genres. The series served as a follow-up to the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP, itself subtitled The Roots of Mod, which was the only album in the Pebbles series that was devoted to English music. When the English Freakbeat series was reissued as CDs in the 1990s, the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP was adapted into the English Freakbeat, Volume 6 CD.^{[citation needed][14][15][16]}

See also

• Psychedelic freakout
• Swinging Sixties
• Brown acid
• Peacock revolution
• Mod (subculture)