The Grateful Dead and Friedrich Nietzsche: Transformation in Music and Consciousness
Stanley J. Spector
December 15, 2012 DOI: 10.4000/volume.3290 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the Grateful Dead's jamming transformed traditional jazz improvisation into a new style of playing that led to the composition of psychedelic rock, and that this musical shift was grounded in a broader shift in consciousness and ontology characteristic of the 1960s counterculture. |
Abstract
More than any other of the San Francisco bands from the mid 1960’s, the Grateful Dead have been identified as the quintessential psychedelic rock band. In this paper, I discuss how their mode of improvising, what has been called jamming, while incorporating the traditional jazz modes of improvisation is actually a transformation in a style of playing music. Playing in this new style eventually led the band to compose a new kind of music—psychedelic rock. Underlying the transformation in the way they played and in the songs they composed is a shift in consciousness with a corresponding shift in ontology that is one of the markers of the 1960’s counterculture.