La psichedelia come forma simbolica. Musica e costrutti culturali

Compared to other rock subgenres, so-called ‘psychedelic’ music repertoires are not consistent in themselves, nor they are stylistically autonomous. As a matter of fact, most elements in psychedelic rock (praxis, materials, etc.) are not even exclusive of one specific musical idiom; but specific musicians and listeners are used to perceiving certain stylistic features as inherent to their subculture. In this musical field, semiotic interpretations often fail if based on non-specific elements, which come to be considered for their alleged meanings. Similarly, the implied relationships between psychedelic rock and the lysergic experience — as expressed by musicians, music-producers, journalists and fans alike — are frequently inconsistent or controversial.
Nurtured by philosophic and phenomenological concepts, psychedelic culture seems to express musical messages in more symbolic than strictly semiotic ways, like content in search of form. Nevertheless, the symbolic and philosophical system underlying psychedelic rock is recognizable inasmuch as it is culturally determined. Its musical identity is conceivable as a ‘symbolic form’ comparable to the invention of linear perspective in Renaissance art as described by Erwin Panofsky: i.e. as an approach to a new, deeper dimension in perception and knowledge, by means of symbolic, illusionistic artifices.

Keywords: Psychedelia, History of Rock, Semiotics of Music, Phenomenology, Iconology