The Top 100 Psychedelic Rock Artists of All Time - Psychedelic Scene Magazine (2024)

• Jason LeValley with Bill Kurzenberger and Rob Cook
• September 9, 2021
• 8:52 pm

Here’s a list of of what I’m calling the “Top 100 Psychedelic Rock Acts of All Time.” For serious psychedelic fans—as well as the artists and bands I’ve chosen—I hope that making it onto my list is viewed as an auspicious designation. Which is also why I’ve identified criteria for who’s on the list and who isn’t. Basically the criteria are: Quality of Psychedelic Output (How good is the psychedelic material produced by this act?), Quantity of Psychedelic Output (How many psychedelic albums/songs did the act produce?), and the Psych Factor (How psychedelic is the artist’s material?)

A fourth criterion, one could argue, might be Influence (Did an artist or band have any influence on psychedelic music overall?) I did give influence some weight, but not as much, because for the most part, those acts did not have and are not known for their overall psychedelic sound. Case in point: There’s no doubt The Byrds had a strong influence on psychedelic rock; they released what is generally considered to be the first psychedelic single, “Eight Miles High”, in early 1966. The success of that song influenced rock’s future by inspiring other artists to make psychedelic music. But The Byrds were primarily a folk-rock and country-rock act with only occasional psychedelic elements.

Quality rating is also naturally somewhat subjective. It’s a bit easier to rate quality, though, than the Psych Factor because there are generally agreed-upon resources to measure how good an album is. I used the rating system on AllMusic.com. Albums on that site are given from one to five stars by an AllMusic critic. And website users can also weigh in using the five-star system; so you can see the cumulative score of multiple music listeners along with the critic’s rating. You’ll notice that highly rated albums that are not at all psychedelic do not count regardless of their quality; but songs with psychedelic elements are included and rated.

The Psych Factor is subjective, but there are clear degrees of psychedelia in music. For instance, I think it can be agreed upon that a song like “I Am the Walrus” is more psychedelic than, say, Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul”, which is psychedelic primarily by the fuzzed-out lead guitar sound.

It’s worth mentioning, I think, that some readers may be surprised Janis Joplin isn’t included. She was so iconic and such an integral part of the late 60’s music scene, but her musical style wasn’t psychedelic. It was blues-rock and, at that time, even considered hard-rock. However, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis’s first band, is on this list because some of their guitar work contained psychedelic overtones.

I’m predicting Baby Boomer fans will be surprised by who got the No. 1 spot—because (gasp!) it’s not a 60’s band. But, in this writer’s well-informed opinion, there’s been no other band making such purposely high-quality psychedelic rock for as long as this one. See what you think.

Related: The Top 200 Psychedelic Rock Songs of All-Time

Related: The Top 15 Psychedelic Songs by The Beatles

Related: The 100 Best Psychedelic Rock Albums of the Golden Age