The Velvet Underground: Sonic Innovation, Cultural Commentary, and the shaping of Musical Identity.
The Velvet Underground, by definition were an avant-garde force that emerged from the bustling streets of New York City during the late 60’s, in a period of just 4 years they were able to push the boundaries of what was expected of rock music with pioneering albums such as the proto punk of 1967’s ‘Velvet Underground and Nico’, the edge of rock sound of ‘White Light/White Heat’, but were also not afraid of sounding like a band far removed from anything contemporary with their own shaping of what would later be described as the indie genre, such as the twee pop, DIY ethos and childlike whimsy of songs like ‘I’m Sticking with you ’, ‘Who Loves the sun’, and ‘After Hours’, seen on their 3rd and 4th albums. (1)
The Velvet Underground's groundbreaking sonic innovations and fearless exploration of taboo subjects mark them as a significant chapter in music history. This essay analyzes their distinctive qualities in sound, vocals, and lyrics, examining the band through a multitude of theorists from Cixious to Barthes, Gilbert to Dyer etc.
Unravelling the Distinctive Soundscapes of The Velvet Underground.
The Wikipedia definition of music is defined as ‘vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion:’ (3)
But under the surface of music, sonic qualities are the distinctive characteristics of the music you are experiencing, and these influence the effect of the music on the listener and the perception of the music itself. Specific examples include pitch, volume, texture, duration, to name a few.
So how did The Velvet Underground who arrived on the scene with their 1967 debut album ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico’ use the previously mentioned attributes to shape such a pioneering and groundbreaking album. Referring to the classwork in which we viewed ‘Good Vibrations: The Science of Sound’ published by the World Science Festival (4) the video opens with the duo ‘Polygraph Lounge’ performing on stage and describing through song the perception of what is considered ‘music’ and what is considered ‘sound’ can be easily blurred. The example they utilize is a car alarm which accompanied with dance moves at the correct timing can easily give the vibe of a song with rhythm that one could dance and vibe with, whereas on its own most individuals would just consider this a polluting noise. Using this example that the soundscape the Velvet Underground occupy in, it being the dark counterpoint to at the time what was Sixties West Coast love, peace, and harmony, the publics first perception of the avant-garde unease of ‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’ and its dissonant combination of screeching viola and jittery guitar feedback mirrors the affect that one might have to something as abstract as a bothersome car alarm. Whilst specifically in 1967 the air of Beatlemania was at full frenzy both sides of the Atlantic, bands like ‘The Rolling Stones’ and ‘The Who’ in their infancy were showing what Rock music could be like as a dominant force, the Velvet Underground were pioneering what Rock music could be light years away.
Considering the auditory characteristics mentioned prior, The Velvet Underground used each one to create a genre-bending discography. The question is how they managed to make such a sound and in turn create such an effect. By considering the means of jouissance and Barthes theories of ‘the grain of the voice,’ they combine to allow an explanation into the sound of the Velvets and the affect the signature sound of this band has.
Even before their eponymous 1967’s The Velvet Underground and Nico’, through the first EP released by the band 1966’s ‘Loop’ (5) the public were served an introduction into what would emerge as ‘drone music’, inspired by the works of legendary avant-garde composers like Phil Niblock who described this signature sound as: “No harmony. No melody. No rhythm. No bullshit.” He later expanded on that philosophy by explaining it was about creating a “richer experience in terms of sensing the differences that occur.”
This 1966 EP contained the song ‘Heroin’ which would later be included on the first album released by the band: “Reed had written it way back in ’64, and his partnership with Cale – which allowed the influence of drone music to unfurl – provided fertile ground to experiment musically.
With no bass guitar and only two chords, it was discordant and frantic – aided by the drone of Cale’s electric viola. Somehow, even though it was technically restrained – the song was a marvel, with textured elements overlapping and clashing to significant effect. While Niblock’s compositions were more avant-garde than the heavy rock track, his defining principles were very much evident.” (6)
In Pleasure of the text (7) Barthes describes jouissance as split into two effects. jouissance being “Bliss” and plaisir meaning “pleasure”, applying these to The Velvet Underground through Andrew Blake’s 1999 exploration “Living through Pop” citing the words of Jeremy Gilbert (7) he compares Barthe’s theory of ‘Grain of the Voice’ to a consideration of The Velvet Underground “they were the original noise band, the first to explore the timbral possibilities of electric amplification (of guitars, organ, even voila), “ If rock music's most significant contribution to the exploration of grain is the exploration of electric distortion, then the Velvets can claim an unrivalled importance in the history of that exploration. At their most memorable moments (Sister Ray above all). He goes on to add: “noise and static overturns every convention of bourgeois song, always teetering on the brink of chaos, without ever collapsing into the white noise of a sound that – imagining that it can escape altogether music’s metaphysical moorings – would lose itself entirely in the primal roar. Deconstruction.”
Additionally, while the Velvet’s multifaceted use of noise and feedback is a widely credited attribute when discussing their sonic innovations, other ways The Velvets continued to pioneer new ground was through a range of eclectic vocal styles. When we consider the deadpan spoken vocals of John Cale in ‘The Gift’ (8) over 8 minutes of absurd guitar innovation, this song, however uncompromising it is in subject matter it still falls into the feeling of jouissance, bring a plaisir of morbid fascination and discomfort as the death of ‘Waldo Jeffers’ is the unsettling conclusion of the track, It mirrors Barthe’s exploration of the complex and multifaceted nature of vocal enjoyment.
The Androgynous stomp of The Velvet Underground
In the long-charted history of rock music, certain bands stand out not only for their sonic innovation but also for their profound impact on the socio-cultural discourse of their time, this could not be more accurate for the Velvets. The Velvet Underground can be viewed through a lens as a kind of ‘Androgynous Rock.’ From this perspective Jeremery Gilbert writes: “it remains the androgyny of their music that enables them to affect such a radical problematization of the masculine-heterosexual imperatives of rock discourse. (9) With this principal statement in mind, looking to examples of work from individuals such as Helene Cixious and her work on Poststructuralist feminism theory and ‘In Defense of Disco’ by Richard Dyer allows for an understanding of what links The Velvets with ‘Androgenous Rock.’
Anti-essentialist feminism is a theoretical approach within feminism that challenges the notion of essentialism, which posits that there are inherent and fixed qualities, characteristics, or attributes that define the experiences and identities of individuals based on their gender. Essentialism often leads to generalizations and stereotypes about women and men, reinforcing rigid and limiting gender roles.
Anti-essentialist feminism, on the other hand, rejects the idea that there are universal and fixed qualities that define what it means to be a woman or a man. Instead, it emphasizes the diversity of women's experiences and recognizes that gender identities and roles are socially constructed and fluid.
Along the same lines, Helene Cixious builds on this idea and defines that “In her search for the ecriture feminine —a feminine writing practice — Cixous suggests that such a feminine writing can never be “theorized enclosed, coded.” This writing can help escape (what she terms a “sortie”) to an “elsewhere” beyond the oppressive identities of binarism's (10)
With this understanding in mind, linking this specifically to an understanding of The Velvet Underground. Lou Reed feels comfortable to put himself in the shoes of the feminine perspective through songs like ‘Lady Godiva’s Operation’ and ‘Candy Says,’ (11), (12) It is one of four songs Lou Reed explicitly wrote in the voice of a female character, in the case of "Candy Says", a transgender women telling her experiences, The song addresses Warhol factory figure Candy Darling and her desire to escape her birth gender.
Even when songs are sung from the perspective of what is perceived as dominant culture or specifically from a straight white males' perspective ‘The Gift,’ which deals with Waldo Jeffers crippling anxiety and the difficulties of sexual relationships. Likening this to Dyer’s ‘In Defense of Disco’ who comments: “rock defines sexuality to cock,” this counterposes the idea of ‘Cock Rock’ a style of rock music which was developing around the time the Velvets debuted. A description by Philip Auslander and Simon Frith describes this style by: Cock-rock performance means an explicit, crude, 'masterful' expression of sexuality ... Cock-rock performers are aggressive, boastful, constantly drawing audience attention to their prowess and control. Their bodies are on display ... Mics and guitars are phallic symbols (or else caressed like female bodies), the music is loud, rhythmically insistent, built around techniques of arousal and release. Lyrics are assertive and arrogant, but the exact words are less significant than the vocal styles involved, the shrill shouting and screaming. (13)
The artists most recognized to be under this banner, especially during the late 60’s included ‘The Rolling Stones’ and ‘Led Zeppelin’ with the Stones releasing ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Let's Spend the night together’ and Zeppelin with ‘Whole Lotta Love’. (14) (15) (16)
The Velvets prove to be the anthesis to this by reflecting the words of Dyer: “Disco in scene culture indicates that sexuality is not defined by cock (17) and as a contrary to the assertive and arrogant lyrics of what is recognised as ‘cock rock’, The Velvets portray sexuality or taboo subjects in songs, with a focus often based around non-heteronormative individuals ‘Some Kinda Love’ (18) or the diversification of sexual experiences ‘Venus In Furs’ with its references to specifically a BDSM relationship. Much like Dyer said previously, the band's willingness to explore unconventional themes and create music that encourages interpretation is part of what made them influential in the development of alternative and art rock.
The Velvet Underground as New World influencers
Providing an understanding of the sheer scale of the Velvets revolution and the influence they would go onto have in the history of popular music, Gilbert understands the influence of The Velvet Underground only existed through dispersal and fragmentation. (19) As opposed to a musical movement such as ‘Punk Rock,’ while The Velvets existed and disbanded some 7 years before the first ripples of punk were vibrating around the music scene, it is interesting to note such a difference in the adoption of subculture theory, speaking of punk as a movement individuals could associate with, in his work Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige writes: not...all punks were equally aware of the disjunction between experience and signification upon which the whole style was ultimately based. The style no doubt made sense for the first wave of self-conscious innovators in a way which remained inaccessible to those who became punks after the subculture had surfaced and become publicized. (20) Gilbert continued to this notion of subculture by reference to punk's extravagant ringleader, and he cites the infamous Malcolm Mclaren who speaking on the influence of punk said:
Interviewed in New Music News, [Malcolm] McLaren provocatively declares that buying the Pistols’ records was never the point of punk.
The interviewer suggests that playing the records was the only way that a ‘sixteen-year-old kid in his room with nowhere to go’ could feel involved.
MC: That is sad, sad. I would prefer him to play nothing. Kick the TV in, smash his mother... (21)
Gilbert concludes by adding that both passages insist that by being present in punk’s original form (one of the infamous early Sex Pistols gigs) could one fully emerge into Punk identity. (22)
This is important when considering just how far the influence and aesthetic of The Velvet Underground managed to spread, the location being late 60’s New York. Travelling to Dublin we can hear the wall of sound noise of ‘My Bloody Valentine’ and particularly Kevin Shield’s (23) layers of feedback and drone which look to songs like ‘Sister Ray’ (24) and ‘White Light/White Heat found on the Velvets second album. Elsewhere influenced bands can be as far reaching as Glasglow formed experimentalists ‘Life Without Buildings,’ the driving two chord progression of ‘I'm Waiting for the man’ can be heard on a song like ‘14 Days’ (25). While these two bands might be some few thousand miles apart from the streets The Velvet Underground walked, a band like ‘The Strokes’ can have the claim of walking the same New York streets and this is personified by the stripped-down sound and straightforward song writing of their debut album ‘Is this it,’ (26) which has its kneeled place besides the fountain of The Velvet Underground. David Fricke summarizes it best by stating:
About every artist or band that has subscribed to the avant-garage ideals of 70s and 80s rock owes a great debt of influence and sacrifice to the Velvets. Covering Velvets songs has, for many of those acts, become a major industry and art form. Any dream compilation of VU remakes would certainly include Bowie's high-voltage thrashing of ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ during his 1972 Ziggy Stardust stage shows; Mott the Hoople’s Glam-jam on ‘Sweet Jane’ (a major car-radio treat) in the early 70s); REM’s pastel treatments of ‘Femme Fatale’ and ‘Pale Blue Eyes; and the scruffy crunch-pop of Kurt Cobain’s version of ‘Here She Comes 'recorded for a 1991 Velvets tribute LP. But then there were all the people who did not form bands, the ones who communed with those records in private – listening to them repeatedly the way you would return to a favorite book or poem – and who found their own pleasure and solace in the Velvets’ uncompromising sound and intensely focused vision. Being a Velvets fan has always been something of a loner’s joy, the common bond of rebel fraternities. (27)
Despite a career that only burned brightly for 4 years, looking on a staggering 67 years later, the contribution of The Velvets remained a high point of the year 1967, but as it goes The Velvets have proved to be a high point for music every year since. And everything that has come and will continue to come will surely have a sparkle of the magic that this New York 4 (sometimes 5 pieces) conjured up.
Bibliography and References
I am sticking with you, After hours on The Velvet Underground (MGM records 1969)
Who Loves the Sun on Loaded (Cotillion 1970)
Wikipedia definition of music: Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Music. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music.
World Science Festival (2014). Good Vibrations: The Science of Sound. YouTube. Available at:
[Accessed 9 Dec. 2020].
Loop EP (Roaring Fork Press 1966)
faroutmagazine.co.uk. (2024). Did Phill Niblock inspire The Velvet Underground? [online] Available at: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/phill-niblock-inspire-the-velvet-underground/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2024].
Gilbert, J. (1999) cited from Andrew Blake’s Living through pop p.42
The Gift on White Light/White Heat (MGM 1968)
Gilbert, J. (1999) cited from Andrew Blake’s living through pop p.44
Nasrullah Mambrol (2018). Helene Cixous and Poststructuralist Feminist Theory. [online] Literary Theory and Criticism. Available at: https://literariness.org/2016/12/20/helene-cixous-and-poststructuralist-feminist-theory/.
Lady Godiva’s Operation on White Light/White Heat (MGM 1968)
Candy Says on The Velvet Underground (MGM 1969)
Frith, S., and Internet Archive (1981). Sound effects: youth, leisure, and the politics of rock’n’roll. [online] Internet Archive. New York: Pantheon Books. Available at: https://archive.org/details/soundeffectsyout00frit/page/226/mode/2up [Accessed 14 Jan. 2024].
Brown Sugar on Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones Records 1971)
Let's spend the night together on Between the Buttons (Decca 1967)
Whole Lotta Love on Led Zeppelin II ( Atlantic 1969)
Dyer, R. (1979) In Defense of Disco p.7
Some Kinda Love on The Velvet Underground (MGM 1969)
Gilbert, J. (1999) cited from Andrew Blake’s living through pop p.35
. Hebdige (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London: Methuen, p.122.
Reynolds and J. Press (1995) The Sex Revolts, London: Serpent’s Tail, p.39
Gilbert, J. (1999) cited from Andrew Blake’s living through pop p.33
My Bloody Valentine: Irish influential alternative rock band
Sister Ray on The Velvet Underground (MGM 1969)
14 Days on Any Other City (Tugboat 2001)
The Strokes ‘Is this it’ (RCA, Rough Trade 2001)
accompanying the boxed CD set Peel Slowly and See (Polygram, 1995), citing. Gilbert, J (1999) from Andrew Blake’s living through pop p.36