Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music A
genre ofpopular music , blendingrockabilly withpunk rock , that hasgrotesque orhumorous lyrics which often draw heavily on the imagery of 1950s science fiction and horror films.
Etymologies
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Examples
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The band's integration of rockabilly and surf influences, along with the b-movie film imagery, built the foundation of the subgenre we now call psychobilly
Punknews.org 2009
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Lux Interior, frontman of "psychobilly" pioneers the Cramps, died yesterday in Glendale,
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Lux Interior, frontman of "psychobilly" pioneers the Cramps, died yesterday in Glendale,
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Lux Interior, frontman of "psychobilly" pioneers the Cramps, died yesterday in Glendale,
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Don't let "psychobilly" scare you, either -- anybody who enjoys a good rock 'n' roll show with a stand-up bass should be able to dig Tiger Army.
fresnobeehive.com 2008
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Elvis hybrid from hell ") - the Cramps are often cited as pioneers of" psychobilly "and" horror rock, "and can count bands like the Black Lips, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Reverend Horton Heat, the Horrors and even the White Stripes as their musical progeny.
Attuworld.com 2009
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Burlesque favourites Slinky Sparkles and Marnie Scarlet twizzle their tassles, there's a "performance fashion installation" from Engineers Of Desire, plus Graveyard Johnnys deliver a set of menacing live psychobilly.
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In fact, in combining the almost comedically gothic and the poppy, they're oddly reminiscent of some 80s psychobilly bands who were more inspired by the 60s than the 50s, the long-forgotten X-Men, for example.
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Their enduring influence on punk, psychobilly and any group of feral young men strapping on guitars for the first time resulted in the key original members reforming to play a couple of New York shows in 2007, and the remarkably sprightly unit has kept rocking ever since.
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DJ Peter von Sleeze kicks off with a set of swing, jive, rockabilly and psychobilly till 10; Pagan Flame plays alternative classics till the close, and sandwiched between those two is an eye-popping array of onstage talent.
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If the word itself came from Johnny Cash describing a “Psycho-Billy Cadillac” in One Piece at a Time, the Cramps provided a convenient definition in the song Garbageman: “One half hillbilly and one half punk.”
Big quiffs, zombies and dead crows: the wild world of psychobilly Michael Hann 2021
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In time, psychobilly – a turbocharged twist on rockabilly, the country-enhanced variant on R&B that prefigured the classic rock’n’roll of the late 50s – would become codified.
Big quiffs, zombies and dead crows: the wild world of psychobilly Michael Hann 2021
goatboy commented on the word psychobilly
An interesting one.
I have read that this term was first coined by The Cramps' lead singer Lux Interior to describe the band's sound in 1977.
In 1976, however, Wayne Kemp used the term when he wrote the Johnny Cash song "One Piece at a Time".
January 29, 2008
bilby commented on the word psychobilly
Not to be confused with psychobilby.
January 18, 2016