Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music A genre of popular music, blending rockabilly with punk rock, that has grotesque or humorous lyrics which often draw heavily on the imagery of 1950s science fiction and horror films.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • 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

  • Lux Interior, frontman of "psychobilly" pioneers the Cramps, died yesterday in Glendale,

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • Lux Interior, frontman of "psychobilly" pioneers the Cramps, died yesterday in Glendale,

    Top Stories - Google News 2009

  • Lux Interior, frontman of "psychobilly" pioneers the Cramps, died yesterday in Glendale,

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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.

    Clubs picks of the week 2011

  • 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.

    Veronica Falls: Veronica Falls – review 2011

  • 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.

    This week's new live music 2011

  • 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.

    Clubs picks of the week 2011

  • 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

  • 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

Comments

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  • 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

  • Not to be confused with psychobilby.

    January 18, 2016