The Velvet Underground and Nico

The Velvet Underground and Nico were indeed before their intended time.  Perhaps that why their music wasn't well received upon release, but would come to be appreciated down the road.  Their image was the first thing that may have scared off some listeners.  They were combining art, fashion, new sounds, and music that people simply weren't accustomed to.  They looked as though they would were just as likely to sing you lullaby as they were to bite your head off.  And by that I mean they just looked unpredictable to people and that can make people uneasy.  They used psychedelic imagery and portrayed to people that they simply didn't care about what they thought.  It just didn't matter to them because they were going to do what they wanted  to do.

Lou Reed and John Cale were the driving forces of the band and primary songwriters.  Reed moved to New York in 1964 and was a songwriter for Pickwick Records.  He soon started a band called The Primitives that included John Cale, and their relationship bloomed from there.  John Cale really began his musical experimentation early in the 1960's with his project the Dream Syndicate.  This was a heavy influence on when he would later join forces with Reed to form the Velvet Underground.

Andy Warhol was the Velvet Underground and Nico's producer and promoter amongst many other things.  He was undoubtedly their biggest supporter.  Being a pioneer for the pop art movement he was able to help mold the Velvet Underground into a form of visual music.  Through their image, voice, instrumentation, and visual imagery created for the band he was able to help create something the world had not seen yet in the music world.  Though considered a failure at it's inception, the project has become an important staple in rock history.

The most obvious part of the Velvet Underground that stood out was the visuals they had to compliment the music.  They were both odd and intriguing.  Nico was known for singing on stage with a whip as the band wildly thrashed about and moved in ways the public was far from used to.  They were known for going off on tangents to where it often left the listener and spectator somewhat confused until they were reeled back into each song.  Putting the visuals together with the music though made a loud statement.  It was wild, unbridled, but loosely controlled.

The music itself though set the band apart from that of the typical 1960s music.  There was experimentation going on but not to the extent that the Velvet Underground took it.  They took it so far as to make their own three stringed violin that had it's own distinctive sound.  They even make feedback, a common foe of musicians, a part of their music which was something that had never been done before.  The best way to describe their music was the brink of chaos held together by string and a stick of gum.  At any moment it could fall completely apart or it would hold up and create something unique.

For me as a listener I'm mixed about the band.  I certainly see where they were a huge influence to the punk movement.  Their lyrical content in particular was darker than normal and more aggressive leading to that more aggressive sound of punk.  They were certainly before their time in that aspect. But on the flip side they simply don't impress me as musicians.  In fact they're mediocre at best.  I get that they were going for the whole "amateur" sound, but there's a reason it's called amateur.  That's because it's not professional, and that's kind of how I view them for the most part.  I respect what they did, but just not a fan.