Genealogy!: The Velvet Underground

In our newest regular feature, I'll explore an artist or otherwise important institution that has contributed to the development of independent music as we know it. In this post, I investigate The Velvet Underground.

The two most instructive terms I've come across in describing The Velvet Underground are "avant-garde" and "proto-punk". The two mesh nicely. Any group presaging a musical development on the magnitude of the emergence of punk by more than a decade must have certainly been cutting edge. Until The New York Dolls and The Sex Pistols, it is doubtful that any group produced music so completely askew from established norms as to truly warrant being called avant-garde. VU were doing more than throwing genres, influences and studio gimmicks together. They forged an altogether new kind of music.

Hazy and dark, VU and contributor Nico probably went unmatched in innovation until two gents named Lee and Thurston started playing with screwdrivers. The Sonic Youth comparison is especially apt given the heavy presence of female tenors Nico and Kim Gordon in both groups, chiming guitars, and obtuse tunings. It's surprising how few music writers bring up these parallels.

Often lumped unfairly in with the 60s psychedelic movement, VU had artistic drive that the meandering Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane could not match. Though considered the fathers of punk, they shunned much of that genre's testosterone. If Thurston Moore and J Mascis are the fathers of indie rock, then the still relevant Lou Reed (see our The Killers - Sawdust review) must be some kind of great-grandfather.