Freakbeat is a rock music genre that peaked approximately between 1966 and 1967.
The term was invented in the 1980s by the music journalist Phil Smee, to retroactively describe a music style that has been described as a missing link between the early to mid-1960s mod R&B scene and the psychedelic rock and progressive rock genres that emerged in the late-1960s with bands such as Pink Floyd. Freakbeat music was typically created by four-piece bands experimenting with studio production techniques. Elements of the freakbeat sound include strong direct drum beats, loud and frenzied guitar riffs, and extreme effects such as: fuzztone, flanging, distortion and compression or phasing on the vocal or drum tracks. Often used almost synonymously with garage rock, the term is usually applied to music originating in the UK (unlike garage, which is most commonly used to describe American groups). Early albums by The Who and The Kinks supplied the blueprints for freakbeat bands that followed, such as The Creation, The Sorrows and The Move. .
