Affiliation:
1. City University of New York, United States
Abstract
ABSTRACT
From 1981 to 1991, the band Psychic TV served as the audio-visual propaganda unit of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY), an international network of occultists designed by Genesis P-Orridge to resemble a subversive, militant youth movement. This essay investigates how P-Orridge, Psychic TV, and TOPY embarked on a calculated campaign of “occult research” to test whether chaos magick rituals might conjure the widespread belief that P-Orridge and h/er followers pioneered the UK acid house movement. Primary sources from this epoch, such as Psychic TV's compilation albums with pseudonymous artist names, demonstrate how acid house's trademark psychedelia became a conduit for recruiting listeners into these occult experiments.
Publisher
The Pennsylvania State University Press
Subject
Anthropology,History,Cultural Studies