Editing Musique concrète (section)

===1960s===
In the 1960s, as popular music began to increase in cultural importance and question its role as commercial entertainment, many popular musicians began taking influence from the post-war avant-garde, including [[Brian Wilson]] of [[the Beach Boys]], who would use silence as an instrument on the group's single "[[The Little Girl I Once Knew]]" (1965) and splice in a [[found sound]] recording of passing trains that served as a "musical tag" in the [[Pet Sounds|album version]] of his solo release "[[Caroline, No]]" (1966). He was to have expanded on this further with the ultimately-cancelled Beach Boys album, ''[[Smile (The Beach Boys album)|Smile]]'' (1967), where he had plans on weaving in studio recordings of [[Heroes and Villains|spoken word]] interruptions, [[Vegetables (song)|vegetable chomping]] for percussion, construction tools in operation, and [[Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (instrumental)|wood burning in a trash bin]], as well as Nagra tape recordings of various water sources, with the idea of these being crucial aspects of the music. Alongside Wilson, popular exponents of this practice were [[the Beatles]], who incorporated techniques such as tape loops, speed manipulation, and reverse playback in their song "[[Tomorrow Never Knows]]" (1966).{{sfn|Albiez|2017}} Bernard Gendron describes the Beatles' ''musique concrète'' experimentation as helping popularise avant-garde art in the era, alongside [[Jimi Hendrix]]'s use of [[noise music|noise]] and [[guitar feedback|feedback]], [[Bob Dylan]]'s surreal lyricism and [[Frank Zappa]]'s "ironic detachment".{{sfn|Gendron|2002}} In ''[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]]'', [[Edwin Pouncey]] wrote that the 1960s represented the height of confluence between rock and academic music, noting that composers like [[Luciano Berio]] and Pierre Henry found likeness in the "distorting-mirror" sound of [[psychedelic rock]], and that ''concrète''<nowiki/>'s contrasting tones and timbres were suited to the effects of [[psychedelic drug]]s.{{sfn|Pouncey|1999}}

Following the Beatles' example, many groups incorporated found sounds into otherwise typical pop songs for psychedelic effect, resulting in "pop and rock musique concrète flirtations"; examples include [[the Lovin' Spoonful]]'s "[[Summer in the City (song)|Summer in the City]]" (1966), [[Love (band)|Love]]'s "[[7 and 7 Is]]" (1967) and [[The Box Tops]]' "[[The Letter (Box Tops song)|The Letter]]" (1967).{{sfn|Pouncey|1999}} Popular musicians more versed in modern classical and experimental music utilised elements of musique concrète more maturely, including Zappa and [[the Mothers of Invention]] on pieces like the [[Edgard Varèse]] tribute "[[The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet]]" (1966), "[[We're Only in It for the Money|The Chrome Planted Megaphone of Destiny]]" and ''[[Lumpy Gravy]]'' (both 1968), and [[Jefferson Airplane]]'s "Would You Like a Snack?" (1968), while the [[Grateful Dead]]'s album ''[[Anthem of the Sun]]'' (1968), which featured Berio student [[Phil Lesh]] on bass, features musique concrète passages that Pouncey compared to Varèse's ''Deserts'' and the "keyboard deconstructions" of John Cage and [[Conlon Nancarrow]].{{sfn|Pouncey|1999}} The Beatles continued their use of concrète on songs such as "[[Strawberry Fields Forever]]", "[[Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!]]" and "[[I Am the Walrus]]" (all 1967), before the approach climaxed with the pure musique concrète piece "[[Revolution 9]]" (1968); afterwards, [[John Lennon]], alongside wife and [[Fluxus]] artist [[Yoko Ono]], continued the approach on their solo works ''[[Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins|Two Virgins]]'' (1968) and ''[[Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions|Life with the Lions]]'' (1969).{{sfn|Pouncey|1999}}