Editing The Velvet Underground & Nico (section)

===Instrumentation and performance===
{{listen
| filename    = TheVelvetUndergroundHeroin.ogg
| title       = "Heroin"
| pos         = left
| description = The seventh track from ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. As the song nears its final crescendo, the percussion quickens and the electric viola produces feedback.
| format      = [[Ogg]]}}
''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' has generally been described by writers as [[art rock]],<ref name="Clash">{{cite news |date=December 11, 2009 |url=http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/classic-albums-the-velvet-undergrond-and-nico |title=Classic Albums: The Velvet Underground&nbsp;– The Velvet Underground & Nico |newspaper=[[Clash Music]] |quote=...{{nbsp}}the original art-rock record{{nbsp}}...|access-date=March 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402112235/http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/classic-albums-the-velvet-undergrond-and-nico |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=DeRogatis |first=Jim |author-link=Jim DeRogatis |date=February 14, 2003a |title=Gettin' Your Groove On |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |page=26 |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CSTB&p_theme=cstb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F947E0EE045091C&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |quote=...{{nbsp}}this enduring art-rock masterpiece{{nbsp}}... |access-date=August 1, 2013 |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006155610/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CSTB&p_theme=cstb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F947E0EE045091C&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=live }}</ref> [[experimental rock]],<ref name="Magnet">{{cite web |last=Amorisi |first=A.D. |date=May 15, 2018 |title=ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND'S "THE VELVET UNDERGROUND" |url=http://magnetmagazine.com/2018/05/15/essential-new-music-velvet-undergrounds-velvet-underground/ |website=[[Magnet (magazine)|Magnet]] |access-date=20 April 2019 |quote=Lou Reed and John Cale's now-canonical, dry-icy, holy-terror take on then-experimental rock |archive-date=April 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420144949/http://magnetmagazine.com/2018/05/15/essential-new-music-velvet-undergrounds-velvet-underground/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[proto-punk]],<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.spin.com/2011/08/listen-feist-friends-cover-velvet-underground/ |title=Listen: Feist & Friends Cover Velvet Underground |magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |date=August 16, 2011 |access-date=October 6, 2013 |author=Goodman, William |url-status=live |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029191322/https://www.spin.com/2011/08/listen-feist-friends-cover-velvet-underground/}}</ref> [[psychedelic rock]],<ref>{{harvnb|DeRogatis|2003|p=79}}</ref> [[avant-pop]], <ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hermes |first=Will |title=The Complete Matrix Tapes |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/the-complete-matrix-tapes-204441/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=December 8, 2015 |access-date=31 July 2020 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026125904/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/the-complete-matrix-tapes-204441/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[garage rock]]<ref>{{Citation |title=The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Und... {{!}} AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-velvet-underground-nico-mw0001955423 |access-date=2025-05-19 |language=en}}</ref>. Much of the album's sound was conceived by [[John Cale]], who stressed the experimental qualities of the band. He was influenced greatly by his work with [[Minimal music|minimalist]] composer [[La Monte Young]], [[John Cage]] and the early [[Fluxus]] movement, and encouraged the use of alternative ways of producing sound in music. Cale thought his sensibilities meshed well with Lou Reed's, who was already experimenting with alternate tunings. For instance, Reed had "invented" the [[ostrich guitar]] tuning for a song he wrote called "The Ostrich" for the short-lived band the Primitives. Ostrich guitar tuning consists of all strings being tuned to the same note. This method was utilized on the songs "Venus in Furs" and "All Tomorrow's Parties". Often, the guitars were also tuned down a whole step, which produced a lower, fuller sound that Cale considered "sexy".{{sfn|Harvard|2004}}

Cale performed on the viola on several of the album's songs, notably "Venus in Furs" and "The Black Angel's Death Song". The viola used guitar and mandolin strings, and when played loudly, Cale would liken its brash sound to that of an airplane engine.<ref name="Heylin"/> Cale's technique usually involved minimalist [[Drone music|drones]], [[Musical tuning|detuning]] for an eerie, surreal effect, and [[Distortion (music)|distortion]] to highlight harmonics and transform the instrument's sound.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=John Cale on The Velvet Underground & Nico |url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/john-cale-on-the-velvet-underground-nico-30063 |magazine=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |first=Tom |last=Pinnock |date=September 28, 2012 |access-date=August 18, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-date=August 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814145221/http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/john-cale-on-the-velvet-underground-nico-30063}}</ref> According to [[Robert Christgau]], the "narcotic drone" not only sustains the [[sadomasochism]]-themed "Venus in Furs", but it also "identifies and unifies the [album] musically". Of the vocal performances, he believed "Nico's contained [[wikt:chanteuse|chantoozy]] sexuality" complemented "the dispassionate abandon of Reed's chant singing".<ref name="Christgau"/>  In 1966, [[Richard Goldstein (writer born 1944)|Richard Goldstein]] described Nico's vocal as "something like a cello getting up in the morning".<ref>Ulf Lindberg et al. ''Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers, and Cool-headed Cruisers.'' Peter Lang, 2005. p. 115. {{ISBN|9780820474908}}</ref>

Tucker's style of drumming on the album involved her playing standing up rather than sitting down, playing bass drums and tambourines on their sides with a drumstick in her left hand and a mallet in her right hand, resulting in "a mix of [[Rhythm in Sub-Saharan Africa|African trance rhythms]] and [[Ringo Starr|Ringo]]-like arrangement genius" according to Adam Budofsky of ''[[Modern Drummer]]''.<ref name="moderndrummer">{{cite magazine |title=Drumming With the Velvet Underground, Part 2: Maureen Tucker |url=https://www.moderndrummer.com/2005/07/maureen-tucker/ |magazine=[[Modern Drummer]] |first=Adam |last=Budofsky |date=October 28, 2013}}</ref> The band's initial percussionist and ex-member, [[Angus MacLise]], had informed Tucker's style and influenced her into playing "pounding" rhythms that fit with, in her words, "the ominous mood" of several of the album's songs.<ref name="moderndrummer" />