a lot of the 1967 psychedelic stuff completely fails to be psychedelic to me and more generally sounds tinny, nasal and horrible. most of it either sounds like americans being square and thinking they're getting freaky or british public school boys thinking monty python's funny and making music that reflects that. i've grown up with music where synth pads and samplers, etc. can create lush, immersive sound worlds so stuff from that era can't really cut it. who needs syd barret when you've got young thug?
whats a record? it's not a free floating hermetically sealed self-referential artifact detached from time and space. it contains information. it is a product of specific individuals, a specific cultural and historical moment etc etc. it communicates. it represents. it enacts.
Yes and our enjoyment of the record can be enhanced by our understanding of these things.
But that’s still enjoyment and not “living in a record”. Which rockabilly cosplay could be.
The idea that I, I white man pushing 50 who grew up in the Home Counties, can live inside “36 Chambers” or “King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown” but not Beethoven’s 9th or “Moanin’” seems a bit arbitrary.