The term "psychobilly" first entered the music lexicon through the voice of the man in black himself, Johnny Cash. His 1976 country music hit "One Piece at a Time" described an autoworker's crudely constructed "psychobilly Cadillac" from bits and pieces of various models stolen from the assembly line over several decades. Like the genre it would later be emblematic of, the car's charm would not lie in its flawless construction, but in the bizarre disunity of parts that formed a style all its own.
Psychobilly, in simplest terms, combines two genres of music. The style of '50s Rockabilly, with its electrified use of western/country roots music and slap-bass rhythms, coupled with kitsch pop-culture junk was hijacked by the early psychobilly pioneers and replaced with an explosive British punk rock engine. The result has endured on the outside of mainstream music for more than 20 years, launching a culture and music-based lifestyle all its own.
The first psychobilly scene can be traced to 1982 with the opening of the influential Klub Foot in West London. On the heels of the British punk rock revolution of the late 1970s, punk faced many variations in style and format.
One particular reason that psychobilly was pioneered around this period was in reaction to what numerous fans felt was the over-politicization of punk music. To put it simply, punk wasn't fun for fans anymore, and with bands like the Clash moving on to more rhythmically complex works, the raw musical dynamics that made punk great were disappearing.
Enter psychobilly. Among the Klub Foot's regular acts were the Meteors, who are considered the first psychobilly band and still tour to this day. Rather than just aping past lightweight rockabilly fare, like many during its '70s resurgence, their songs were soaked with references to horror films, science fiction and the occult. These themes are still prevalent in many bands that have adopted the psychobilly ethos.
The music sparked in London was at the same time it was created in the United States, the birthplace of the genre's cultural roots. Chief among the stateside innovators were the Cramps, who made a name for themselves by having a vastly different sound then any of their contemporaries around the New York City punk scene. With a combination of aggressive slap-bass playing and guitar work, their overtures to "creature features" and early Cold War Americana would make their sound, and distinctive logo, iconic.
Additionally, psychobilly took root in many European countries rather quickly, such as Italy, Germany and Spain, as well as various parts of Asia. However, in no country at any time would the sub-genre take root in mainstream tastes. Also, the euro-centric sound that predominated '80s psychobilly faded in the '90s. It was replaced by a lighter and more American-like pop sound, which maintained the speed and ferocity of early psychobilly bands like Batmobile, King Kurt, the Polecats and Demented Are Go, but ditched some of the darker and grimier overtones that their predecessors became known for during the genre's formative years. In particular, surf guitar and indie rock have a definitive effect on the sound of today's psychobilly.
