The Velvet Underground and Nico

         The image and music of Velvet Underground and Nico was unlike any group during its conception. Their aesthetic was an “unapologetic embrace of the opposite poles of the musical, emotional, and thematic spectrum.” And even with that said, it would take the world a long to jump on the ban wagon of this far out group. The group formed in 1964 when primary songwriters Lou Reed and John Cale decided to start a rock band. Before the group though these twos love for music came in very distinct ways. For instance, John Cale began is fascination with music at a young age and continued it when he studied composition at London University’s Gotham College from 1960-1963. There he became captivated by contemporary experimental music. Here he also met Aaron Copland who convinced a man named Leonard Bernstein to give Cale a scholarship to study in the United States. In the United States, he became focused on sonic and metaphysical implications of the drone while playing his Viola at the theater of Eternal Music then the Dream Syndicate from 63-65. Lou Reed on the other hand grew in Long Island where his rebelliousness steered him to rock and roll and sexual experimentation along with drugs. He also became drawn to avant-garde jazz and intellectual and emotional stimulation of poetry among other things as he studied at Syracuse University. As a result, their roles in the group were crucial; Reed provided cinema vertié songs while Cale delivered a droning viola that elevated the band to sonic futurists. This was all supported, promoted, and produced by Andy Warhol. Two characteristics that I can say that set this group apart from others was from its unapologetic songs about things that were real for them and their dead and gloomy approach to music. From all that said, The Velvet Underground and Nico have inevitably left me feeling more appreciative for people’s individuality, something they sure had a lot of it.