The Velvet Underground

USA, 1964–1973

New York band of Lou Reed and John Cale, managed early on by Andy Warhol. Their combination of drone, atonality and plainly written songs about city life became a reference point for art rock, punk and indie.

MusicRoots documents 6 artists who influenced The Velvet Underground and 35 artists The Velvet Underground influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced The Velvet Underground?

• La Monte Young — La Monte Young taught John Cale drone aesthetics and minimalism, which Cale brought directly into the VU sound.
• Bo Diddley — The other half of the band, away from Cale's avant-garde: a beat repeated until it stops being a beat and becomes a state. 'What Goes On' is the Bo Diddley figure held down for four minutes.
• Booker T. & the M.G.'s — Where the band's locked, unhurried groove comes from — the rhythm section as the whole song rather than a bed for one.
• Ornette Coleman — The free-jazz side of the Velvets — the long unconstrained pieces like 'Sister Ray' — comes out of Reed's Coleman listening; he took guitar devices such as the drum-roll figure from jazz saxophone.
• Cecil Taylor — Reed named his college radio show 'Excursions On A Wobbly Rail' after a Cecil Taylor piece and built it around free jazz years before the Velvets.
• John Cage — John Cale entered the Velvet Underground from La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, a group directly built on Cage's drone and noise aesthetics.

Which artists did The Velvet Underground influence?

• The Fall — The Velvet Underground's drone and deadpan are woven into The Fall's abrasive minimalism.
• Suicide — Suicide grew out of the same downtown New York art-rock underground as the Velvet Underground, whose drone and menace they stripped to a machine pulse.
• The Stranglers — The band cited the Velvet Underground among the 1960s acts that shaped their dark, art-tinged rock.
• The Strokes — Julian Casablancas named Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground the band's guiding light — 'our dream revolved around taking the Velvet Underground and thinking, if only they were really famous.'
• Blondie — The Velvet Underground were part of Blondie's shared downtown aesthetic — the New York art-rock lineage beneath their pop.
• Primal Scream — Gillespie drummed standing up in the Jesus and Mary Chain before this band, which is the Velvets' posture as much as their sound.
• Patti Smith — The Velvets' simple, masterful rhythms are all over Horses — and John Cale, their founding violist, produced the album.
• Joy Division — Ian Curtis and the band absorbed the Velvet Underground's drone, minimalism and dark lyricism as a core reference.
• Brian Eno — Eno called the first Velvet Underground album a defining record for him.
• David Bowie — Bowie worshipped the Velvet Underground and performed 'I'm Waiting for the Man' from his earliest days.
• Cabaret Voltaire — VU's avant-garde rock and noise are part of Cabaret Voltaire's DNA.
• Genesis P-Orridge — P-Orridge named the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed a formative influence.
• The Smiths — The Velvet Underground's fusion of guitar drive and literary, detached lyrics was the model for Johnny Marr.
• R.E.M. — R.E.M. recorded three Velvet Underground covers on Dead Letter Office — a documented act of discipleship.
• Talking Heads — The Velvets' art-rock minimalism was the CBGB generation's foundation — Byrne has cited them as the permission for Talking Heads' existence.
• Roxy Music — The Velvets' art-school fusion of rock and the avant-garde was the documented model for Ferry and Eno's conception of Roxy Music.
• Can — Schmidt's 1966 New York trip — where he encountered the Velvet Underground and the minimalists — sent him home to found Can; his own account.
• Throbbing Gristle — The Velvets' transgressive art-rock was the acknowledged precedent for TG's fusion of performance art and sonic assault.
• Cocteau Twins — The VU's drone and texture were part of the Cocteaus' documented early vocabulary via the post-punk canon.
• The Jesus and Mary Chain — The Reids' feedback gospel is 'Sister Ray' scripture — the VU were their stated model of noise as beauty.
• Spacemen 3 — The VU's drone hymns were the other testament — 'What Goes On' lived in their set as devotion.
• Stereolab — The Velvet Underground's endless two-chord guitar riffing runs through Stereolab's early drone-pop.
• Galaxie 500 — Galaxie 500's whole tempo is the VU's third album slowed further — they covered 'Here She Comes Now' in documented devotion.
• Sonic Youth — The VU are Sonic Youth's declared New York inheritance — noise, drone and art in the same downtown lineage.
• Mazzy Star — Roback's psychedelic guitar and the band's narcotic drift descend from the Velvet Underground — the paisley-underground lineage he came up through.
• The Human League — Early Human League covered the Velvet Underground — the art-rock lineage beneath the machines, a documented starting point.
• Silversun Pickups — The Velvet Underground's drone and noise sit in Silversun Pickups' shoegaze DNA.
• Cornershop — The Velvet Underground's drone and groove run through Cornershop's hazy, hypnotic indie sound.
• Belle and Sebastian — The Velvet Underground's quieter, folk-tinged songs feed Belle and Sebastian's gentle chamber-pop.
• Hawkwind — The Velvet Underground's droning, hypnotic minimalism is a key influence on Hawkwind's repetitive space-rock jams (their 'Kiss of the Velvet Whip' nods to them).
• Orange Juice — Half of the formula. Collins wanted the guitar of the Live '69 records — loose, trebly, played rather than performed.
• Josef K — The starting point, as it was for most of Postcard — Reed's chord shapes and the flat, unimpressed delivery.
• Wire — What the band had been listening to before punk arrived, and what kept them from ever quite belonging to it.
• Garbage — Among Garbage's stated influences, with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Patti Smith.
• The Stooges — Ron Asheton put the Velvets' drone into the guitar parts — 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' is the plainest case — and John Cale produced the first Stooges album.