Freakbeat is a loosely defined[1] subgenre of rock and roll music developed mainly by harder-driving British groups during the Swinging London period of the mid-to late 1960s.
[3][4] AllMusic writes that "freakbeat" is loosely defined, but generally describes the more obscure but hard-edged artists of the British Invasion era.
[1] Much of the material collected on Rhino Records's 2001 box-set compilation Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 can be classified as freakbeat.
[5] The English Freakbeat series is a group of five compilation albums, released in the late 1980s, that were issued by AIP Records.
The LPs featured recordings that were released in the mid-1960s by English rock bands in R&B and beat genres.