The style saw African-American soul musicians embrace elements of psychedelic rock, including its production techniques, instrumentation, effects units such as wah-wah and phasing, and drug influences.

[3] The Temptations and their producer Norman Whitfield moved from a relatively light vocal group into more hard-edged and topical material like "Cloud Nine" (1968), "Runaway Child, Running Wild" (1969), and "Psychedelic Shack" (1969).

[4] Sly and the Family Stone also helped pioneer the sound with songs like "Dance to the Music" (1968), "Everyday People" (1968) and "I Want to Take You Higher" (1969), which combined psychedelic rock with funk and emphasized distorted electric guitar and strong basslines.

[3] George Clinton's interdependent Funkadelic and Parliament ensembles and their various spin-offs took influence from Detroit rock groups including MC5 and the Stooges, using extended distorted guitar solos and psychedelic sound effects coupled with surreal imagery and stage antics forming part of an Afrofuturist overarching mythology,[1] leading to three US top ten singles, and three platinum albums.

[13] Modern psychedelic soul artists include Erykah Badu,[14] Bilal,[15] Black Pumas,[16] Janelle Monáe,[17] Adrian Younge,[18] and Kali Uchis.