Joseph Byrd

Composer Joseph Byrd (credited as Joe Byrd on his two Columbia releases with The United States of America and Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies) studied modern composition with John Cage among others. He was an early proponent of "minimalist" composition, and was involved in the academic avant-garde in the early 60s. After getting a teaching appointment at UCLA, he relocated to the West Coast and began to study Indian and other music, eventually forming the psychedelic rock group The United States of America. After that group's single record proved too experimental for the commercial market, the band split up and Byrd conceived of Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies, a studio project involving rock musicians, orchestral and choral elements, and electronic manipulations. Their 1969 album was one of the earliest to combine rock and electronics, and has been cited as an influence by many later artists, including Radiohead, Portishead and others. Since the Field Hippies project, Byrd has continued a career in modern composition that has occasionally touched upon more mainstream styles, including movie soundtracks and a pair of electronic albums, one of Christmas music and one of patriotic American music recorded for the 1976 US Bicentennial. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.