Lou Reed (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock artist originally from Brooklyn, New York. Especially while a member of the The Velvet Underground in the 1960s, Reed broke new ground for the rock genre in several important dimensions, introducing more mature and intellectual themes to what was then considered a largely simplistic genre of music.
Reed first found prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground. The band, which lasted from 1965 until 1973 (with Reed departing in late 1970 after the Loaded sessions), gained relatively little notice during its life but is often considered the seed from which most alternative and underground traditions of rock music sprang. As the Velvet’s songwriter, Reed wrote about such taboo subjects as S&M (Venus In Furs), transvestites and transsexuals (Sister Ray, and Lady Godiva’s Operation), prostitution (There She Goes Again), and drug addiction (I’m Waiting For The Man, White Light/White Heat, Heroin).
As a guitarist, he made innovative use of abrasive distortion, volume-driven feedback, and nonstandard tunings. Reed’s flat, New York voice, stripped of superficial emotions and, like Bob Dylan’s, flaunting its lack of conventional training, was no less important to the music’s radical effect.
