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Musical style and influences

The Doors initially started as a conventional electric blues band, but subsequently enriched their sound with jazz, psychedelic rock, raga, classical references, funk and flamenco. In live performances, they experimented with free improvisation based on dodecaphonic, cacophonic passages and delay / echo effects, in order to accompany spoken-word poetry sessions or to fill long instrumental jams. In the second album the group introduced elements of electronic music and musique concrète and incorporated unusual instruments such as the Moog synthesizer, the harpsichord and the marimba. The fourth album is also notable because it featured brass, wind and string instrumentation, touching upon big band and bluegrass styles.

Music journalist and critic David Fricke observed that they were "the first american rock ensemble to regularly blend reverb, echos, fuzz and other innovative sound effects with keyboards and organ, both on studio works and live shows. A pioneering approach to improvisation in psychedelic music that established some of its most defining characteristics. A lot of keyboard-based groups of the era should thank them", and praised their efficiency during concerts to "alternate to intense, essential blues numbers jazz-rock instrumentals led by exceptionally dynamic drumming, masterfully calculated guitar insertions and challenging, explorative organ chords: giant rooms where an unlimited set of vocal improvisations has all the space to be delivered".

Manzarek cited a range of influences that include boogie-woogie, Chicago blues, the jazzers John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Bill Evans, and classical composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. Krieger was heavily affected by his study of the sitar and the structures of indian classical music. He said Coltrane was "my biggest music influence". He was familiar with modal scales and the traditional spanish flamenco, incorporating them all in his guitar style to create an original trademark of versatility that distinguished him from the other rock guitarists of the period. Densmore was shaped by Elvin Jones, the drummer of John Coltrane's quartet, and by the stylistic features of Latin American percussions, especially the bossa nova rhythms of saxophonist Stan Getz.