Lou Reed is an influential American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He first came to prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground . The band gained little mainstream attention during their career, but in hindsight became one of the most influential of their era. As the Velvets’ principal songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined in rock and roll, including bondage and S&M , transvestites , drug culture , and transsexuals undergoing surgery . As a guitarist, he was a pioneer in the use of distortion, high volume feedback, and nonstandard tunings.