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Surf music

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Surf music
Stylistic originsRock and roll, Jump blues, country, European, Middle Eastern, Mexican
Cultural originsMid 1950s United States
Typical instrumentsGuitar, Bass, drums, keyboards
Derivative formsSurf rock - Surf pop - Rautalanka - String (Thai pop)

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music.[1] It has two major forms: largely instrumental surf rock, with an electric guitar or saxophone playing the main melody, pioneered by acts such as Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, and vocal surf pop, including both surf ballads and dance music, often with strong harmonies that are most associated with The Beach Boys. Many notable surf bands have been equally noted for both surf instrumental and surf pop music, so surf music is generally considered as a single genre despite the variety of these styles.[1]

Instrumental surf rock

Form

Surf music began in the early 1960s as instrumental dance music, almost always in straight 4/4 common time, with a medium to fast tempo. The sound was dominated by electric guitars which were particularly characterized by the extensive use of the "wet" spring reverb that was incorporated into Fender amplifiers from 1961, which is thought to emulate the sound of the waves.[1] Guitarists also made use of the vibrato arm on their guitar to bend the pitch of notes downward, electronic tremolo effects and rapid (alternating) tremolo picking.[2] Guitar models favoured included those made by Fender (particularly the Mustang, Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Stratocaster guitars), Mosrite, Teisco, or Danelectro, usually with single coil pickups (which had high treble in contrast to double coil humbucker pickups).[3] Surf music was one of the first genres to universally adopt the electric bass, particularly the Fender Precision Bass. Classic surf drum kits tended to be Rogers, Ludwig, Gretsch or Slingerland. Some popular songs also incorporated a tenor or baritone saxophone, as on "Surf Rider" and "Comanche".[4] Often an electric organ or an electric piano featured as backing harmony.

History

By the early 1960s instrumental rock and roll had been pioneered successfully by performers such as Duane Eddy, Link Wray, and The Ventures.[5] This trend was developed by Dick Dale who added the distinctive reverb, the rapid alternate picking characteristic of the genre, as well as Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, producing the regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'" in 1961 and launching the surf music craze, following up with songs like "Misirlou" (1962).[1] Like Dale and his Del-Tones, most early surf bands were formed in Southern California area, with Orange County in particular having a strong surf culture, and the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa hosted many surf-styled acts.[6] Groups such as the Bel-Airs (whose hit "Mr. Moto" was released months before Dale's "Let's Go Trippin'"), the Challengers, and Eddie & the Showmen following Dale to regional success.[7] The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with "Pipeline" in 1963 and probably the single most famous surf tune hit was 1963's "Wipe Out", by the Surfaris, known for their cutting-edge lead guitar and drum songs, which hit # 2 and # 10 on Billboard charts in 1965. The group had two other global hits "Surfer Joe" and "Point Panic".[8]

The growing popularity of the genre led groups from other areas to try their hand. These included The Astronauts, from Boulder, Colorado, The Trashmen, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who had a number 4 hit with "Surfin Bird" in 1964 and The Rivieras from South Bend, Indiana, who reached #5 in 1964 with "California Sun".[1] The Atlantics, from Sydney, Australia, were not exclusively surf musicians, but made a significant contribution to the genre, the most famous example with being their hit "Bombora" (1963).[1] Another Australian surf band who were known outside their own country's surf scene was the Joy Boys, whose hit "Murphy the Surfie" (1963) was later covered by the Surfaris.[9]

European bands around this time generally focused more on the style played by the Shadows. A notable example of European surf instrumental is Spanish band Los Relampagos' rendition of "Misirlou". The Dakotas, who were the British backing band for Merseybeat singer Billy J. Kramer gained some attention as surf musicians with "Cruel Sea" (1963), which was later covered by The Ventures and eventually other instrumental surf bands, including the Challengers and the Revelairs.[10]

Vocal surf pop

Although beginning as a purely instrumental form, surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal music. Most associated with this movement were the Beach Boys, formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock, including covers of music by Dick Dale and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen.[1] Their first chart hit, "Surfin'" in 1962 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze a national phenomenon.[11] From 1963 the group began to leave surfing behind as subject matter as Brian Wilson became their major composer and producer, moving on to the more general themes of male adolescence, including cars and girls, in songs like "Fun, Fun, Fun" (1964) and "California Girls" (1965).[11] Other vocal surf acts followed, including one-hit wonders like Ronny & the Daytonas with "G. T. O." (1964) and the Rip Chords with "Hey Little Cobra", which both reached the top ten, but the only other act to achieve sustained success with the formula were Jan & Dean, who had a number 1 hit with "Surf City" (co-written with Brian Wilson) in 1963.[1]

The surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts, was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964.[1] Only the Beach Boys were able to sustain a creative career into the mid-1960s, producing a string of hit singles and albums, including Pet Sounds in 1966, which made them, arguably, the only American rock or pop act that could rival the Beatles.[11]

Influence and revival

The use of instrumental surf rock style guitar for the soundtrack of Dr. No (1962), recorded by Vic Flick with the John Barry Seven, meant that it was reused in many of the films in the James Bond series, and influenced the music of many spy films of the 1960s.[12] Surf music also influenced a number of later rock musicians, including Keith Moon of The Who[1] East Bay Ray of the Dead Kennedys and Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago.[13] During the mid- to late 1990s, surf rock experienced a revival with surf acts, including Dick Dale recording once more, partly due to the popularity of the movie Pulp Fiction (1994), which used Dale's "Misirlou" and other surf rock songs in the soundtrack.[1] New surf bands were formed, including Man or Astro-man?, The Mermen and Los Straitjackets.[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All music guide to rock: the definitive guide to rock, pop, and soul (Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), pp. 1313-4.
  2. ^ A. J. Millard, The Electric Guitar (JHU Press, 2004), p. 129.
  3. ^ T. Wheeler, The Stratocaster chronicles: Fender : celebrating 50 years of the Fender Strat (Hal Leonard, 2004), p. 117.
  4. ^ R. Unterberger, S. Hicks, J. Dempsey, Music USA: the rough guide (Rough guides, 1999), p. 382.
  5. ^ P Scaruffi, A History of Rock Music: 1951-2000 (iUniverse, 2003), pp. 18-19.
  6. ^ Roger Sabin, Punk rock: so what?: the cultural legacy of punk (Routledge, 1999), p. 158.
  7. ^ J. Blair, The Illustrated Discography of Surf Music, 1961-1965 (Pierian Press, 2nd edn., 1985), p. 2.
  8. ^ J. Blair, The Illustrated Discography of Surf Music, 1961-1965 (Pierian Press, 2nd edn., 1985), p. 75.
  9. ^ M. Warshaw, The Encyclopedia of Surfing (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005), pp. 776-7.
  10. ^ J. Blair, The Illustrated Discography of Surf Music, 1961-1965 (Pierian Press, 2nd edn., 1985), p. 126.
  11. ^ a b c V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All music guide to rock: the definitive guide to rock, pop, and soul (Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), pp. 71-2.
  12. ^ K. Spencer, Film and television scores, 1950-1979: a critical survey by genre (McFarland, 2008), pp. 61-70.
  13. ^ M. Vorhees and J. Spelman, Lonely Planet Boston (Lonely Planet, 3rd edn., 2007). pp. 6 and 34.
  14. ^ P. Scaruffi, A History of Rock Music: 1951-2000 (iUniverse, 2003), pp. 383-4.
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