SURF ROOOCK
Musicology Research
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History and Impact
Surf rock was a music craze in the early 1960's, particularly 62-64, originated from the surfing culture of the USA. As the sport of surfing became increasingly popular on the West Coast of the United States, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones provided the sound track, beginning with “Let’s Go Trippin’” in 1961. Dale, a surfer himself, developed a distinctive style of electric-guitar playing that fused Middle Eastern influences, staccato picking, and skillful exploitation of the reverb amplifier (which he helped Leo Fender develop) to create a pulsing, cascading sound that echoed the surfing experience, most notably on “Misirlou” (1962). He led a parade of mostly West Coast-based groups that gained local, then national, popularity with guitar-driven instrumental songs, among them the Chantays (“Pipeline”), the Ventures (“Walk—Don’t Run”), and the Surfaris (whose “Wipe Out” featured the most identifiable drum solo in rock history). Surfing culture also flourished on the beaches of Australia, giving rise not only to an Australian version of surf music but also to the stomp, a national youth dance craze. Australian surf musicians included “Little Pattie” Amphlett (“He’s My Blonde-Headed, Stompie Wompie, Real Gone Surfer Boy” [1963]), the Delltones (“Hangin’ Five” [1963]), the Denvermen (“Surfside” [1963]) and, most prominently, the Atlantics (“Bombora” [1963]).
As Jan and Dean, Jan Berry (b. April 3, 1941, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—d. March 26, 2004, Los Angeles) and Dean Torrence (b. March 10, 1941, Los Angeles) gave voice to surf music with distinctive falsetto harmonies, especially on “Surf City” (1963). It was the Beach Boys, however, led by Brian Wilson, whose complex vocal harmonies, skilled musicianship, inventive production, and evocative lyrics apotheosized surf music and culture with a remarkable string of hits such as “Surfin’ U.S.A.” (1963) and “California Girls” (1965). As the Beach Boys transcended surf music, the genre began to fade, this was also due to the 'British Invasion' of the 1960's where British culture became popular in the US, so bands such as the Beatles took over the music industry.
influence could still be heard in the 1970s and ’80s in the sound of punk, smaller branches of rock like 'Hot Rod rock' and new wave bands such as the Ramones and the Go-Go’s.
Characteristics
Surf rock is a sub genre of rock. The typical instruments are drums, electric guitars, bass guitar, the occasional saxophone or trumpet and vocalists, as well as a lot of pedals and effects on the guitars especially. It's quite similar to the punk and soft rock heard today, due to the fact it was one of the influences of the style. The general idea was that it was supposed to be what you would imagine hearing while surfing, so in many songs you could hear the resemblance splashing water and crunching sand. There were thought to be two types of surf music; vocal and instrumental. Instrumental surf was distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. Vocal surf took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, which is most strongly shown by The Beach Boys.
Song Analasyis
Surfin' USA - The Beach Boys
Surfin USA was released in 1936 by The Beach Boys and remains as one of the most well-known surf rock songs.
Structure
Verse 1
Chorus
Hook
Verse 2
Chorus
Hook
Instrumental
Outro
Duration
Most of the sounds played are quite long in duration, like the bass playing a continuous hum of note and the vocalists witht their 'oohs' and 'inside outside USA'. There are also some sounds that are quite short and syncopated; for instance the strumming of the electric guitar and the bursts of the saxophone. The metre is duple and the tempo is moderately fast.
Pitch
There is a wide variety of pitched being played at the same time. The electric guitars are playing higher pitches while others play lower ones. The bass is playing very low and the lead vocalist sings at a medium pitch. The accompanying vocalists harmonise with very high pitches and medium pitches. The lead vocalist always has the melody.
Tone Colour
The performing media consists of a drum kit, electric guitars, bass guitar, saxophone, lead vocalist and accompanying vocalists. The song is very bright and has a lively mood.
Texture
The texture in this song is moderately thick with around 5 different parts playing at once. The guitars and accompanying play a quite homophonic part. The accompanying vocalist often double with the lead vocalist. So the song is a mixture of thick/thin, Homphonic/polyphonic.
Dynamics and Expressive Techniques
The dynamics are very consistent throughout the song, slightly increasing in the choruses as more instruments are playing at once. For expressive techniques there's the large changes in pitch in the choruses by the vocalists, starting off very high in "everybody's gone surfin'" and then much lower for "surfin' USA". In the verses the backing instruments play on-and-off. They play strongly for one bar with the vocalists and then drop to only crotchets on the bass drum, and then back to all of them playing.