Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Surf music
Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, a movement led by the Beach Boys.
Dick Dale developed the surf sound from instrumental rock, where he added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, a spring reverb, and rapid alternate picking characteristics. His regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'", in 1961, launched the surf music craze, inspiring many others to take up the approach.
The genre reached national exposure when it was represented by vocal groups such as the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Dale was quoted on such groups: "They were surfing sounds [with] surfing lyrics. In other words, the music wasn't surfing music. The words made them surfing songs. ... That was the difference ... the real surfing music is instrumental."
At the height of its popularity, surf music rivaled girl groups, Countrypolitan, and Motown for the top American popular music trend. It is sometimes referred to interchangeably with the "California sound". During the later stages of the surf music craze, many of its groups started to write songs about cars and girls; this was later known as "hot rod rock".
Surf music emerged in the late 1950s as instrumental rock and roll 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 1963, and was meant to emulate the sound of waves. The outboard separate Fender Reverb Unit that was developed by Fender in 1961 (as opposed to reverb that was incorporated as a built-in amp feature) was the actual first "wet" surf reverb tone. This unit is the reverb effect heard on Dick Dale records, and others such as "Pipeline" by the Chantays and "Point Panic" by the Surfaris. It has more of a wet "drippy" tone than the "built-in" amp reverb, due to different circuitry.[citation needed]
Guitarists also made use of the vibrato arm on their guitars to bend the pitch of notes downward, electronic tremolo effects and rapid (alternating) tremolo picking. Guitar models favored included those made by Fender (particularly the Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Stratocaster), Mosrite, Teisco, or Danelectro, usually with single coil pickups (which had high treble in contrast to double-coil humbucking pickups). 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 the Lively Ones' "Surf Rider" (1963) and the Revels' "Comanche" (1961). Often an electric organ or an electric piano featured as backing harmony.[citation needed]
By the early 1960s, instrumental rock and roll had been pioneered successfully by performers such as Link Wray, Nokie Edwards and the Ventures and Duane Eddy. This trend was developed by Dick Dale, who added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, the distinctive reverb (giving the guitar a "wet" sound); he also added blues influence in his music, and the rapid alternate picking characteristic of the genre (influenced by Arabic music, which Dale learnt from his Lebanese uncle). His performances at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California, during the summer of 1961, and his regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'" later that year, launched the surf music craze, which he followed up with hits like "Misirlou" (1962).
While Dick Dale was crafting his new sound in Orange County, the Bel-Airs were crafting their own in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. The band was composed of five teen-aged boys. In 1959 they were still learning to play their instruments: Dick Dodd on drums, Chas Stuart on saxophone, Jim Roberts on piano, and Eddie Bertrand and Paul Johnson on guitars. Said Johnson of his relationship with Bertrand, "Learning the guitar became a duo experience versus a solo thing. We learned to play by playing together, one guy would play the chords, the other would play the lead. This sound would become the basis for the Bel-Airs." They recorded their first single, "Mr. Moto", in June 1961 (with Richard Delvy on drums instead of Dodd) and the song received radio airplay that summer. Dale was older, played louder, commanded a larger audience, and usually gets credit for creating surf music, but the Bel-Airs lay claim to having the first surf music single.
Hub AI
Surf music AI simulator
(@Surf music_simulator)
Surf music
Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, a movement led by the Beach Boys.
Dick Dale developed the surf sound from instrumental rock, where he added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, a spring reverb, and rapid alternate picking characteristics. His regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'", in 1961, launched the surf music craze, inspiring many others to take up the approach.
The genre reached national exposure when it was represented by vocal groups such as the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Dale was quoted on such groups: "They were surfing sounds [with] surfing lyrics. In other words, the music wasn't surfing music. The words made them surfing songs. ... That was the difference ... the real surfing music is instrumental."
At the height of its popularity, surf music rivaled girl groups, Countrypolitan, and Motown for the top American popular music trend. It is sometimes referred to interchangeably with the "California sound". During the later stages of the surf music craze, many of its groups started to write songs about cars and girls; this was later known as "hot rod rock".
Surf music emerged in the late 1950s as instrumental rock and roll 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 1963, and was meant to emulate the sound of waves. The outboard separate Fender Reverb Unit that was developed by Fender in 1961 (as opposed to reverb that was incorporated as a built-in amp feature) was the actual first "wet" surf reverb tone. This unit is the reverb effect heard on Dick Dale records, and others such as "Pipeline" by the Chantays and "Point Panic" by the Surfaris. It has more of a wet "drippy" tone than the "built-in" amp reverb, due to different circuitry.[citation needed]
Guitarists also made use of the vibrato arm on their guitars to bend the pitch of notes downward, electronic tremolo effects and rapid (alternating) tremolo picking. Guitar models favored included those made by Fender (particularly the Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Stratocaster), Mosrite, Teisco, or Danelectro, usually with single coil pickups (which had high treble in contrast to double-coil humbucking pickups). 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 the Lively Ones' "Surf Rider" (1963) and the Revels' "Comanche" (1961). Often an electric organ or an electric piano featured as backing harmony.[citation needed]
By the early 1960s, instrumental rock and roll had been pioneered successfully by performers such as Link Wray, Nokie Edwards and the Ventures and Duane Eddy. This trend was developed by Dick Dale, who added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, the distinctive reverb (giving the guitar a "wet" sound); he also added blues influence in his music, and the rapid alternate picking characteristic of the genre (influenced by Arabic music, which Dale learnt from his Lebanese uncle). His performances at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California, during the summer of 1961, and his regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'" later that year, launched the surf music craze, which he followed up with hits like "Misirlou" (1962).
While Dick Dale was crafting his new sound in Orange County, the Bel-Airs were crafting their own in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. The band was composed of five teen-aged boys. In 1959 they were still learning to play their instruments: Dick Dodd on drums, Chas Stuart on saxophone, Jim Roberts on piano, and Eddie Bertrand and Paul Johnson on guitars. Said Johnson of his relationship with Bertrand, "Learning the guitar became a duo experience versus a solo thing. We learned to play by playing together, one guy would play the chords, the other would play the lead. This sound would become the basis for the Bel-Airs." They recorded their first single, "Mr. Moto", in June 1961 (with Richard Delvy on drums instead of Dodd) and the song received radio airplay that summer. Dale was older, played louder, commanded a larger audience, and usually gets credit for creating surf music, but the Bel-Airs lay claim to having the first surf music single.