Surfing Music

Music associated with the surfing culture was classified as "popular" music and embraced two sub-genres. Surf pop or surf rock. It was mainly out of Southern California and particularly Orange County. Surf pop was music that included vocals and was often of the ballad variety. It was dance music that was often called beach music as it also appealed to those who didn't belong to the surf culture. Surf rock was mainly instrumental and would include either an electric guitar or a saxophone as the main instrument. Over the last couple of decades another genre emerged that included a reggae style that was incorporated into the surf culture by upper middle class light skinned people and although it is out of Jamaica it is listened to by the youth of America and Puerto Rico, showing that the diversity of the subcultures within the surfing lifestyle make it easy to form connections between where the music originated and where it is listened to. Most of the more well known bands were recognised for playing both surf pop and surf rock, thereby labeling both varieties of music as surf music - even though they were two different styles.

Surf pop being the ballad style, tends to be slow with mainly male vocals being the dominant part. Performed in any time signature they were usually of a romantic ilk and spoke of the surf culture and lifestyle. It is easy to see this style descended from the R&B groups of the 1950's. An example would be the Beach Boys "Don't worry baby"

Surf rock was usually played in the common 4/4 time and was a faster tempo dance music always with an electric guitar dominating. Guitarists of the surf bands were well known for their use of the "wet" spring reverberation sound and the tremolo arm. This would alter the pitch of the notes downward. Use of tube amplification through an amplifier by Fender was the standard way of achieving the surf sound. It wasn't common for distortion to be used but in the late 1950's and early 1960's the use of the vibrato was common and usually built into the guitar. Tenor or baritone saxophones were common in the surf rock of the '60's but is rarely heard today. An example of surf rock would be "Wild Weekend" by the Rebels.

Most of the early surf bands came together in southern California where there was a melting pot of musical styles. Latin music was alive and well in the area and as the youth of the time aspired to become well known musicians, they no doubt incorporated some of the Latin beat with the rock instrumentation and jazz style drumming to find surf music. While this genre was developed on the West Coast of the United States there were other bands and notably The Atlantics out of Australia and the Dakotas out of Britain. Both of these groups had hits that were later covered by American bands. Although surf music died out at the end of the 60's it has enjoyed a comeback of sorts and is regularly performed by a few groups worldwide. Los Straitjackets, Man or Astroman? and Pollo del Mar are just a few of these groups. Others are known to dip their toe into the surf music genre on occasion and the Red Elvises