Surf Rock

All genres Surf Music Surf Rock Surf Rock 3,707 releases Surf rock is a musical genre associated with surf culture which appeared in the late 1950s in California. This genre gained huge popularity from 1961, becoming one of the most popular genres in the USA in the first half of 1960s. Characterised by short instrumental songs, with cheerful melodies played on reverb-drenched tremolo guitar with Rock & Roll rhythms, the popularity of Surf Music was launched by Dick Dale and The Del-Tones with pioneering singles "Let's Go Trippin'" in 1961 and "Miserlou" in 1962. Dale mixed the instrumental rock 'twang' of Duane Eddy, Link Wray and The Ventures with Middle Eastern and Mexican Music influences. On top of huge transatlantic success during this period, surf rock scenes cropped up in various parts of the world, including Eleki in Japan and Wong shadow in Thailand in the mid-1960s. From 1963, the popularity of a new style of surf music known as Vocal Surf grew, shifting the emphasis from the guitar breakdowns of surf rock (sometimes retroactively referred to as 'instrumental surf') to falsetto-style vocals and rollicking pianos. This was most famously practiced by The Beach Boys on their early 1960s work, providing an early blueprint for the California Sound. In 1966, surf music couldn't react to the invasion of British rock and the emergence of Psychedelic Rock, and both surf rock and vocal surf begin to fall into disuse. After the rise of Punk Rock in the late 1970s, the fusion Surf Punk was invented, exemplified by underground acts such as Man or Astro-Man? and Surf Punks. Skate Punk is often associated with surf rock, mainly because of its place of birth, California, and because of its close relation to boardsports culture. Surf rock has also been perceived as an important influence in the sound of popular 1980s and 1990s groups Pixies and Dead Kennedys, whilst bands like the aforementioned Man or Astro-Man? and The Mermen have been credited with a sparse revival of the original surf rock sound in the 1990s and beyond. In a similar fashion, the heavy use of surf rock in the soundtrack to the cult film Pulp Fiction in 1994 led to a moderate yet continuing popular interest in the genre since then.