Beach Boys Recording Techniques

For The Beach Boys, they showed how a disputing country can give rise to profound music by creating an album that brought song writing and production to a whole new level. This was a time when creativity was omnipresent. People were open to experimentation, analysis and tentation with no boundaries. The Beach Boys were one of the first bands to explore just how far they could take popular music without leaving the genre’s unadorned nature - a trend that was closely followed by other highly regarded bands an musicians of this era, such as The Beatles and David

The Beach Boys were known for their iconic surf music sound. Surf music became a popular genre in the 1960s emerging from the huge surf craze in California. After

In this essay I will be critically analysing and evaluating ‘The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers album in relation to their associated genre, their lyrics, their musical creativity, their social and political context, their overall impact on music and popular culture and

For thousands of years, music has been influencing people in extraordinary ways. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band should not be mistaken as an ordinary album. Without a doubt, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, an incredibly innovative album, stands as the most influential album of all time; it stands as a true masterpiece. People all around, especially artists, were influenced greatly by the innovations the album brought to the world of music. Many people have said that from the moment they heard the first track of the album, it was life changing. Like the first falling domino tile of a domino show, June 1, 1967, would mark the start of the influence of many generations of music to come. The album helped popularize concept albums, in which songs are connected to a theme, which would inspire many musicians to do the same. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a psychedelic rock album; a manifestation of life in the 1960’s. This genre of rock is home to the work of numerous artists who were influenced by the album’s use of this style of rock. The hours of work put into by the Beatles to create this album surpassed those of any of their albums. Not only that, it altered the way music was recorded by creating their own recording techniques. Surely, these recording techniques and tactics were used by future artists in their work which then led to the creation of legendary music. Sgt. Pepper’s opened the gate to innovation; an album whose impact on

This creates a beautiful blending of the two parts together and shows that this song was written to showcase the vocals.

For example, when you were a teenager were you signing deals with record labels and traveling around the country to perform? Late in October of 1961, The Beach Boys recorded demos of their first two surfing songs, which hit the charts and scored them a record deal with Capitol Records. (Kemp) Their hit single “Good Vibrations” and the album “Pet Sounds” joined the other two songs on the charts. These four are generally known as the band’s greatest hits. In the late 60’s Brian Wilson suffered from a nervous breakdown and stopped touring. He claimed that everything he was doing for the group was too much. (The Orchard) When he was gone he experimented with sounds and harmonies, which later became more of the backgrounds of their popular songs. (Kemp) The Beach Boys started to fall, so they flew to Europe to perform for the first time. In both the United States and in Europe many people described them as “teenage symphonies to God.” Later in that decade the band was joined by many other artists such as Blondie Chaplin, Ricky Fataar, and Bruce Johnston. (The Orchard) The successes and prosperities of The Beach Boys will remain golden

The artist chooses an upbeat and happy tempo that repeats throughout the song. He chooses this repeating tempo to draw the listener’s attention to the lyrics of the song. The slow, yet happy tempo paired with the artists bright and cheery voice creates a sense of ease and happiness within the song itself, and the audience.

In the music industry, it is not uncommon for original songs to be rerecorded and altered by other artists resulting in what is known as a cover song. One example of this situations occurrence can be seen in Vance Joy’s indie folk-pop song, “Riptide”, that was famously covered by pop and country crossover artist, Taylor Swift. Overall, there are many factors that go into the relationship between an original and cover song and the artists of each song. Such as both artist’s connection to the song and the relationship between the artists themselves. There are also differences between the original and cover songs themselves including song structure, instrumentation, vocals, lyrics, and lyrical meaning.

Darlene, played in a happy upbeat major key opens with a “one, two, three, four” allegro tempo count-in from John Bonham, which gives the song quadruple meter. Very similar to the take that eventually surfaced on “Coda”, it pummels along in friendly conjunct legato form, live in the studio style. This is clearly a consonant harmony, exemplifying verse and chorus form. Robert Plant’s vocal mix set can be detected after the “Pink carnation and a pick up truck” line. From that point he accompanies Jimmy Page’s delightful fortissimo solo adding, “I don’t care what they say, I love you anyway, I’ll drive you wild .” Like most of these Polar mixes, instead of fading out; the homophonic track grinds to a halt with a tinkling of John Paul Jones’ electric piano played mezzo forte.

The reality is that the language in these songs gives to the listener can give them a dream of finding true love. The language gives hope to the listener that there is that one person they will love out there, but this also plays into the fear of heartbreak. Heartbreak was also discussed a great amount and is something that most people tend to fear. Another way that these songs play towards people’s fears and dreams is through social class and money. While social class is one of the most common issues, the lyrics and videos manage to give followers the images of how a luxurious lifestyle can lead to happiness and love.

The song opens with a heavily gated bass line, this was done live many times before the recording, but it was the new gating technology that was mentioned earlier that allowed them to get the tick tock

"Because tonight you are in my hair and eyes,/ And every street light that our taxi passes shows me you again,/ still you,/ And because tonight all other nights are black, all other hours are/ cold and far away, and now, this minute, the stars are very/ near and bright"(22-27).

This time in music was one of the most changing for the future of music in history. There were many different things that changed in many of the way songs were created. One of the most noticeable songs like this is a Beach Boys song. “Good Vibrations” was created by the genius mind of Brain Wilson. The song was supposed to be on the album “Pet Sounds”. Wilson wanted the song to be perfect so it did not make it on the album. So perfect in fact that they recorded the song for seven months and at the time it cost almost $400,000. It was the record at the time for most money spent on a single. The song was made with very different sounds that had never been used in music before. The other thing that is so different from any other song is that there are three parts of the songs

Believe it or not, on January 1st of 1962, the group known as The Beatles flunked their audition at Decca Records in London, England. The label’s executive, Dick Rowe, brushed them off like they were nothing. He simply stated that “guitar groups are on the way out.” Little did Rowe know, The Beatles would soon conquer modern society and alter the course of pop and rock music. There have been no other entertainers in the history of music that has been so popular, influential, or as groundbreaking as The Beatles. In the early 1960’s, their popularity was often called “Beatlemania,” as thousands of screaming fans would crowd their concerts and sing-along with the Fab Four. They sold over 600 million albums internationally and had 20 Number One hit singles – a Billboard record that has yet to be broken. The band took over the entertainment media with music videos and films, but also influenced sociocultural, political, and fashion movements throughout the sixties and seventies. From experimenting with several different genres to incorporating classical elements into their melodies, The Beatles still reigns as one of the most creative and successful bands several decades later. Today, fifty years later, The Beatles and their music are still engraved in the hearts of many.

Synthi AKS synthesiser came out just a year before this album’s recording, and this synthesizer was used to play the 8 note sequence. A white noise was also added on this to created hi-hut kind of sound.