| rock-'n'-roll music from California in the early 1960s, characterized by close treble harmonies and with lyrics emphasizing the exhilaration of surfing and beach life. |
| Main Entry: | surf music |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | a type of popular music started in the 1960s and based on the beach and surfing life, characterized by high harmonized vocals |
surf music
genre of popular music that arose in southern California in the early 1960s. As the sport of surfing became increasingly popular on the West Coast of the United States, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones provided the soundtrack, 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 to 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).
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