Surf Rock

 Surf Culture

Associated with the surfer culture of southern California, particularly Orange County, were these new forms of rock & roll, dubbed “Surf Rock”, “Surf Pop” and “Garage Rock”. Surf rock and garage rock are fast paced, often instrumental forms of rock & roll music with sometimes, just the titles of the songs distinguishing them between “surf” or “Hot Rod”. “Surf Pop” consisted mostly of love ballads and songs utilizing vocal harmonies and rhythms.

The early 60s brought on, in California, a culture of surfer dudes and babes by day and drag racing, hot rods and mayhem by night.  This was a time just before the rise of the “beach party” films, which “cashed in” on the scene, while not giving an accurate depiction of the scene. However, Southern California’s influence on later rock & roll culture is immortalized in the movie “American Graffiti”, a movie by George Lucas, starring Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfus, Harrison Ford and many other familiar actors in their youth.

At the dawn of the 60s, rock & roll, in particularly “Vocal R&B (Doo-Wop)”, was at its peak in the mainstream. The west coast answered with this new, high energy music and culture that, for a couple of years (starting in 62), would share the ride on the mainstream with R&B, before being interrupted by the British Invasion and folk-rock.