[Released on May 11, 1964, “I Get Around” would go on to become the first #1 hit for The Beach Boys. To celebrate that sunny anniversary, this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of beachtastic texts, leading up to a repeat Guest Post from one of our up-and-coming BeachStudiers!]
On three
ways to contextualize the iconic beach band (beyond the early 60s surfing
culture contexts I wrote about in Monday’s post).
1)
Kids and Cars: I’ve long noted that the one
layer of Bruce Springsteen’s work that has never quite resonated with me is his
obsession
with cars; that perspective of mine hasn’t changed, but it’s certainly
worth noting that the intersection of car
culture and American rock music long predates the Boss. The Beach Boys certainly
did their part to contribute to that tradition, including one of their biggest early
hits “Little Deuce Coupe”
(1963) among many,
many others. And they, along with the role of car culture in films like Rebel
Without a Cause (1955), can help me appreciate just how much cars contributed
to the period’s youth counter-culture; not everyone had an ocean to surf, and
most folks couldn’t make a guitar talk, but just about every American kid could
dream of getting away from it all in a coupe.
2)
The Beatles and Competition: The Beach Boys
and their surfing and car songs might have dominated the first couple years of
the 1960s (alongside all the surfing culture I discussed on Monday), but soon
enough a different oceanic influence would take over the American musical and cultural
landscape—the invasion
of The Beatles and so many contemporary and subsequent bands from across
the Atlantic. The Beach Boys were on the same record label, Capitol Records,
as The Beatles U.S. releases, and apparently Brian
Wilson in particular was very frustrated by all the attention the Fab Four
received, later noting that The Beatles “eclipsed a lot we’d worked for,
eclipsed the whole music world.” While of course Wilson’s
psychological state was famously fragile and such stressors didn’t help, it’s
nonetheless also the case that the competition with The Beatles led The Beach
Boys to create one of the most experimental, unique, and greatest albums in
American rock history, Pet Sounds (1966),
which would go on to directly
influence The Beatles as well.
3)
“Kokomo” and Classic Rock: The question of
when rock
music turns into “classic rock” is an interpretative one, and of course one
that can make fans feel real old. I would argue that as early as 1971, with
their album Surf’s Up, The Beach Boys were
making music that was overtly designed to tap into nostalgia for their earlier
music and that early 60s surfing craze, which could be a case for calling that
album “classic rock.” But while that’s a debatable point, I don’t think anyone
would argue that 1988’s “Kokomo,”
which was recorded for the Cocktail
soundtrack and became the group’s first #1 hit since Pet Sounds, was anything other than an overt (and entirely successful)
attempt to recapture those 1960s vibes, one that extended into an entire album,
Still
Cruisin’ (1989). Which went platinum, proving that, fresh or classic,
there remains a place for beachtastic pop music.
Guest Post
this weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other beachtastic texts you’d highlight?
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