Genre: Surf Rock / Instrumental

The sun, the beach, palm trees, and a carefree (“mellow”) life style were the perfect atmosphere for surf boys to retreat in the shack to work on their guitar technique. With incredibly fast, rolling guitar riffs put in reverb, they created a washing sound that could easily imitate ocean waves and impress girls in that true Rock ‘n’ Roll heritage. Almost all Surf Rock is purely instrumental (hence the synonym Instrumental) and this draws even more attention towards the proficiency of its guitarists. Non-instrumental genres were often much slower and less technical, but also very popular, such as Sunshine Pop and California Sound. Pure Surf Rock with lyrics is called Surf Pop, of which the Beach Boys are by far the most well-known exponent.

Surf Rock features standard 4/4 Rock ‘n’ Roll riffs, yet spiced up by influences from Cuban malagueña songs (a type of Salsa). This made them so fast, catchy and addictive that everyone wanted to play them. Covering Surf Rock tunes from other bands was so common and tolerated, that eventually nobody knew anymore who actually made the original. This was non-commercial, DIY, fun music in its purest form, which sadly became almost completely extinct, because almost all bands cared too little for professional distribution or promotion of their music.