1. I think it would be more accurate to describe them, at least in today's terms, as pop. But words like "rock" or "pop" (or even "R&B") are broad, nebulous and not fixed over time. "Pop" has been used - since before rock existed - to describe whatever music is broadly popular at the time. Certainly the pop of, say, 1935 sounds nothing like the Beach Boys. It can be used to distinguish pop from purely classical or "high art" music (how it was originally used - and still is here and there, as in "Boston Pops"), and also from more rough-edged, unpolished songs (how it's more commonly used today). The better term would probably be "pop rock," but that one has sort of fallen into disuse because it's so often used dismissively.
If you look at the whole spectrum of music, many of the Beach Boys' most popular songs (not Pet Sounds so much) fall into the broad rock category and, if because of the era when recorded, also the rock-n-roll pigeonhole. They have drums, a backbeat, electric guitars and simple verse-chorus-verse structures, and common chord progressions appear frequently. I'm pretty sure "Sweet Little Sixteen" was considered rock-n-roll when Chuck Berry played it; it would be strange if "Surfin' USA" weren't also (though it is somewhat tidier). Yeah, they also mixed in songs that were completely non-rock, but most of the hits were rock.
Another note: When the Beach Boys first came along, music that fit the broad rock category was just one part of the universe of what was popular (sold records, played on the radio, popped up in TV shows, etc.), so the broad category drew a distinction. In the late '70s and '80s - when pretty nearly all of the most popular music was, broadly speaking, rock - calling something "rock" was meaningless. Finer terms and distinctions were necessary. While older listeners may not be away of it, we're now moving into a world where rock is a relatively small genre that's off on the edge of the commercial mainstream.
2. I'm not sure what you're "setting straight" here. Everything you say is explicitly said in the movie. Many Beach Boys songs were about surfing (so the media referred to that), but there was a pre-existing genre (originally soundtrack music from surf movies) that they never claimed or tried to be a part of. If you're somewhat narrow about the term, to be surf music it has to be instrumental. If you want to get precise, it has to be played (a) on a Stratocaster, (b) with extremely fast tremolo picking and (c) by Dick Dale.
3. Again, I'm not seeing any "setting straight" here. That's exactly how he was portrayed in the movie. I don't know if the truth is consistent, but it seems to be from what I can tell.
4. I'll take "we all" in the sense of, "the people in a particular subculture." It certainly isn't true of the population as a whole. Anyway, that's also not wildly inconsistent with the movie, though it's kind of a huge oversimplification. There were obviously differences between Brian and Wilson and "the rest of us" before he even got into drugs. He was always an odd guy.
5. What's portrayed in the movie is, I think, the notion that the Beach Boys felt themselves to be in competition with the Beatles, which I think is accurate. The Beatles never appear in the movie, so I don't see how you could read it as stating that the Beatles felt they were in competition with the Beach Boys.
It's kind of outside of the movie, but it's pretty well established that the Beatles did sit up and take note of Pet Sounds.
6. Whatever.
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Alyse_MA
9 years ago
Would you call this surf music (Wikipedia does, I think)?
Santo & Johnny - Sleepwalk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1st_9KudWB0
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johnston.scot
9 years ago
No, but it's at least somewhat in the right direction. The rhythm isn't there. Also, I don't think steel guitar is really surf, though I'm sure there's some legitimate surf song that has some in it.
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bsharporflat
9 years ago
No, but it's at least somewhat in the right direction. The rhythm isn't there. Also, I don't think steel guitar is really surf, though I'm sure there's some legitimate surf song that has some in it.
Slide steel guitar is a staple of Hawaiian music so it makes sense for California "surf music" to want to incorporate that sound into the new rock n' roll style of the time.
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cableaddict
7 years ago
Reply to @Johnston:
Just one correction: Most guitarists that play "surf music," both then and now, did not used Stratocasters. Even though Dick Dale DID play a Strat (without a whammy bar, no less!) that is not considered the best axe for the genre. The Jazzmaster & the Jaguar both give a thinner, more jangly sound, due in part cheaper tremelos, and are wisely considered better suited to the genre.
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