Only twenty two years into my life and I have yet to meet one person who has not at least heard about Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon. The album released in March of 1973, yet it still resonates with all the subsequent generations that have followed. As of today, there have been approximately 50 million copies sold since its release forty years ago.

Pink Floyd was already a somewhat popular group in the UK and Europe before the release of Dark Side but they had yet to gain popularity in the US. When they released Dark Side, it raced up the charts in the US and within a week, it was #1 on the Billboard top 200 albums chart. The album would stay on the charts worldwide for 741 weeks, which is about fourteen years. The album was an international success yet they did not rely on singles to get it there. The only single to come off the album was “Money” which jumped to #13 on the charts. Many people still list Dark Side as one of the best and most influential albums of all time to this day.

An album with a reach so far across so many different types of people is bound to have a very wide impact on other artists and popular music in general. There have been tribute bands created all over the world as well as many other artists who have performed entire covers of Dark Side live. Many artists have recorded complete cover versions as well while giving the albums funky names derived from the original.

The simple concepts of the album were extremely relatable to many people. Concepts such as war, money, madness, and time are things most everyone can apply to their own lives. The poetic delivery of the lyrics and the amazing soundscapes created by the band instantly captivated all who heard it. At least that was the experience that my friends and I had when we first heard it in our early high school years.

The album was not only a success because of the lyrical content and delivery but all the technical tricks and techniques that the group included as well. Although most of the ideas came from the band, the engineer Alan Parsons and the producer Chris Thomas had played a crucial part in the making of the album too. Together the group of musicians and studio employees created a masterpiece.

As a listener and an industry professional, the Dark Side of the Moon has had a profound affect on the way I think and the way I go about my work. Since I had first heard the album I was captivated, the lyrics allowed me to look deep inside myself while I drifted away on the flowing soundscapes cycling through my head. The whole album was just so mysterious and unique, yet it covered topics that were part of everyday life. While I wrote my own songs and lyrics, I melded that idea of writing about everyday topics in an artful way into my work. I especially took hold to the subject of madness because I felt like that was a very important subject in my early teens. I asked myself questions like “How do you know if your crazy?” or I would wonder if others felt just as crazy as I did at times. I suppose it really struck my interest in psychology and how the mind works in those early years of my life.

As I continue to further my career in the music industry, I will always take parts of what I have learned from this album with me. Although nothing I have directly learned from this album will set me apart from everyone else in the industry. The way that I project my perception of its messages in my own words and style will give me the edge. When I look towards the next five years of my career, my ultimate goal is to create music that touches people in such a way that Pink Floyd and other artists have over the years. I aspire to use simple topics in an artful way while surrounding them with interesting soundscapes that transport my listeners such as Dark Side has done for many others. Learning about a band like this really gives me hope about my future especially since they never expected the album to become such a success. Overall, it has taught me that I have to do something that I believe in and that I feel confident in and great things can happen.