The Beach Boys have been an iconic American pop rock band for over fifty years. During their early years, The Beach Boys mostly covered topics such as surfing, fun in the sun, young love, and hot rods. The band was at the forefront of the California sunshine and surf image that swept the nation. The music was happy, fun, and playful while still wielding complex harmonic content. The combination of all these concepts gave the music a huge commercial appeal for teens throughout America.  As the band members matured, so did their music. If you listen to their albums chronologically from Surfin’ Safari to Pet Sounds, you can sense an evolution in the instrumentation as well as the lyrical content.

Brian Wilson was the mastermind behind The Beach Boys. He was the founding member and the leader. Brian also wrote, arranged, and produced the majority of the music for the group. Throughout most of his career, he had utilized collaborators such as Mike Love, Gary Usher, and Tony Asher mostly for lyrical content as well. In 1965, Brian decided that he would not tour with the band any longer. He dedicated his time to writing and producing songs for the group at home. This is when Brian and the music started to really evolve. Over the years, Brian had been studying the techniques of Phil Spector and his wall of sound and it really started to show. The complexity started to reveal itself as Brian had more and more time to mill out his fine musical products.

In late 1965 when the Beatles had released Rubber Soul, Brian heard the album and immediately went to work on Pet Sounds. He wanted to create something better not only compared to the Beatles but compared to his own work as well. The whole idea behind Pet Sounds was to write songs based on how Brian felt; He wanted to show his soul to the world. Brian once again called on the talent of a group of session musicians called the Wrecking Crew who had worked with him previously. Brian had also called upon Tony Asher who worked at an ad agency to help write the lyrics for the Pet Sounds Album. One of the unique characteristics about this album was the way that Brian layered instruments together to create these complex forged sounds. He would layer several basses together or several guitars or even flutes and a glockenspiel like in the beginning of Sloop John B. This is essentially Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound technique but Brian had kept morphing it into different applications that Spector never explored. Brian used many different instruments for this album including the bass harmonica, accordions, orchestral instruments, and all types of percussion alongside the typical rock instruments. This album was also unique because it was a successful attempt to get away from the novelty songs that the Beach Boys had previously written about with the surf and sun scene.

This album has had a substantial impact on me as a listener and as a music industry professional. Just as Brian Wilson had pushed the limits of his time and technology, I crave to do the same thing. Learning about the ways that Brian had created these extraordinary sounds has given me the feeling that he had when he was competing with the Beatles. I want to create something that can match a masterpiece album such as this. The matured emotions of this album really resonate with me. I am grateful that Brian Wilson and his team had brought all of this work together for the world.