Pet Sounds Entry

The Beach Boys prior to their classic album Pet Sounds started the same way many pop artist would start; playing it safe. As many albums in the 60's were required of any artist, most artists avoided doing anything that would jeopardize their popularity or have the record label angry with them. The Beach Boys were very commercial yet unique enough to stand out in their early days, providing the image of a young band of "surfer boys" that rode waves that made their troubles wash away. Most of the songs written were just fun songs like Fun, Fun, Fun, and I Get Around, that appealed to teens around their age and promoted a good time, but never had much substance on life issues. Brain Wilson, the producer/songwriter of most of their songs, had a profound role in their success, and almost by himself concocted a shift from fun and females, to a story within the album when creating Pet Sounds. Phil Spector, a popular producer in Los Angeles at the time, was the one to draw a heavy influence on Wilson with heavy orchestration and more complex illustration to melodies. The single Why Do Fools Fall in Love was a song that shows the influence of Spector, with Wilson using the same instruments and musicians in his sessions. With these ideas in mind, Brain composed Good Vibrations, a single just before the Pet sounds album, and with this style brought things that were rarely heard in pop culture. An example of this was the complex harmonies and use of counter-point that The Beach Boys had that made them unique. Another example is layers of echo and double-tracking on the vocals that were not common in pop music at that time. Also, the concept of having a sort of story-line and packing it into one album was unheard of, in this case young love was the story; with many different baselines and pallets, and unique percussion was used in the album that is still mocked today. Being that Pet Sounds is the best 60's Rock album I've heard in my opinion, there is a lot that I can take from it, especially musically. When making songs, one thing I can look at this album for is originality and doing what is on your mind, like the catchy synthesizer in Good Vibrations. The harmony used in the vocals is one thing I find inspirational and remembering to use harmonies effectively, this album being one that give me chills when listening.