California sound
At first, it was conflated with the California myth, an idyllic setting inspired by the state's beach culture that commonly appeared in the lyrics of commercial pop songs.
[7][8] Along with Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys encapsulated surfing, hot rod culture, and youthful innocence within music which transformed a local lifestyle into American mythology.
The California sound gradually evolved to reflect a more musically ambitious and mature worldview, becoming less to do with surfing and cars and more about social consciousness and political awareness.
[10] Between 1964 and 1969, it fueled innovation and transition, inspiring artists to tackle largely unmentioned themes such as sexual freedom, black pride, drugs, oppositional politics, other countercultural motifs, and war.
[11][12] It helped launch the 1960s folk-rock scene,[13] represented by groups such as the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Buffalo Springfield, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash, who became associated with the Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon.
[19][6][20][21] While the band's leader Brian Wilson then collaborated with Jan Berry for several hit singles written and produced for other artists, they recorded what would later be regarded as the California sound.
[22][23] University of Southern California history professor Kevin Starr has stated that the band was historically important for embodying the era of the Silent Generation, which he described as unpolitical.
Cars and the beach, surfing, the California Girl, all this fused in the alembic of youth: Here was a way of life, an iconography, already half-released into the chords and multiple tracks of a new sound.
[31] AllMusic's review of the group's "All Summer Long" calls it a "potent example" of the California myth's "idyllic dream world of sun, surf, and fun" while containing qualities of sunshine pop.
While 'I Get Around' symbolized the sunshine ideal in all its carefree splendor, 'Don't Worry Baby' suggested something entirely more pensive and even slightly dark underneath its pristine facade.
"[23] The Beach Boys continued expanding their version of the California myth until it could no longer be confined to pop music terrain, transcending the limits of genre, commercial expectations, and geography.
The duo helped create a major new market revolving around the California sound, allowing musicians Bruce Johnston (who would later join The Beach Boys) and Terry Melcher to turn their attention to the Rip Chords, a group who then had hits with the hot-rod themed "Hey Little Cobra" and pseudo-surf "Summer Means Fun".
Usher’s songs included "In My Room" and "The Lonely Surfer" and Christian’s hits numbered "Surf City", "Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "Don’t Worry Baby".
[38] Melcher's "commercially golden formula" with the Byrds was immediately co-opted by many Los Angeles–based recording artists such as the Turtles, the Leaves, Sonny & Cher, and Barry McGuire.
"[42] By 1966, Wilson had already begun moving away from the supposed lightweight themes that had established his group's image,[43][44] expressing a willingness to "get out of the Eisenhower mindset" as told by collaborator Van Dyke Parks.
Commencing with its post-Eisenhower narrative and insulated complacency, the early California sound was predicated on Wilson, Usher, and Melcher's simple fun-in-the-sun ideals.
"[2] In alphabetical order, the artists mentioned are: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Dead Kennedys, Fleetwood Mac, Germs, Green Day, Guns N' Roses, Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, Kendrick Lamar, Love, Mötley Crüe, N.W.A, No Doubt, Queens of the Stone Age, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sly & the Family Stone, Snoop Dogg, the Beach Boys, the Doors, the Go-Go's, the Grateful Dead, the Offspring, Tupac Shakur, and X.
