Unique Feature Of Pink Floyd example essay topic

Pink Floyd is the top space-rock band. Ever since the mid-'60's, their music has sampled with electronics and all manner of special effects to push the "normal" format to their outer limits (Richie Unterberger). The band has wrestled with lyrical themes and concepts of such massive scale that their music has taken on almost classical quality, in both sound and words Richie Unterberger). The history of Pink Floyd is full of unfortunate obstacles although; they were musical and cultural pioneers, in that they sounded nothing like musical groups before them.

Pink Floyd started to experiment very quickly, they were stretching out songs with the wild instrumental freak-out passages incorporating feedback, electronic screeches, and unusual, eerie sounds created by loud amplification, reverb, and such tricks as sliding ball bearings up and down guitar strings (Richie Unterberger). In the mid 1960's they began to pick up following the London underground; onstage, they began to incorporate light shows to add a cool psychedelic effect like no band before them has ever done. One of the most amazing and important parts, of Pink Floyd is when Syd Barrett started to compose pop-psychedelic masterpieces that combined unusual psychedelic arrangements with catchy melodies and incisive lyrics that viewed the world with a sense of poetic, child-like wonder (Richie Unterberger). Few bands can match Pink Floyd's success.

Founded in 1965, the group at first relied heavily on guitarist Syd Barret, who handled vocals and wrote their early offbeat hits. Barrett was also one of the psychedelic era's most tragic acid casualties and he was replaced in 1968 By Gilmour, with bassist Roger Water emerging as the bands primary lyricist and force behind the band's two biggest albums (Fred Goodman). In an article that was written in the Rolling Stone magazine about Pink Floyd, a segment of the article read: "When people say they hear Pink Floyd in a group like Radio-head, I don't really see it", he says. "It must be a burden for those poor boys being referred to as the next Pink Floyd -- they deserve to be their own Radio-head. I think we " ve always stood out in our own category", said Gilmour.

Another unique feature of Pink Floyd is the way the songs are set up on the c. d. from other band's c. d., which is normally in chronological order by the year (Richie Unterberger). Instead of presenting songs in chronological order, Echoes moves back and forth between materials from all phases of the group's career, mixing the sometimes-unseen continuity between its different musical periods. Although the set gives Barrett the first and last word, beginning with his composition "Astronomy Domine" and ending with "Bike", both from the group's debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, each track fades into the next, regardless of when it was recorded. This was a strategy that was necessary, according to Gilmour (Richie Unterberger). In the beginning of 1968, Syd Barrett, their main songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist was replaced by David Gilmour.

The press, which had, up until this time, praised Pink Floyd's and Barrett's innovative musical style, was suddenly confronted with a Pink Floyd line-up that no longer included the musician that they had considered the driving force behind the band's music. Numerous journalists believed that this signaled the demise of the group and press reports about the band diminished (Vernon Fitch). It wasn't until the Pink Floyd free concert in Hyde Park, London, and the release of the second Pink Floyd album, A Saucer ful of Secrets, in June 1968, that the press began to, once again, praise the activities of the band. It was also at this time that Pink Floyd did a second tour of the United States, in July and August 1968, which resulted in the second series of published reviews of Pink Floyd concerts by the American music press (Vernon Fitch). Pink Floyd went through After making keyboardist Richard Wright leave from the band, Water himself quit in 1985 and entered into a legal brawl with Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason over their right to re-team with Wright and tour and record under the name Pink Floyd. Although Waters lost the fight, he and his former band mates still aren't on speaking terms sixteen years later.

This is just another obstacle that the band had to over come (Fred Goodman). The press coverage of Pink Floyd during the years 1966 through 1983 is entertaining and enlightening. Because of the immense pressure and stress and obsession with detail the press had for the band's music. It was a very stressful time and constant self-questioning period for the band (Vernon Fitch). These reports give a unique insight into the band and provide a look at how Pink Floyd was perceived during its formative years. Since interviews with band members are often included in these press reports, many facets of the band can be discovered, as told by the band members themselves.

As such, it is an interesting glimpse into the life and times of Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason (Vernon Fitch).