You know that feeling you get when you notice something delightfully off-putting like an actor saying a very specific word a strange way, and you know you'll never be able to unhear it? That's how I feel about pop music and The Beach Boys' magnum opus Pet Sounds. Once you've fully dived into composer Brian Wilson's pocket symphony of lush orchestral arrangements and everyday noises, you won't be able to hear modern pop songs the same way again.
Do you like how Katy Perry and Lady Gaga are able to capture the carefree silliness of being a teenager? Pet Sounds pioneered that style of songwriting. Or maybe you're similar to me and you prefer pop music that has some kind of statement to make about people (whatever that means), so you listen to Radiohead or Sufjan Stevens. Pet Sounds is to blame for the way both artists blend the two seemingly disparate worlds of traditional acoustic instrumentation and the electronic loops we hear in some form or another in every day life.
Then again, there's always the more realistic possibility, thanks to the unlimited access to all music given to us by the internet, that your music taste doesn't fall on one side of the musical spectrum so you're able to appreciate it all. Pet Sounds offers one of the earliest instances of pop music being treated as a genre that is more than just goofy songs for kids to dance to. Brian Wilson found a way to essentially craft top 40 hits that deserve the same amount of musical analysis as classical works.
He did this by using the studio as his instrument while his bandmates were on tour. With the large quantity of time and resources at his disposal, Wilson (22 at the time) devised a way to take the essential instruments in pop music (drums, guitar, bass) and add a huge array of new ideas to the genre. This was achieved by heavily mixing woodwinds, brass instruments, harpsichords and buzzing organs with the sounds of dogs barking, trains passing by and bicycle bells honking.
The effect is at once just as familiar as your own voice, but also just as unique. You can hear the melodies and revolutionary approach to music production everywhere you turn your ear, while still recognizing that no one captured the magic the same way Brian Wilson did. He opened the door for The Beatles to make Sgt. Pepper and on a larger scale he gave us the fully formed concept that a record can be so much more than merely a collection of songs. You can embrace the LP format to develop a mood over several interconnected songs and guide a listener along a personal journey purely made up of sound.
And that is the true legacy of Pet Sounds.
What are your favorite pop songs?
