Surf rock, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Rock 1954
The whole family: guitar, bass, drums and a beat borrowed from blues and rhythm and blues. Every branch below grows out of this trunk, metal included.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Beatles - Revolver, if you want to understand why everything branched so fast.
The Beatles, Revolver (1966) - 2 Then
Rock and roll 1954
Ground zero: twelve-bar blues sped up, piano hammered hard, lyrics about cars and girls. It made the electric guitar the defining instrument of the century.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode. That opening riff is the DNA of the entire tree.
Chuck Berry, Chuck (2017) - 3 What you asked about
Surf rock 1961
Instrumental, drenched in tank reverb, with fast tremolo picking. The sound of the Californian coast, later recycled by punk and by Tarantino.
Instrumental. Usually no vocals at all.
- 4 Where to go next
Emo revival 2010
A new generation rediscovers the Midwest sound, this time with Bandcamp instead of fanzines.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Algernon Cadwallader - Some Kind of Cadwallader. Cap'n Jazz reincarnated, unapologetically.
Algernon Cadwallader, Some Kind of Cadwallader (2008)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Surf rock descends from, in order. Surf rock has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.