4. Surf Music

During the mid 1960's, few American groups were able to compete with the wave of British music that dominated the pop charts. However, in California, several American bands were trying to change all that by combining two of their state's favorite pastimes: music and surfing. The result was what we now refer to as Surf Music, and the beach in the 1960's would not have been the same without it.

Surf Culture

As the rest of the nation was obsessing over the Beatles, Californians were busy making their own kind of music. Even though it had been around for a while, the sport of surfing was becoming very popular in California in the early 1960's. As more and more Californians caught onto the fad, an entire culture began to form. Along with it, a new style of music was born.

There are two kinds of surf music; instrumental and vocal.