Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd was a British rock band formed in Cambridge in 1965 and lasting until 2015. With their music and the visual design of their records and stage performances, they created a novel style at the time. The number of records sold by the band varies between 260 and 300 million. This makes Pink Floyd one of the most successful bands ever. The concept album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) is the third best-selling album worldwide and the concept album The Wall (1979) is the best-selling double album.

Led by first vocalist and guitarist Syd Barrett, the band was initially part of the British psychedelic rock movement. After the frontman's departure in 1968 due to drug use and mental problems, the group developed an independent style with influences from progressive rock, blues, jazz as well as classical and new music in the line-up of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason (who was the only musician to contribute to all of the band's albums). The lyrics, written entirely by Waters from 1973 (The Dark Side of the Moon) to 1983 (The Final Cut), often deal critically with social and political issues.

Style

Innovative use of technology

Pink Floyd were the first to specifically use the Binson Echorec as an effects device to create, among other things, the bass lines of One of These Days (on Meddle). They also used analog sampling in the form of tapeloops. Pink Floyd had discovered this technique in 1970 with avant-garde artist Ron Geesin, who also collaborated on their album Atom Heart Mother. In particular, the technique was used on The Dark Side of the Moon, including the cash register loop of the song Money and the album intro Speak to Me.

In the studio, the band benefited from the recording conditions of Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles had already worked, and - on Atom Heart Mother and The Dark Side of the Moon - from the assistance of sound engineer Alan Parsons, who also acted as producer. In their live shows, Pink Floyd made the first live use of the technique of quadraphony (which they tested unsuccessfully on a number of albums), using what they called an azimuth coordinator to make pre-recorded sounds travel through the hall, including behind the audience. Finally, Pink Floyd was among the first rock bands to use (on the album The Dark Side of the Moon) a synthesizer as a central instrument, the EMS Synthi-AKS synthesizer. For example, the song On the Run is based almost entirely on a repetitive synthesizer sequence.

Instrumental

David Gilmour's playing styles were influenced by blues and rock 'n' roll as well as folk music. Typical blues techniques like bends and slides run through several famous solos. Gilmour mostly played Fender Stratocaster and Fender Telecaster electric guitars through Hiwatt amps with WEM (4×15) and Marshall (4×12) cabinets, and several effects pedals were also used. In addition, he played lap steel slide guitars, which can be heard on Breathe, The Great Gig in the Sky, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 6-9), High Hopes or One of These Days.

Richard Wright first used various organs, especially the sound of the Hammond B3 organ is characteristic. Synthesizers were used by Pink Floyd from 1972, the models EMS VCS 3 and Minimoog characterize his solo parts on the albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals. Wright learned to play the piano as a self-taught pianist. His earliest influences include Bach, Beethoven and Romantic composers. Like Gilmour later, he had a preference for using extended chords in his compositions. This approach was contrary to the compositional style of Roger Waters, who preferred simple chord progressions.

The characteristic sound is determined by Gilmour's melodic guitar playing and the sound carpets of Richard Wright. Unlike the bands of the simultaneously blossoming progressive rock, the rhythm section around electric bass and drums takes a rather subordinate role. Odd meters like the 7/8 time in the intro and the verse of Money are the exception rather than the rule, the compositions move mainly in the down- to midtempo range. Typical for the bass playing is the accentuated change between the chord root and its octave note, complemented by varying transitions. Nick Mason's drumming generally stays discreetly in the background, while offering subtle nuances. In particular, each of his breaks is individual and distinct.

Song

After Syd Barrett's departure as frontman, the vocals were usually split between David Gilmour and Roger Waters, sometimes even within a song. Richard Wright also occasionally took over a second voice. Nick Mason's voice can only be heard on a few tracks: In One of These Days he says the only line of the track, "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces", while in Corporal Clegg he sings alternately with David Gilmour in the verse. Both The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here albums feature a guest vocalist on one track each: Soul singer Clare Torry improvised a vocal performance to the piano chords of The Great Gig in the Sky; singer-songwriter Roy Harper appeared as the vocalist on Have a Cigar, as Waters did not feel up to the song at the time. Choirs were used in quite different musical contexts on Pink Floyd: Atom Heart Mother contains a passage lasting several minutes in which a mixed choir performs melodic fragments to the accompaniment of organ, bass and drums with increasing intensity. The inclusion of a group of female soul singers at several points on The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here serves primarily to round out the atmosphere. Finally, as one of the best-known Pink Floyd singles, Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 was sung halfway through (second verse) by a student choir.

Influences on later bands

The Krautrock bands Amon Düül, Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru, Novalis, Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream are strongly influenced by the Pink Floyd sound. Tangerine Dream released the album Madcap's Flaming Duty in 2007, conceived as a tribute to Syd Barrett. While Amon Düül was more oriented towards the sound experiments of the "psychedelic phase" of Pink Floyd music, Tangerine Dream followed more the music of the "programmatic phase" with its long held out harmonies and structures.

Porcupine Tree quoted passages from the Animals album, the song Dogs in their song Time Flies.

The British new artrock band Crippled Black Phoenix is more often compared to Pink Floyd, among others. Their third EP called Oh'Ech-Oes contains exclusively reinterpretations of the songs Echoes from the Pink Floyd album Meddle and Childhood End's from Obscured by Clouds.

Pink Floyd's music has had a formative influence on numerous musicians. Especially bands from the progressive rock scene like Yes, Tool, Porcupine Tree, Pure Reason Revolution, RPWL, Shamall, Solar Project and Pallas pick up musical means and styles of Pink Floyd. Dream Theater played the complete album The Dark Side of the Moon live in 2005.

Musicians of new age music like Kitarō borrowed much of their musical essence and techniques from Pink Floyd.

The metal bands Anathema, The Gathering and Tiamat are also influenced by the music of Pink Floyd. Tiamat recorded the apparently Pink Floyd-inspired concept album Wildhoney in 1994. Bands like Fields of the Nephilim and some industrial bands also have their roots partly in Pink Floyd's music.

At concerts or as studio recordings, musicians of various styles covered Pink Floyd songs, including Pearl Jam (Interstellar Overdrive), the Foo Fighters with Brian May (Have a Cigar) and later with Roger Waters (In The Flesh?), the Scissor Sisters (Comfortably Numb), Nightwish (High Hopes), Wyclef Jean (Wish You Were Here), Korn (Another Brick in the Wall), Shadows Fall (Welcome to the Machine) as well as the Bloodhound Gang and the ska band The Busters.

Furthermore, several bands completely covered the commercially most successful album The Dark Side of the Moon. The Flaming Lips, for example, presented their interpretation of the classic as Flaming Side of the Moon.

In addition, there are tribute bands around the world that perform Pink Floyd songs true to the works, including The Australian Pink Floyd Show and Echoes.

Discography