Surf music

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1966, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music. It has two major forms: largely instrumental surf rock, with an electric guitar or saxophone playing the main melody and vocal surf pop, including both surf ballads and dance music, often with strong harmonies. Many notable surf bands have been equally noted for both surf instrumental and surf pop music, so surf music is generally considered as a single genre despite the variety of these styles. During the later stages of the surf music craze, many groups started to leave surfing behind and write songs about cars and girls; this was later known as hot rod rock.