Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective

Good Vibrations brings together scholars with a variety of expertise,from music to cultural studies to literature, to assess the full extentof the contributions to popular culture and popular music of one themost successful and influential pop bands of the 20th century. Thebook covers the full fifty-year history of the Beach Boys’ music, fromessays on some of the group’s best-known music-such as their hitsingle Good Vibrations -to their mythical unfinished masterpiece,Smile. Throughout, the book places special focus on the individualwhose creative vision brought the whole enterprise to life, Brian Wilson,advancing our understanding of his gifts as a songwriter, arranger, andproducer.

The book joins a growing body of literature on the popular music of the1960s, in general, and on Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in particular.But Good Vibrations extends the investigation further and deeper thanit has gone before, not only offering new understanding and insightsinto individual songs and albums, but also providing close examinationof compositional techniques and reflections on the group’s place inAmerican popular culture.