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Music Matters
Why the Beach Boys Matter
Of all the white American pop music groups that hit the charts before the Beatles, only the Beach Boys continued to thrive throughout the British Invasion to survive into the 1970s and beyond. The Beach Boys helped define both sides of the era we broadly call the sixties, split between their early surf, car, and summer pop and their later hippie, counterculture, and ambitious rock. No other group can claim the Ronettes and the Four Seasons as early 1960s rivals; the Mamas and the Papas and Crosby, Stills and Nash as later 1960s rivals; and the Beatles and the Temptations as decade-spanning counterparts.
This is the first book to take an honest look at the themes running through the Beach Boys’ art and career as a whole and to examine where they sit inside our culture and politics—and why they still grab our attention.
This is the first book to take an honest look at the themes running through the Beach Boys’ art and career as a whole and to examine where they sit inside our culture and politics—and why they still grab our attention.
- GenresMusicNonfictionHistory
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 1, 2019
On page 84 Tom is contemplating Pet Sounds:
I sometimes wonder if the album's long-term elevated reputation is really the result of a lot of sensitive old white men like me rising to positions of influence and power.
It's a good question. In 20 years or so, all these old white sensitive guys will be dead or in a home somewhere and the new management will have taken over the lists of Greatest Albums Ever. May we then see Pet Sounds around the 97 mark, rather than either No 1 or No 2? Yes we will. But does that have anything to do with the intrinsic greatness of Pet Sounds? No, not at all. It's not just that these greatest ever movies/songs/albums/novels lists are rubbish, even though all of them are quite sincere. It's that I'm not sure if people can listen to the past, watch the past, read the past, as the past speeds away in the rear view.
We now have around 100 years of recorded popular music. That's a lot to cope with.
All the great music of the past will be overwhelmed by the great music of the future. (You may not think it's great, I may not think it's great, but they will.) So you will have to be a real geek in the year 2050 to be listening to stuff recorded in the year 2019 never mind the 1960s.
I can't prove this but I believe the only novels written before 1950 read by people who aren't doing an Eng Lit course are by Jane Austen. Maybe occasionally Wuthering Heights gets a look in. Otherwise, forget it. Maybe in 2050 a couple of Beatles tunes will be the Jane Austen of popular music. Maybe not even that. And also, maybe none of this is anything to squawk about given that by 2050 people will have a lot more pressing matters than what was the greatest ever pop album. Imminent environmental catastrophe, for one.
I sometimes wonder if the album's long-term elevated reputation is really the result of a lot of sensitive old white men like me rising to positions of influence and power.
It's a good question. In 20 years or so, all these old white sensitive guys will be dead or in a home somewhere and the new management will have taken over the lists of Greatest Albums Ever. May we then see Pet Sounds around the 97 mark, rather than either No 1 or No 2? Yes we will. But does that have anything to do with the intrinsic greatness of Pet Sounds? No, not at all. It's not just that these greatest ever movies/songs/albums/novels lists are rubbish, even though all of them are quite sincere. It's that I'm not sure if people can listen to the past, watch the past, read the past, as the past speeds away in the rear view.
We now have around 100 years of recorded popular music. That's a lot to cope with.
All the great music of the past will be overwhelmed by the great music of the future. (You may not think it's great, I may not think it's great, but they will.) So you will have to be a real geek in the year 2050 to be listening to stuff recorded in the year 2019 never mind the 1960s.
I can't prove this but I believe the only novels written before 1950 read by people who aren't doing an Eng Lit course are by Jane Austen. Maybe occasionally Wuthering Heights gets a look in. Otherwise, forget it. Maybe in 2050 a couple of Beatles tunes will be the Jane Austen of popular music. Maybe not even that. And also, maybe none of this is anything to squawk about given that by 2050 people will have a lot more pressing matters than what was the greatest ever pop album. Imminent environmental catastrophe, for one.
March 11, 2021
Fantastic. This is not a biography, but an ambitious exploration into what the Beach Boys meant throughout their career and what they mean now. And Tom Smucker goes deep. It's incredible.
'What did those harmonies mean? (this question floored me). Sometimes they were a part of the palette, a piece of the orchestration, a technique used to underscore or highlight a phrase. And sometimes, for the Beach Boys, the give-and-take between solo, duet, and five-part harmony could articulate the tension between, support for, and interdependence of the individual and the group. This is a great theme in Beach boys music and biography, with the group itself a shifting and frequently unstable mix of crew, friends, family, spouses, artistic collaborators, and business partners, It's the ultimate tension between Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys".
Smucker understands the larger narrative of the Beach Boys and how, down to the most granular detail, it was forged out of the miasma and awkwardness of the Boys' post-Pet Sounds years, through their 70s comeback and subsequent second decline. He understands how the Beach Boys, in their stumbling and struggling, reflected and resonated with their fans and the 60s writ large.
"The idea that the great intuitive genius of white American sixties pop was frightened by his own creation and slept through much of the next decade resonates for many of us who shared that time and space, and it has become a part of the mythology of the era for those born later. And this idea links to the not-always-acknowledged negative undercurrents that were an important component of the Beach Boys' appeal from the beginning, and which became an enduring part of their appeal in the end."
Smucker chronicles at the length the Beach Boys' efforts to adapt into their changing landscape, down to most recent iteration of Mike Love (who is treated more gently than I expected) and his group's willfully ignorant and regressive live show.
"Or maybe much of the Beach Boys' audience has actually returned to the fantasy world of 1957 since that song (Disney Girls 1957) was first performed"
I loved so much about this book. There are definitely some big swings:
"Representing prosperity's new leisure, surfing could simply stand for lots of fun time at the beach. Or it could pull together a new complex of deeper meanings: an ecstatic, dangerous, fun-loving negotiation with nature at the West Coast conclusion of the conquest of the continent - white youth paddling out beyond the reach of puritanism, patriotism, and maybe straight, square life itself, and then surfing back to shore.
But I was all in. Smucker is the ultimate superfan, but retains incredible perspective, painting a fair portrait of the band itself but also their place in a larger American culture with respect to politics, class, and race. He is careful not to deify Brian or villainize Mike (that Brian is absent from the cover is a statement or an incredibly odd and lazy choice by the publisher, I can't exactly square.) He gets exactly at what makes the Beach Boys continue to fascinate and endure, and then some.
'What did those harmonies mean? (this question floored me). Sometimes they were a part of the palette, a piece of the orchestration, a technique used to underscore or highlight a phrase. And sometimes, for the Beach Boys, the give-and-take between solo, duet, and five-part harmony could articulate the tension between, support for, and interdependence of the individual and the group. This is a great theme in Beach boys music and biography, with the group itself a shifting and frequently unstable mix of crew, friends, family, spouses, artistic collaborators, and business partners, It's the ultimate tension between Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys".
Smucker understands the larger narrative of the Beach Boys and how, down to the most granular detail, it was forged out of the miasma and awkwardness of the Boys' post-Pet Sounds years, through their 70s comeback and subsequent second decline. He understands how the Beach Boys, in their stumbling and struggling, reflected and resonated with their fans and the 60s writ large.
"The idea that the great intuitive genius of white American sixties pop was frightened by his own creation and slept through much of the next decade resonates for many of us who shared that time and space, and it has become a part of the mythology of the era for those born later. And this idea links to the not-always-acknowledged negative undercurrents that were an important component of the Beach Boys' appeal from the beginning, and which became an enduring part of their appeal in the end."
Smucker chronicles at the length the Beach Boys' efforts to adapt into their changing landscape, down to most recent iteration of Mike Love (who is treated more gently than I expected) and his group's willfully ignorant and regressive live show.
"Or maybe much of the Beach Boys' audience has actually returned to the fantasy world of 1957 since that song (Disney Girls 1957) was first performed"
I loved so much about this book. There are definitely some big swings:
"Representing prosperity's new leisure, surfing could simply stand for lots of fun time at the beach. Or it could pull together a new complex of deeper meanings: an ecstatic, dangerous, fun-loving negotiation with nature at the West Coast conclusion of the conquest of the continent - white youth paddling out beyond the reach of puritanism, patriotism, and maybe straight, square life itself, and then surfing back to shore.
But I was all in. Smucker is the ultimate superfan, but retains incredible perspective, painting a fair portrait of the band itself but also their place in a larger American culture with respect to politics, class, and race. He is careful not to deify Brian or villainize Mike (that Brian is absent from the cover is a statement or an incredibly odd and lazy choice by the publisher, I can't exactly square.) He gets exactly at what makes the Beach Boys continue to fascinate and endure, and then some.
March 20, 2019
The Beach Boys have been one of my favorite groups since I was a little kid. Even before I got into the Beatles, I was a Beach Boys fan. I’ve been listening to a lot of the Beach Boys lately, so I was pretty excited to pick up a copy of Tom Smucker’s 2018 book Why The Beach Boys Matter.
Smucker is a long-time fan of the Beach Boys, and his passionate defense of their importance is carefully thought out. Smucker also doesn’t overstate his case. He’s never arguing that the Beach Boys are better than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, and he’s never arguing that Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time. Smucker writes of Pet Sounds: “I never believed it should be everybody’s favorite album. Or everybody’s second-favorite album. Or that there was something insensitive about not responding to it at all.” (p.84) I strongly agree with this style of criticism. I try not to write in hyperbole about music, movies, or literature and I appreciate other critics who follow the same principle.
Why The Beach Boys Matter is divided into short chapters that cover various aspects of the Beach Boys’ musical career, such as “Cars and Guitars,” “Suburbs and Surf,” and “Fathers, Shrinks, and Gurus.” At just 176 pages, Why The Beach Boys Matter packs a lot of content into a short volume. Smucker does an excellent job summarizing the Beach Boys’ long career, examining their influences and their place in American pop culture.
A lot of writing about the Beach Boys tends to lionize Brian Wilson and vilify Mike Love. Smucker doesn’t fall into this trap, and does an admirable job of being fair to both Brian and Mike. Smucker writes of Love: “Mike’s the Beach Boy who’s worked the hardest to puzzle out how and where they can position themselves in the current moment, and where they fit into the past.” (p.121)
Smucker takes us through the up and down of the Beach Boys, from their staggering early success—13 Top Ten singles in the U.S. from 1963 to 1966—to Brian Wilson’s retreat from the group in the late 1960’s, as their commercial fortunes waned and the other Beach Boys stepped up and tried to fill the void. The band continued to make strong music during this era, but they didn’t produce any huge hit singles or albums. Then in 1974, the Beach Boys’ old label, Capitol Records, put out a greatest hits compilation covering their 1962-65 years. It was called Endless Summer, and it spent three years on the Billboard album charts, hitting number one four months after it was released. Suddenly the Beach Boys were hot again, but it was for their old songs. Rolling Stone magazine named the Beach Boys the “Band of the Year” for 1974. The Boys were back, but the success of Endless Summer meant that their old material would overshadow whatever new songs they came out with. Smucker points out that during the early 1970’s the Beach Boys turned into a great live band. They were a group so confident in their abilities that they would actually open concerts with “Good Vibrations,” a song considered by many to be the group’s masterpiece.
The Beach Boys, and Brian Wilson, have continued to thrive well into the 21st century. It’s now almost sixty years since the first Beach Boys record was made, and their music still sounds as vibrant as ever.
Smucker is a long-time fan of the Beach Boys, and his passionate defense of their importance is carefully thought out. Smucker also doesn’t overstate his case. He’s never arguing that the Beach Boys are better than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, and he’s never arguing that Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time. Smucker writes of Pet Sounds: “I never believed it should be everybody’s favorite album. Or everybody’s second-favorite album. Or that there was something insensitive about not responding to it at all.” (p.84) I strongly agree with this style of criticism. I try not to write in hyperbole about music, movies, or literature and I appreciate other critics who follow the same principle.
Why The Beach Boys Matter is divided into short chapters that cover various aspects of the Beach Boys’ musical career, such as “Cars and Guitars,” “Suburbs and Surf,” and “Fathers, Shrinks, and Gurus.” At just 176 pages, Why The Beach Boys Matter packs a lot of content into a short volume. Smucker does an excellent job summarizing the Beach Boys’ long career, examining their influences and their place in American pop culture.
A lot of writing about the Beach Boys tends to lionize Brian Wilson and vilify Mike Love. Smucker doesn’t fall into this trap, and does an admirable job of being fair to both Brian and Mike. Smucker writes of Love: “Mike’s the Beach Boy who’s worked the hardest to puzzle out how and where they can position themselves in the current moment, and where they fit into the past.” (p.121)
Smucker takes us through the up and down of the Beach Boys, from their staggering early success—13 Top Ten singles in the U.S. from 1963 to 1966—to Brian Wilson’s retreat from the group in the late 1960’s, as their commercial fortunes waned and the other Beach Boys stepped up and tried to fill the void. The band continued to make strong music during this era, but they didn’t produce any huge hit singles or albums. Then in 1974, the Beach Boys’ old label, Capitol Records, put out a greatest hits compilation covering their 1962-65 years. It was called Endless Summer, and it spent three years on the Billboard album charts, hitting number one four months after it was released. Suddenly the Beach Boys were hot again, but it was for their old songs. Rolling Stone magazine named the Beach Boys the “Band of the Year” for 1974. The Boys were back, but the success of Endless Summer meant that their old material would overshadow whatever new songs they came out with. Smucker points out that during the early 1970’s the Beach Boys turned into a great live band. They were a group so confident in their abilities that they would actually open concerts with “Good Vibrations,” a song considered by many to be the group’s masterpiece.
The Beach Boys, and Brian Wilson, have continued to thrive well into the 21st century. It’s now almost sixty years since the first Beach Boys record was made, and their music still sounds as vibrant as ever.
July 10, 2019
First, two nits to pick. The cover of the version I read had a picture of the group with Bruce Johnston and not Brian Wilson. How you write a book telling me why the Beach Boys matter and not include Brian Wilson on the cover is beyond me. The other nit involves the penchant for the author to insert his own political views and screeds into the book. Just takes me out of my reading.
That being said, the author does a great job illuminating the group in their time(s). So many different components are laid out and explained in depth. Made me even more of a fan! The bibliography and discography were also helpful to point out a few avenues I had yet to explore but will now. This book was fun, fun, fun!
That being said, the author does a great job illuminating the group in their time(s). So many different components are laid out and explained in depth. Made me even more of a fan! The bibliography and discography were also helpful to point out a few avenues I had yet to explore but will now. This book was fun, fun, fun!
September 18, 2022
If you are looking for a biography of the Beach Boys or Brian Wilson, keep looking because this is not it. It's a combination sociology/musicology/history text about a band that was formed out of a mythological Southern California that fell out of fashion, but came back into fashion again. Well, to be clear, they never fell out of fashion with their fans and the author is definitely in the superfan category. I appreciated his thoughtful approach that keeps true to the Music Matters series: why the band MATTERS, not why (or even if) they are great.
Some side notes:
*I agree with Smucker about "Love & Mercy," the 2014 movie that was mostly about Brian. It is a great movie that takes pains to show the level of detail that went into the production of some of the band's greatest music. It was work to make that.
*Ignore reviews that suggest the author lets his political views seep in. Some folks are just a bit too sensitive (everything cannot be scrubbed of all mention of politics!)
*Really -- how is Brian not on the cover of this book?? I have seen a different cover floating around on the internet that did have a photo of the band in their striped, short-sleeved shirts, so I am not sure what happened.
Some side notes:
*I agree with Smucker about "Love & Mercy," the 2014 movie that was mostly about Brian. It is a great movie that takes pains to show the level of detail that went into the production of some of the band's greatest music. It was work to make that.
*Ignore reviews that suggest the author lets his political views seep in. Some folks are just a bit too sensitive (everything cannot be scrubbed of all mention of politics!)
*Really -- how is Brian not on the cover of this book?? I have seen a different cover floating around on the internet that did have a photo of the band in their striped, short-sleeved shirts, so I am not sure what happened.
October 30, 2025
Bit of a mixed bag. Smucker, an admitted lifelong superfan of the Beach Boys, instead of spending these essays endlessly lauding the band, places the Beach Boys on a continuum of recorded music over the last century and rightly emphasizes their importance to American culture, as their sound shifts, innovates and then regresses. Some of his insights really hit the mark, but the book is filled with unnecessary recommendations of cover tunes littered throughout and he has a strange habit of cutting off certain threads only to pick them up in another essay.
September 1, 2019
4.5 stars. I learned quite a bit from reading this short book
May 9, 2019
This newest entry in the excellent “Music Matters” series takes on the iconic Beach Boys who have been part of the American musical landscape since the early 1960’s. They have survived the British invasion, the hippie culture of the 1960s, the rise of punk and grunge and are still performing in 2019, albeit not as one group. The love and respect that Tom Smucker has for this band shines through every line of this short and concise 176-page book. You would think that everything that is to be said about the Beach Boys has been said with the numerous biographies as well as the recent memoirs by both Brian Wilson and Mike Love. In this case, you would be wrong – Tom Smucker takes a very familiar story that most of us know and manages to fill in the blanks both on a personal and almost global level. Along the way he explains how the Beach Boys did stay relevant through all those changes and more importantly, how it reflected the changes in American society. We still think of surfing ad hot rods, but Brian Wilson has crafted timeless music that goes much farther than that.
Tom Smucker does not spend much time on the well-known personality clashes that we all know about, but he does focus on those “hidden years” after the hits had died out and Brian Wilson had stepped away from the band to show that the music of the Beach Boys was still important and compelling even if the sales numbers didn’t reflect that. The Beach Boys story should have a happy ending and the return and redemption of Brian Wilson is celebrated as he continues to record and tour. Mike Love also gets fair treatment and the legacy of Carl, Dennis and Al is celebrated. In addition, Mr. Smucker manages to provide a very valuable discography and bibliography of the records and books that are truly essential for a fan of the Beach Boys.
For me, the only downer other than the fact that Brian and Mike can’t work together, is that parts of the book read more like a dissertation or a study in sociology than a book on one of the most popular rock & roll bands of all time. Songs and albums are dissected to the nth degree and their influence on culture is then analyzed. It doesn’t really detract from the book as a whole, but makes parts of it difficult (and boring) to read. Sometimes, we should just appreciate rock & roll for what it really is: Fun! Fun! Fun!
Tom Smucker does not spend much time on the well-known personality clashes that we all know about, but he does focus on those “hidden years” after the hits had died out and Brian Wilson had stepped away from the band to show that the music of the Beach Boys was still important and compelling even if the sales numbers didn’t reflect that. The Beach Boys story should have a happy ending and the return and redemption of Brian Wilson is celebrated as he continues to record and tour. Mike Love also gets fair treatment and the legacy of Carl, Dennis and Al is celebrated. In addition, Mr. Smucker manages to provide a very valuable discography and bibliography of the records and books that are truly essential for a fan of the Beach Boys.
For me, the only downer other than the fact that Brian and Mike can’t work together, is that parts of the book read more like a dissertation or a study in sociology than a book on one of the most popular rock & roll bands of all time. Songs and albums are dissected to the nth degree and their influence on culture is then analyzed. It doesn’t really detract from the book as a whole, but makes parts of it difficult (and boring) to read. Sometimes, we should just appreciate rock & roll for what it really is: Fun! Fun! Fun!
March 13, 2021
2 1/2 stars. Some stuff to like here: placing the Beach Boys into the multiple contexts of the eras and how the band reacted to the changes; their influences and wide-ranging influence; fair amount of info on lesser known albums and cuts. But lots to give a meh shrug to here as well: Smucker falls into fanboy way too much; his tendency to wax on about chord changes and such but without explanation; and his downplaying of "Caroline No" from "Pet Sounds" (my favorite, so I'm quite biased).
Second in this series I've read, and this one was much less interesting than Why Karen Carpenter Matters. That said, it's not terrible, and it's about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, which automatically elevates it.
Second in this series I've read, and this one was much less interesting than Why Karen Carpenter Matters. That said, it's not terrible, and it's about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, which automatically elevates it.
June 24, 2019
Concise summation of The Beach Boys influences/career phases. But Smucker can’t help but overinsert himself (plus gratuitous shoutouts to his rock critic peers/superiors) into the text—hubris often seen in certain entries of the 33 1/3 series from a different publishing house. Smucker’s takes on The Beach Boys group and solo albums he chooses to write about can be interestingly quirky (he regards the great low-fi outsider-art LOVE YOU as “the last consistently interesting Beach Boys release.”).
March 29, 2024
Look, I love the Beach Boys, and I was really excited to read this book. Frankly, I don't think Tom Smucker was the correct person to write it; we already know that the Beach Boys matter to old white dudes. Smucker seems to make the pretentious case that the Beach Boys aren't just pop music but a moment, rather than acknowledging that the Beach Boys' significance is evidence of pop music at-large having merit. At one point, he calls them a "girl band" for daring to have a modicum of emotional intelligence, rather than admitting that they're a full-on boy band -- something that matters to women. I also just didn't like his writing style, which is just more of a personal preference, I guess. Disappointing.
March 18, 2023
This book was okay, not great. Too much time was spent in the early chapters on putting Brian's work in the context of the growth of suburbia and car culture. This was done much better by Timothy White in The Nearest Faraway Place. The later chapters were better, since they were more about the music. One more pet peeve: how can a book on The Beach Boys not show Brian Wilson on the cover? Was it cheaper to get a picture of the late-60s touring band?
March 1, 2019
Pretty solid overview of the significance of the beach boys. Smucker champions records like Love You, Smiley Smile, Friends and Wid Honey. He gets it. Not a bad starting place for those just getting to know the beach boys.
February 16, 2019
An in depth dive into the themes that run throughout the career of the Beach Boys. Fun little read.
August 23, 2024
A passionate short guide through the music, the best places to hear the very best of that, and the books and films and other resources that are not a waste of a fan’s time.
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