Surf music in the context of "Music of the United States"

Gary Lee Usher (December 14, 1938 – May 25, 1990) was an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer, who worked with numerous California acts in the 1960s, including the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and Dick Dale. Usher also produced fictitious surf groups or hot rod groups, mixing studio session musicians with his own associates (including Chuck Girard and Dick Burns). These bands included the Super Stocks (with the hot-rod song "Midnight Run"), the Kickstands, the Hondells with their No. 9 US pop single "Little Honda", and Sagittarius.

A reverb effect, or reverb, is an audio effect applied to simulate reverberation. It may be created through physical means, such as echo chambers, or electronically through audio signal processing. The American producer Bill Putnam is credited for the first artistic use of artificial reverb in music, on the 1947 song "Peg o' My Heart" by the Harmonicats.

Spring reverb, created with a series of mounted springs, is popular in surf music and dub reggae. Plate reverb uses electromechanical transducers to create vibrations in large plates of sheet metal. Convolution reverb uses impulse responses to record the reverberation of physical spaces and recreate them digitally. Gated reverb became a staple of 1980s pop music, used by drummers including Phil Collins. Shimmer reverb, which alters the pitch of the reverberated sound, is often used in ambient music.

"Batman Theme", the title song of the 1966 Batman TV series, was composed by Neal Hefti. This song is built around a guitar hook reminiscent of spy film scores and surf music. It has a twelve bar blues progression, using only three chords until the coda. The music was performed by "the Wrecking Crew" with Tommy Tedesco on the guitar, Carol Kaye on bass and other studio musicians that dominated the music scene.

The eleven cries of "Batman!" are sung by a chorus of four tenors and four sopranos (performed by the Ron Hicklin Singers). A common misconception is that the chorus is actually a horn section, a rumor began shortly after the TV series ended its initial run in 1968, and gained attention from Adam West's 1994 book Back to the Batcave, in which he incorrectly recalled that the theme featured horns rather than vocals. Neal Hefti, the writer of the theme, stated that the chorus was made up of eight singers, one of whom jokingly wrote on his part, "word and music by Neal Hefti". According to TV's Biggest Hits by Jon Burlingame, which includes an interview with Hefti about the creation of the song, the song consists of "bass guitar, low brass and percussion to create a driving rhythm, while an eight-voice chorus sings 'Batman!' in harmony with the trumpets". The song reached No. 13 on Canada's CHUM Chart and No. 41 on the RPM chart.

The Pixies are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1986. The original lineup consisted of Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim Deal (bass, vocals) and David Lovering (drums). The Pixies are associated with the 1990s alternative rock boom, and draw on elements including punk rock and surf rock. Their music is known for dynamic "loud-quiet-loud" shifts and song structures. Francis is the primary songwriter; his often surreal lyrics cover offbeat subjects such as extraterrestrials, incest, and biblical violence.

The Pixies' debut release was the mini-LP Come On Pilgrim (1987), followed by the albums Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990) and Trompe le Monde (1991). They disbanded in 1993. The Pixies found only modest success in the US, but were more successful in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. Their alternative rock sound influenced acts such as Nirvana, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer.