Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd emerged from London's psychedelic underground in 1965, initially guided by Syd Barrett's whimsical experimentalism before his mental deterioration forced Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason to reimagine the band entirely. They transformed progressive rock into a vehicle for architectural soundscapes, blending tape loops, quadraphonic panning, and Gilmour's sustained, vocal-like guitar tones with Waters's conceptual ambitions. The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) spent 736 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200, addressing madness and mortality with unprecedented sonic clarity. The Wall (1979) became a double-album meditation on isolation, selling over 30 million copies globally. Their use of the recording studio as instrument, incorporating musique concrète techniques and synthesiser textures, influenced ambient and electronic music for decades. Beyond commercial dominance, they articulated post-war disillusionment and late capitalism's psychological toll, their laser-lit spectacles becoming pilgrimage events. Waters's departure fractured the identity, yet their catalog remains shorthand for countercultural introspection.