The Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd

The Dark Side Of Moon (1973), synonymous with rock music (although could be classed as psychedelic or prog rock) is one of Pink Floyd's greatest legacies and will be forever known in history as "one of the best selling albums of all time" (Werde, 2006 p. 12). Remaining on the Billboard album chart for 741 weeks, while in the UK, it is the 8th best selling of all time.

The famous album cover shown above has a strong connection to the lyrics of the song itself, and was created by George Hardie and Storm Thorgerson. The white light represents unity and was suggested by Waters (Schaffner, 1991, pp. 165-166)  which passes though the triangle which represents society, suggested by Thorgerson himself (Harris, 2006, p. 141). The 6 colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue & violet (missing indigo) represents unity being 'diffracted'.

The album has two sides both a continuos piece of music that flow into each other, a reflection of life and how it doesn't stop. How life keeps on going no matter what happens. Also, to give the album a 'life', with the beginning and ending with a heartbeat

"After Syd Barett descended into mental illness, Roger Waters took over as Pink Floyd's driving force" (Harris, 2003)
Described as a concept album, The Dark Side Of The Moon was created without Barrett's songwriting abilities. Water's wrote all of the lyrics to the album, which they had not experimented with before. The main fear was if it would work with the absence of what had been there in the previous albums. The lyrical themes include "conflict, greed, the passage of time, death and insanity, the latter inspired in part  by Barrett's deteriorating mental state" (Pink Floyd, 2003)

"The album also is also notable for its use of musical concrète" (Mabbet 1995). This is where music is taken from instruments, the voice and also everything else (such as the cash machine sound in the opening of 'Money', to symbolise the greed and consumerism).
Other instruments used - apart from the usual guitars, keyboard and occasionally a saxophone - were coins, tearing of paper and a clicking machine (all used in 'Money'). Also, on multiple tracks, for example 'Brain Damage', a synthesiser was heavily used as well as an organ and also laughter to create the descent into madness. The heartbeat sound was made using a specific drum and also a clock ticking can be heard in tracks such as 'Time'.