«Surf music is one of those Sixties trends that gestated, bloomed and died purely within the confines of what Tom Wolfe called «the Teenage Netherworld». While it was eventually manufactured and marketed as crassly as any product in the pipeline, its target audience remained the kids (first California’s and then the world’s), from whose ranks it had originated. That is, the same audience that created and consumed flat-tops and pin-striping, fuzzy dice and bongos and all those arcane dance steps so lovingly depicted in John Water’s Hairspray. Pop theorist Greil Marcus refers to the exclusivity of knowledge and experience that bound together the members of that netherworld community.»
Gene Sculatti