# Why Was Pink FLoyd's "The Wall" So Popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 14, 2004, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076 "2004-05-14T05:09:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/21 "2004-05-14T21:14:19Z")
Also, consider that during the '70s, Pink Floyd already mastered the art of mixing fear, angst, despair, etc. with powerful and moving chords in their 3 previous concept albums (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals). This album was expected to do great by their fans and they were not disappointed. They also picked up a new generation of fans in the process (I fall in this category) with this album. Good thing that the album came out before the movie. Otherwise, I think the album would have been a cult album instead of a popular progressive mainstream album. Another factor was their extravagant stadium tour that also bolstered the anticipated film which shared the same animation, concepts and other nuances for the film. “You can’t have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat! How can you have any pudding without eating your meat?” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gentle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/22 "2004-05-15T03:07:02Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > About where the kids sing “We don’t need no…etc.,” I notice that the kids are singing with a very non-BBC, non-received standard English pronunciation. To this American, they sound like they could be Cockneys, or maybe from Northern England. > > Was the line an intentional jab at schools that try to impose standard pronunciation on those who speak different dialects? I know that’s a big issue over there even now; I even remember hearing that somebody wanted to redo the Wallace and Gromit videos changing the Yorkshire (?) pronunciation to standard BBC style. As far as I know, it wasn’t intentional from Pink Floyd’s side. The kids were producer Bob Ezrin’s idea: > [@](#): > > Then the question is, what do you do with the second verse, which is the same? And, having been the guy who made ‘School"s Out,’ I"ve got this thing about kids on a record and it “is” about kids after all. So while we were in America, we sent Nick Griffiths to a school near to the Floyd studios [in Islington]. I said, I want Cockney, I want posh, fill “em up” – and I put them on the song. I called Roger into the room, and when the kids came in on the second verse there was a total softening of his face and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record. [http://pinkfloydhyperbase.dk/scraps/mojo1299.htm](http://pinkfloydhyperbase.dk/scraps/mojo1299.htm) Islington, part of North London, is not a cockney region, and Ezrin clearly implies the children were instructed to sing in a mix of dialects. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/23 "2004-05-15T13:32:08Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > 1. The music is fan-damn-tastic. I’m glad to see Sam Stone and I agree about _something_. I just need to chime in that the expert execution of the music makes it fan-damn-tastic despite the fact that before you hear it, the very _idea_ of the potential sound ought to curl your toes. Listen objectively to “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2”, and several other tracks: It’s _Disco Pink Floyd_!!! ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/24 "2004-05-16T01:24:34Z")
It helped that “Dark Side of the Moon” was a MONSTER album in terms of sales. The [Pink Floyd Hyperbase notes:](http://pinkfloydhyperbase.dk/albums/dark.htm) > [@](#): > > ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ was on the American TOP-200 in 724 weeks. April 23rd 1988 the album finally left the chart after almost 14 years. In United States the album has been sold in more than 10 millions. “The Wall” worked for a number of reasons: - a huge PF fan base waiting for it - “radio-friendly” hits - a coherent storyline that ends on a hopeful note after all that angst. - tapped into anger and alienation of teens (and in my case, severe depression, and I was in my early 20s at the time). The movie was equally unconventional, with its mix of music, animation, live-action and starring Bob Geldorf (lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, loved their “Tonic for the Troops” album with songs like “I Never Loved (Eva Braun)”. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/25 "2004-05-16T01:31:22Z")
Two words: “Comfortably Numb” ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/26 "2004-05-16T14:52:07Z")
OK, admittedly I was never terribly mainstream in the music department, and my friends and I spent the 80s listening mostly to the music of the 60s, 70s, and 1400s - 1800s. (Forgive us; we were choir geeks.) But I loved that album, and in fact all later Pink Floyd. As other have said, it has aged quite well. (Plus I’m generally a fan of concept albums anyway.) Don’t mess with the classics! In fact, one of my admissions essays for the University of Chicago was on _The Wall_: the topic was “choose a work of art and explain why it has meaning for you.” I don’t have a copy anymore, but essentially I wrote that art needs to have emotional resonance with the experiencer, and _The Wall_ got me in the gut like few albums/movies ever had. (Of course, it helped to see it on a normal big theater screen rather than on some of the dinky multiplex screens that are around now.) It worked; they accepted me. Maybe that’s why I still have…maybe warm fuzzies isn’t the right word in this case, but you know what I mean. That movie was just chock-full of seventeen flavors of angst, and a lot of stuff that I was barely on the verge of comprehending (hey, I was 13 for most of 1982 - I might have seen the movie a coupe of years later, but still pretty darn young in any case, and too sheltered to be able to comprehend all the stuff about the breakup, violoence, and even most of the Cold War imagery). Plus the visual imagery was unlike anything I’d ever seen before; I was more of a reader than a moviegoer. It was just so damn intense. For the record, I’ve never used drugs. Not even once. (Except secondhand smoke, but well, that doesn’t really count.) ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/27 "2004-05-17T06:23:03Z")
I am always surprised to hear that Pink Floyd is regarded as music for the teenage-coming-of-age phase. Doesn’t it resonate well with adults as well? The feeling of isolation is ageless and universal. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/28 "2004-05-17T13:10:39Z")
I think it’s more that the teenage years are when you are first discovering these emotions. When adults experience them it’s a bit “old hat”. Yes it is ageless but it trully resonates when you are a little younger. I think older people like it for different reasons or for nostalgia. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/29 "2004-05-17T13:37:00Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > The movie came out in 1982, but the album (I’m dating myself) came out in 1979. Thanks for the correction. I should have read the results of my Google search a little closer. I hadn’t listened to the album in quite a while so, prompted by this thread, I popped it into my car CD player on my drive to Chicago this past weekend. I know I’m being repetitive and redundant (heh, heh), but this album is sheer genious. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/30 "2004-05-17T15:48:45Z")
> [@litost](#): > > I am always surprised to hear that Pink Floyd is regarded as music for the teenage-coming-of-age phase. Doesn’t it resonate well with adults as well? The feeling of isolation is ageless and universal. Yes, but its expression in the music of Pink Floyd resonates best with a certain age group. e.g., several years ago, a co-worker and broke into a spontaneous rendition of “Time” from Dark Side of the Moon, only to find that every single lyric was no longer on the tip of our tongues. When I expressed my mortification, he replied, nonchalantly “Well, I don’t have a lot of teen angst anymore…” ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/31 "2004-05-17T16:04:02Z")
Could be that you’re just getting senile… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/32 "2004-05-17T16:10:47Z")
> [@](#): > > One trick to writing hit songs is to combine heavy, downer lyrics with catchy upbeat melodies - the contrast provides richness and depth if done well ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic is the Master of this technique! Anyway, Pink Floyd was hugely popular when I was a teenager, and I was an alienated, isolated lonely kid. And I couldn’t stand Pink Floyd because the music was always so depressing to me. I could be in a great mood, and listening to Floyd would bring me right down. Don’t know why - the music was good. I just always felt really bummed when I listened to more than a couple songs. Well, except for “Money”. I really like that song. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Pastrami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Captain\_Pastrami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Pastrami)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/33 "2004-05-17T19:22:55Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > ‘Concept’ albums were very big at the time. No, they weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/34 "2004-05-18T00:45:09Z")
> [@Phase42](#): > > ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic is the Master of this technique! As are They Might Be Giants. _No one in the world ever gets what they want, and that is beautiful Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful_ ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/35 "2004-05-18T12:57:31Z")
If y’all just can’t get enough of that album, may I humbly recommend another concept album? [Luther Wright and the Wrong’s “Rebuild the Wall”](http://www.lutherwright.com/mp3s/luther_wright_&_the_wrongs--Rebuild_the_Wall--Another_Brick_In_The_Wall_Part1.MP3). (This is a link to an MP3 file; [here’s their main site](http://www.lutherwright.com/main.php). Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/36 "2004-05-18T13:17:08Z")
Yes, I’ve heard some of their stuff. Gives new life to Run Like Hell that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/37 "2004-05-18T14:54:19Z")
> [@Doomtrain](#): > > 'sides, just about every teenager has to go through a Floyd phase. I guess some of us take a bit longer to grow out of it than others 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076/38 "2004-05-19T20:05:48Z")
> [@Doomtrain](#): > > 'sides, just about every teenager has to go through a Floyd phase. Some of us never grow out of it 🙂 I love the album–one of my all time favorite albums ever. I love the movie. It’s nifty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-pink-floyds-the-wall-so-popular/245076.md?page=1)