Look At What Is Celebrating Its 50th Anniversary This Month!

Happy 50th Anniversary “Dark Side of the Moon”

I didn’t want March 2023 to pass without taking time to pay my respects to a record album. Yes. A record album. But, this isn't just any record album.

I don’t think I would be overstating the generational impact the band Pink Floyd has had. To me, there was always a certain mystique about the band. Part of that was due to my youth and general lack of access to information. That mystique has lessened over the years as their break-up became public, as social media increased, and as accessibility to information about the band grew exponentially.

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a program called www.InTheStudio.net. It’s a program I listened to on terrestrial radio eons ago. The host, “Redbeard” profiles an album – speaking with members of the band about the origin of the songs and the music. I found him again online a few years ago, and more recently I’ve found the show going back to look at the anniversary of certain albums. One such album was Pink Floyd's “Dark Side of the Moon”. Listening to the story of how it came to be made me fall in love with the album all over again and impressed upon me how advanced they were with the recording technology of the day.

This is just an album, what’s the big deal?

But that's the point. It’s not just any album. If you want to get into the business aspects of it, here are a few pieces of intel I pulled from online sources (thank you Wikipedia, Forbes).

• A 2013 estimate says that 45 million copies have been sold worldwide (I know that number is 10 years old. I searched for something more current, but couldn't come up with anything).
• It’s the 4th best-selling album in history.
• It has spent 975 weeks on the Billboard 200 (with 736 of those being non-consecutive weeks from 1973-1988).
• In 2012 it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

As a pre-teen my earliest memories of this album had nothing to do with the music. On a school bus ride Robin Hefty, a classmate of mine in 7th grade was carrying a few albums under his arm. One of them was the distinctive Pink Floyd album. I was so curious. He was listening to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin II and this "new" album, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. At my house it was the Carpenters, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and Burt Bacharach (all of which I love to this day). It wasn’t until a few years later where I developed my love for the "progressive" music genre.

Pink Floyd was born during the time of the Beatles, but seemed to be on their own musical journey (psychedelically speaking). When Syd Barrett left the band and David Gilmour came into the group the music seemed to go in a direction that we now see as the "mainstream" Pink Floyd sound. This is all communicated nicely if you listen to the "In The Studio" recording (link below). If you have about an hour and twenty minutes it is well worth the listen!

The Legend Continues

Go online and search on images for "Dark Side of the Moon" and there is an abundance of wearable apparel. Everything from sweatshirts to t-shirts to hats to footwear, mugs and beyond. Recently a boxed set related to the album is now available (and mentioned in the "In The Studio" broadcast). But the interest these days can't just be from old geezers (since we already have our copies!). It was estimated that since 2013 over 9.5 million albums have been sold in the U.S.

Online Resources if you just can't get enough

This Wikipedia link goes to the overall Pink Floyd page:

This Wikipedia link goes directly to the Dark Side of the Moon page:

...And everything under the sun is in tune, But the sun is eclipsed by the moon...

Have a great weekend!

Dave

About Dave Shultis

I am a senior level marketing and product management professional with experience in the life science/med device space. My focus is on a return to a leadership (formal or informal) role where coaching and mentoring a team or working with a cross-functional team is a component of the position. This could be in the form of a marketing director, a group product director or as an individual contributor in a senior product management capacity.

When not in pursuit of my next opportunity you can find me biking in and around New Jersey (I'm on Strava) or trying to get my 15k steps in per day (I'm on Fitbit).