Dark Side of The Rainbow

Dark Side of The Rainbow

Pink Floyd has been one of my top five favorite bands of all time, and still is to this day. They are best known for their progressive and psychedelic music, that accompanies philosophical lyrics and experimental sound and are acclaimed to be one of the most influential bands in music history. Being a fan of their music, I often find myself reading interesting articles or watching movies about their legacy. One story in particular that always struck me as unusual is titled “The Dark Side of the Rainbow.” The article discusses how one of Pink Floyd’s famous albums, The Dark Side of The Moon, if pared correctly will be in perfect synchronization with visual portion of the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. This is not the only part of the film that people believe to have coincided. The article also mentions how the song “Brain Damage” appears to play in the film during the scene with the scarecrow singing “If I only had a brain.” As well as how it is believed that the song “Over The Rainbow,” in the film is synonymous to The Dark Side of The Moons album art cover, which displays a beam of light hitting a prism producing a rainbow. The albums cover has also been known to coincide with transitioning from black and white, to color in the film as Dorothy finds herself in The Land of Oz after a tornado hits her home in Kansas. As a result, Pink Floyd fans and the media began creating websites and portraying news through a number of ways to people, about synchronizing the two together. Giving people advices as to when to turn the volume of the movie down and when to start the album in order to enjoy the experience. However, the band denies that there was any intension for their music to synchronize with the film and believe that it was nothing but a coincidence.

Although, I have been a fan of Pink Floyd for some time now and have briefly touched base with the synchronization of this story over the years. I found that there were some interesting aspects about it that I never realized until reading this article. For instance, how the albums; cover can be viewed as having two different meanings or when the song “Brain Damage” plays, it synchronizes with the scarecrow signing about wishing he had a brain. It was interesting to see this first hand as I fast forward to the scene of the scarecrow dancing around the yellow brick road, as Pink Floyd’s lyrics of a person loosing their mind. I believe that this story earned a spot on a Wikipedia page is, partially because it compares a famous rock band from the early 70’s to that of a film from the late 30’s. I also believe that it earned its fame, for the simple fact that it synchronizes, not only visually but musically as well. Coincidence or not, the album synchronizes so well, one could almost say that the music had been a reflection of the film and written specifically for the film. Due to this being such an odd topic and the fact that both, The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd are so popular I do not see it being difficult to find information about this anywhere else. Typing both of these names together in a web browser will definitely provide the same, if not more insight about this story. Either through videos, that actually play the recorded synchronization or other websites that dive deeper into how this idea was started. I found these ideas to this story to be quite useful because, it makes the viewer think in a non-traditional way or look at something in a different perspective. As a visual artist myself, I am constantly trying to think of different ways to get my viewers to look at my work.