Is "The Dark Side of the Moon" Truly Overrated?

Ever since the huge vinyl resurgence beginning roughly around 2010, Pink Floyd’s groundbreaker album The Dark Side Of The Moon has been the go-to purchase for young, Urban Outfitters patrons who are getting into records. This has lead to two things: a new generation of music appreciators consuming one of the greatest prog-rock albums of all time, and the music purists who claim that this huge consumption of the album has made it lose its value. These are obviously two vastly different point of views that are each shared by many reddit users and record shop visitors, and that’s where I come in.

So is The Dark Side Of The Moon overrated? Let’s go back a bit.

Pink Floyd (as most of you may already know), was an progressive/psychedelic rock band from England that was formed in the 60s by Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and the late Syd Barrett. And long story short: Syd had a mental breakdown, David Gilmour was added to the roster, Syd left the band in 1968, and this album was partially inspired by Syd’s departure and health.

The album had an emphasis on long and complex instrumentation, sonic experiments, mixtures of live and studio elements, and ideas that “make people mad,” as proposed by Roger Waters. With heavy use of sampling and sometimes unorthodox recording techniques, the album was truly unique for when it was released 1973. Some critics attacked the record, calling it “pretentious” and “lyrically clichéd,” but obviously we've seen that happen to many groundbreaking albums throughout history.

But at the time, I’d imagine very few people viewed it as “overrated” considering nobody had heard anything like it. In context, not many people called Star Wars overrated when it was first released in 1977, because nobody had seen anything like it before. So I think in modern times with so much accessibility to music, and the fact that the majority of users for streaming services are young people (Spotify reports 55 percent of listeners are under the age of 35), they can’t quite grasp that at one point The Dark Side Of The Moon was truly unique. We live in an age now where we’re more familiar with the legacy of the album, instead of the immediate impact of its release. Considering so many artists have cited it, and Pink Floyd in general as a major inspiration to their music, a lot of young listeners are exposed to those newer artists before Pink Floyd. And naturally when that happens, listening to Dark Side for the first time may already sound familiar to you.

This is not a criticism on young music consumers, it just shows how our culture shifts from something being so out-there and distinct, to just another famous record that our parents listened to. I personally, do not believe that The Dark Side Of The Moon is in any way overrated. Considering it became the inspiration to future great albums and brought new sounds and methods of performances to the masses, it changed the musical landscape in the same way a great composer such as Stravinsky had. And on top of all of this, The Dark Side Of The Moon has spent 917 nonconsecutive weeks (or a little under 18 years) on the Billboard Top 200 chart. If that’s not a testament to the albums longevity and cultural impact, I don’t know what is.

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