Of all the white American pop music groups that hit the charts before the Beatles, only the Beach Boys continued to thrive throughout the British Invasion and then survived into the 1970s and beyond. No other white group helped define both sides of the era we broadly call the Sixties, split between their early surf, car, and summer pop and their later hippie, counterculture, and ambitious rock. No other group can claim the Ronettes and the Four Seasons as early '60s rivals; the Mamas and the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash as later '60s rivals; and the Beatles and the Temptations as decade-spanning counterparts.

This is the first book to take an honest look at the themes running through the Beach Boys' art and career as a whole and to examine where they sit inside our culture and politics-and why they can still grab our attention.