Nick Mason Reveals Reasons Why “Dark Side Of The Moon” Is A Success

Nick Mason Reveals Reasons Why “Dark Side Of The Moon” Is A Success | Society Of Rock Videos

via Pink Floyd/YouTube

“My view is that there was no single reason,” said Pink Floyd drummer, Nick Mason. There is no single reason why The Dark Side of the Moon became successful. Having said this, there are some factors he believes weighs above all others.

1. The Songwriting
The primary reason for him is the strength of the songwriting. The Dark Side contained strong, powerful songs as he describes it. Mason explained:

“The lyrics had depth, and had a resonance people could easily relate to and were clear and simple enough for non-native English speakers to understand, which must have been a factor in the intentional success.”

Meanwhile, Roger Waters expressed similar sentiment. He shared:

“You can’t write anything that communicates to other people through music or word or language, that will last unless the connections you’re making with humankind are real and unless you really care about them. You need to be a slave to your emotions in order to be a decent writer, in my view. And I think people recognize that.”

2. The Musicianship
In his book, the drummer also noted the significance of the instrumental elements provided by Rick Wright and David Gilmour. “The musical quality spearheaded by David’s guitar and Rick’s keyboards,” he suggested. For him, they established a fundamental Pink Floyd sound.

3. The Production
Mason also added the production. He said that the album was state of the art courtesy of the skills of [recording engineer] Alan Parsons and [mixing engineer] Chris Thomas.

4. The Rise Of Hi-Fi Culture
Mason also noted that the element of luck at play helped. Their decision to make a high-fidelity arrived at the perfect time.

5. The Art
Mason said as well that “the packaging of the album by [Hipgnosis designers] Storm [Thurgonson] and [Aubery ‘Po’ Powel] was clean, simple and immediately striking” plus it has a “memorable icon in the shape of a prism” attractive indeed.

6. The Record Company Push
The record companies handling the album threw every ounce of heavyweight marketing muscle they possessed behind it which the drummer thinks one of the key factors why the album became successful.

Mason described the record company as, “A totally committed record company is a fearsome and powerful machine and without doubts, their efforts contributed to the album’s success.”

7. It’s A Good Record To Get Down To
And last but possibly not the least, “one music critic commented that it was a great album to make love to.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

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