March 1 this year will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the most celebrated albums in the history of recorded music. Pink Floyd‘s The Dark Side Of The Moon is not only one of rock’s most critically hailed collections of music, it’s also one of the most commercially successful rock album ever.
50 years ago today, Pink Floyd walked out of Abbey Road studios, satisfied of their 8 months worth of work.
The Dark Side of the Moon was now complete.
It’s now spent 966 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart, and counting. pic.twitter.com/zMevAN1zgN— Eric Alper
(@ThatEricAlper) January 19, 2023
It’s been certified 14x platinum in the English rock band’s home country, preserved in the US National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, and basically laid the blueprint for psych/prog rock. The album’s cover even graces t-shirts widely available at every Target in the country. Which is why a new kerfuffle regarding the band’s anniversary imagery is so… I’m gonna go with “baffling,” although “concerning,” “infuriating,” and “hilarious” also came to mind.
Over on Facebook, the band changed its profile pic to a minimalist representation of the prism from the cover with a 50 inside of it. The zero is filled with the spectrum of light, which of course, presents as a rainbow. But somehow, conservative followers of the band (presumably, they could just be trolls on the prowl) have misinterpreted it as the rainbow flag of the gay pride movement and they are big mad in the comments.
man. people aren’t well. pic.twitter.com/kdTh9kVydZ
— Denny Carter (@CDCarter13) January 20, 2023
Considering the popularity of The Dark Side Of The Moon — again, I am the hip-hop editor of Uproxx.com and I still know that album back to front, to say nothing of its nearly ubiquitous cover art — this may very well be the worst case of Fox News brain poisoning we’ve seen yet. And that’s saying something, considering these people’s sociopathic rejection of basic safety measures in a pandemic that we’re still in.
the reaction to Pink Floyd changing their profile pic to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon seems to prove my theory that ivermectin in certain brands of horse paste accidently targeted the brain in some people thinking it was a parasite pic.twitter.com/HqquLD7meW
— Pat Dubois
(@patdubois) January 20, 2023
Pink Floyd updated their profile picture to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dark Side of the Moon, and the replies are… something. pic.twitter.com/e4zNZ2KGOS
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) January 20, 2023
Pink Floyd adds a rainbow to their logo to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, which had a rainbow on the cover, and angry boomers instantly get triggered
Utterly pathetic lmao pic.twitter.com/mOI5WvgX5H
— Spironolactone Agnew (@SBElikeswords) January 20, 2023
I know a lot of ppl are like “lol lmao how do you not know the cover to the dark side of the moon,” but imo the more important thing to consider is how these people have been conditioned to respond like this at the very sight of a rainbow. no research, just anger https://t.co/8LlaEPQH20
— Miss Genderr (@girldrawsghosts) January 20, 2023
Maybe these people are just doing a bit and we all missed the joke, but all that says is we’ve reached the point where parody is practically impossible. Thankfully, the band themselves won’t let a little thing like a public backlash stop them from staying true to their beliefs. Even if, in this case, the only belief is that prisms, spectrums, and the wonders of the physical world are pretty damn cool and fun to look at.