Question: What is hot rod music?
Answer: In the Southern California scene of the early Sixties, "ho-dads," or car enthusiasts, were the other big subset of teen life. Although hot rodders and surfers didn't mix much, it was still a viable market, and so L.A. disc jockey and songwriter Roger Christian (of KFWB) led the push to get surf bands to record songs about cars. The Beach Boys' "Shut Down" started this trend back in 1962, and other bands -- including surf instrumental bands -- soon picked up on it. Frankly, there isn't much difference between surf and hot rod music, except that "hot rod" songs are essentially surf songs that happen to be about cars.
