DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW

Also referred to asDark Side ofOzandWizard ofFloyd. The nameDark Side ofthe Rainbowis a contraction of the 1973 album titleThe Dark Side ofthe Moonby the British rock band Pink Floyd, and the song titleOver the Rainbowfrom the sound track of the 1939 filmThe Wizard ofOz. In addition, it has been suggested that it refers to the colours of the rainbow featured on the cover of the Pink Floyd album. The termDark Side ofthe Rainbowdenotes a peculiar pattern of thematic similarities that can be discerned while one is watchingThe Wizard of Ozwhile simultaneously listening toThe Dark Side of the Moon. With the aid of this somewhat unusual procedure, over a hundred instances of perceived interplay have been reported by fans.It is not known who first established this pattern of thematic similarities, but from 1994 onwards it was widely discussed on internet sites such as the Usenet message boardalt.music.pink-floydand in the popular media. As the Pink Floyd band members (save Roger Waters) have always denied deliberate attempts to synchronize their album with the movie, theDark Side ofthe Rainbowis commonly designated as a "cognitive illusion and attributed to a process called "apophenia, i.e. an excess of perceptual or heuristic sensitivity leading to the discernment of patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. Similar thematic coincidences have been described between other movies and rock albums, but none of these are as elaborate or as well aligned as theDark Side of the Rainbow.

Fleming, V., director (1939).The Wizard of Oz.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Pink Floyd (1973).The dark side ofthe moon. Harvest.

Shaffner, N. (1991).Saucerful of secrets:The Pink Floyd Odyssey. New York, NY: Harmony Books.