Pink Floyds sound and light shows in the 1960s defined psychedelia but their later recordings combined rock orchestral music literature and philosophy. Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall ignored pop musicamp8217s usual strictures to focus on themes of madness despair brutality and alienation. Here 16 scholars set delve into the heart of Pink Floyd by examining ideas concepts and problems usually encountered not in a rock bands lyrics but in the pages of Heidegger Foucault and Sartre. These include the meaning of existence the individuals place in society the contradictions of art and commerce and the blurry line between genius and madness. The bandamp8217s dynamic history allows the writers to explore controversies about intellectual property the nature of authorship and whether wholes especially in the case of rock bands are more than the sum of their parts.