When the album, Dark Side of the Moon, is played simultaneously
with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, some correspondences between the music
and film occur. This synchronicity is called Dark Side of the Rainbow. For
example:
1. The opening cash register sound of "Money" coincides with Dorothy
stepping out of her house into the Land of Oz for the first time and the
transition from black and white to color.
2. The heartbeat sound at the conclusion of the album occurs as Dorothy is
listening for the Tin Man's heartbeat
3. Dorothy regains consciousness in Kansas and opens her eyes to the lyric
"Home, home again/I like to be there when I can".
4. There are many more similarities recorded.
The band insist that this synergy is coincidental. Indeed,
guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour has flatly denied that Dark Side of the
Moon was intentionally written to be synchronized with Oz. Gilmour has been
known to comment, "some guy with too much time on his hands had this idea
with combining Wizard Of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon". On an MTV special
about Pink Floyd in 2002, members of the band dismissed any relationship
between the album and the movie. They claimed that the timing could only be
coincidental, and not planned, as there were no means of even reproducing
the film in the studio, as there were no VCRs at the time.
When news of the alleged connection between the album and the film hit major
media outlets in 1997, it sparked a widespread interest in the phenomenon. A
small community sprang up around various sites to further explore this
idea. Whether the correspondences are real or imagined, fans of the album
often enjoy the experience of seeing Dark Side of the Rainbow, as the
combination is sometimes called. The synchronization is created by pausing
the album (preferably the CD version) at the very beginning, and unpausing
when the MGM lion roars for the third time.
Others have explained this as an example of synchronicity, in which there is
a meaningful relationship between phenomena that are otherwise not causally
related. In further support of this, films as diversified as Full Metal
Jacket, The Last Temptation Of Christ, and Finding Nemo have also been found
to have similar coincidences during synchronization.
The Turner Classic Movies cable channel has aired a version of Oz with the
Dark Side album as an alternate soundtrack.