Formed 1965, London, England

With the release of 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd abruptly went from a moderately successful acid-rock band to one of pop music’s biggest acts. The recording, in fact, remained on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart longer than any other release in history. Along with 1979’s The Wall, it established the band as purveyors of a distinctively dark vision. Experimenting with concept albums and studio technology and breaking free of conventional pop song formats, Pink Floyd prefigured the progressive rock of the Seventies and ambient music of the Eighties.

It all began in 1965 when Syd Barrett, Bob Close, Rick Wright, Nick Mason, and Roger Waters joined a band called Sigma 6.  The band had it's hard times and failed. Bob Close left the band and the remaining four members all went on with there music career.
The four made music under the name such as The screaming Abdabs, T-Set, The Meggadeaths, and The Architectural Abdabs.  

As early as 1964 Pink Floyd’s original members, except Syd Barrett, were together studying architecture at London’s Regent Street Polytechnic School. With Barrett, an art student who coined the name the Pink Floyd Sound after a favorite blues record by Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, they began playing R&B-based material for schoolmates. By 1967 they had developed an unmistakably psychedelic sound: long, loud suitelike compositions that touched on hard rock, blues, country, folk, electronic, and quasi-classical music. Adding a slide and light show, one of the first in British rock, they became a sensation among London’s underground as a featured attraction at the UFO Club. Barrett, who was responsible for most of the band’s early material, had a knack for composing singles-length hits of psychedelia, and Pink Floyd had British hits with two of them in 1967: "Arnold Layne," the tale of a transvestite (#20 U.K.), and "See Emily Play" (#6 U.K.). The latter, however, was the last U.K. hit single they would have for over a decade; space-epic titles like "Astronomy Domine" and "Interstellar Overdrive" were more typical.

With Syd on guitar and vocals, Rick on piano and keyboard, Waters on bass, and Nick on the drums, Floyd was off to a start. After a few singles like Arnold Layne, Candy and a Currant Bun, and See Emily Play, the first full album release was Pipers at the Gates of Dawn. The album had a unique style and a certain feeling, most people liked it and it sold good.
The Bands leader, Syd Barrett, was now hooked on LSD, and was usually to high to play, Waters hired a friend of a band. And with the absence of Barrett came guitarist David Gilmour.
The next album was Suacerful of Secrets, the record only contained three Barrett tracks and the rest were Waters. 

Barrett, allegedly because of an excess of LSD experimentation, began to exhibit ever more strange and erratic behavior. David Gilmour joined to help with the guitar work. Barrett appeared on only one track of Secrets, "Jugband Music," which aptly summed up his mental state: "I’m most obliged to you for making it clear/That I’m not really here." He left the band, entered a hospital, and remained in seclusion. Without Barrett to create concise psychedelic singles, the band concentrated on wider-ranging psychedelic epics.

The Waters era had trouble producing music, trying to come up with an individual sound was troublesome because Waters wanted to keep some of Barrett's personality and feel in the music. Albums like More, Meddle, and Obscured by Clouds only sold moderately and disappointed Roger. Then in 1973 the band, mainly under Roger Waters supervision, released Dark Side of the Moon (engineered by Alan Parsons of The group Alan Parson's Project, who also engineered Atom Heart Mother). The album had a new sound and a better feeling than what Waters had released previously, but it carried the psychedelic awkwardness Waters had been trying to produce. This hit album rose Floyd back to the top quickly, and stayed on the Billboards since.
Now with Waters, Gilmour, Mason, and Wright enjoying stardom they quickly put out Wish You Were Here. This album proved that Dark Side was not a one time deal and Floyd could still able to produce good, and different music and this album thought to be a "thank you" to Barrett, he showed up at the final recording of it.

The next album was Animals, although it sold good, and had a good sound, it is considered the "Forgotten Album" because it is overshadowed by Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. The Wall sold Platinum 22 times and has been considered one of the greatest of all time.

THE WALL was Roger Waters' crowning accomplishment in Pink Floyd. It documented the rise and fall of a rock star (named Pink Floyd), based on Waters' own experiences and the tendencies he'd observed in people around him. By now, the bassist had firm control of the group's direction, working mostly alongside David Gilmour and bringing in producer Bob Ezrin as an outside collaborator. Drummer Nick Mason was barely involved, while keyboardist Rick Wright seemed to be completely out of the picture. Still, THE WALL was a mighty, sprawling affair, featuring twenty-six songs with vocals--nearly as many as all previous Floyd albums combined. The story revolves around the fictional Pink Floyd's isolation behind a psychological wall. The wall grows as various parts of his life spin out of control, and he grows incapable of dealing with his neuroses. 

The album opens by welcoming the unwitting listener to Floyd's show ("In The Flesh?"), then turns back to childhood memories of his father's death in World War II ("Another Brick In The Wall [Part 1]"), his mother's over protectiveness ("Mother"), and his fascination with and fear of sex ("Young Lust"). By the time "Goodbye Cruel World" closes the first disc, the wall is built and Pink is trapped in the midst of a mental breakdown. On disc 2, the gentle acoustic phrasings of "Is There Anybody Out There?" and the lilting orchestrations of "Nobody Home" reinforce Floyd's feeling of isolation. When his record company uses drugs to coax him to perform ("Comfortably Numb"), his onstage persona is transformed into a homophobic, race-baiting fascist ("In The Flesh"). In "The Trial" he mentally prosecutes himself, and the wall comes tumbling down. 

This ambitious concept album was an across-the-board smash, topping the Billboard album chart for 15 weeks in 1980. The single "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" was the country's best seller for four weeks. THE WALL spawned an elaborate stage show (so elaborate, in fact, that the band was able to bring it to only a few cities) and a full-length film. It also marked the last time Waters and Gilmour would work together as equal partners. 

During the recording of The Wall, Waters let fame go to his head and got into disputes with most of the other band members, and after The Wall went on Tour he kicked Richard Wright out of the band. In 1983 Waters produced the Album The Final Cut, and then left the band because a dispute with the rest of the members.

Now Gilmour took the band in his hands, and quickly produced a new sound that was untouched and individual. In 1987 Wright joined back up with Gilmour and Mason, the Album Momentary Lapse of Reason, sold very well and called for a tour, named Delicate Sounds of Thunder. Later, Waters caused a legal dispute claiming that the name "Pink Floyd" and all the music belonged to him. Althought the case never officially made it to trial, Roger lost the battle and all the music and copyrights was turned over to the remaining members.
At about this time Waters also produced a solo Album Radio KAOS and Barrett releases and Opel, which was Barrett's last release before becoming schizophrenic. He now lives with his aunt in Cambridge England.  

In 1994 Pink Floyd (Gilmour, Mason, and Wright) release The Division Bell. This Album rose to the top quick, and stayed on the American charts for a while. The success of this album was followed by the live album P-U-L-S-E, it contained all the best of Pink Floyd, including the entire album of Dark side of the Moon which hasn't been played live in over 19 years.  

Pink Floyd got the recognition that they fully deserved when inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Pink Floyd has kept quiet since, no official information on tours, or new releases. But Roger Waters in touring the US in 1999 and 2000, and plans to release a solo album soon after. He is also finishing an opera named Ca Ira.