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Brian Wilson, whose “teenage symphonies to God” made him the poet laureate of adolescent heartbreak as a founding member of The Beach Boys, has died. He was 82.

Wilson’s family confirmed his death on social media on Wednesday.

“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now,” his family wrote in an Instagram post. “Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”

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Wilson, who started the band in Hawthorne, California, with brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and schoolmate Al Jardine, wrote such timeless classics as “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “In My Room,” “God Only Knows,” “Caroline, No,” “California Girls,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” and “Good Vibrations.

Brian Wilson, who as leader of the Beach Boys and a founder of California rock invented a massively successful pop sound full of harmonies and sunshine, has died at the age of 82.

“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now,” his family wrote in a statement posted on social media. “Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.”

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There’s a moment in The Beach Boys, the new documentary about the pioneers of California pop music streaming now on Disney+, in which rock historian and USC professor Josh Kun raises a question that has haunted the band throughout the bulk of its career: “Who are we as artists?”

In the beginning, the core Beach Boys — brothers Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine — were a vocal group selling a fantasy about Southern California culture, one where the sun always shined, the girls all wore bikinis,...

When you sit down to watch a documentary about the Beach Boys, you know what you want: to be immersed in the California dreamin’ of the group’s early surfin’-hit days, in the jaunty beauty of songs like “I Get Around” and “Help Me Rhonda” and “All Summer Long,” and in the story of how Brian Wilson began to figure out a way to turn pop songs into miniature symphonies. You want to be immersed in the recording of “Pet Sounds,” in the Beach Boys’ rivalry with the Beatles, in the derailed masterpiece that was “Smile,” and in how Brian’s mental and emotional problems began to tear himself and the group apart. You want to know how the other Beach Boys, caught in the wilderness, found a way to put the group back together, though it’s almost like they became a different group. You want to see...

Just in time for the first long weekend of the summer, Disney+ is headed to the beach with The Beach Boys, a feature-length documentary look at the iconic California rock band of the same name. The doc will premiere on May 24, and a new trailer gives a first look at the interviews and archival footage that will capture the band's arduous journey out of the sunlit 1960s. The documentary will chart the band's origins, and follow them through their enormous success in the 1960s, when they weathered the British Invasion and rivaled The Beatles, and through their subsequent challenges, when the band struggled to reinvent itself even as they chafed against the dictates of manager Murry Wilson (who was also the father of three of the band's members).

In early 1970, Brian Wilson called Beach Boys manager Fred Vail to a Los Angeles hotel room to propose an idea that was outlandish even by his wild standards: a country music album with Vail on lead vocals that he’d produce. The fact that Vail was a businessman without any formal singing experience didn’t strike Wilson as any sort of obstacle.

“I said to him, ‘Have you written any country songs?'” Vail recalls to Rolling Stone. “And he said, ‘Well, no.’ I said, ‘Do you have any idea...

When Carl Wilson died of cancer in 1998, his sons Jonah and Justyn became heirs to their father’s estate. That meant joining with surviving Beach Boys founders Mike Love, Brian Wilson, and Al Jardine to vote on key business decisions, from archival releases to commercials. It wasn’t easy. “The dynamic changed a lot after our father passed,” says Jonah, who was in his late twenties at the time. “Not to say it was all negative, but we had a lot of challenges.” Adds Justyn, “In the beginning, it was...