10 Albums That Changed Rock History

From the mid '60s onward, the entire music world had their finger on the pulse of whatever the Beatles were doing. Outside of being the teen fad that woo'd teenage girls in A Hard Day's Night, records like Rubber Soul and Revolver were taking different ideas and melding them together in ways that we had never seen before. Those were just collections of songs though...Sgt. Pepper's was where the album as we know it comes into view.

With nothing to do except record after giving up the touring life, Paul McCartney's idea to create a fictitious band became one of the first concept albums in rock history. While not every song ties into this imaginary band led by Mr. Pepper (or Billy Shears), each song holds up as a classic in its own way, from the trippy drug wonderland of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to the amazing Indian meditation going on in Within You Without You.

This was not commercial by any means, and yet it became the emblem of the Love Generation going forward, with A Day in the Life being one of the pinnacles in rock history regardless of who you ask. Sgt. Pepper's might not be the greatest album of the '60s (hell, it's probably not even the greatest Beatles album), but it marks a pivot in the world of rock music that some fans still have yet to recover from after 50 years.