10 Perfect Albums That Started Rock Genres

There's a good case to be made that the Beatles seemed to start different rock genres a few times over throughout their career. With their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Fab Four helped the British Invasion kick into high gear, and their mid period records showed them dipping their toes into the more folksy side of the spectrum, being enamored with the work of Bob Dylan and incorporating that into their sound. They were always willing to experiment, but Sgt. Peppers was the experimental leap that they were never going to come back from.

Having the idea of making an album centered around an imaginary band, Sgt. Peppers was one of the first times that the Beatles truly let loose in the studio, free from the touring life and making songs that didn't have to rely on being performed live, from the tape loops on Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite to George Harrison's spiritual side coming out on Within You Without You.

Arriving just when John Lennon and Paul McCartney were at the peak of their partnership, songs like A Day in the Life were also the beginnings of blending both sides of popular music, putting different avant garde twists into their sound and coming up with something that was a lot more creative than what you would normally get out of the Top 40. Rock and roll may have just been a style of music, but in the wake of Sgt. Peppers, people slowly started to realize that this music could also could be considered works of art as well.