10 Rock Albums That Invented Entire Genres

After 1966, it was unclear what the next phase of the Beatles was going to look like. Even though the band was still the biggest act at the time, leaving the touring life for good made critics think that their time in the sun was officially over. Once they settled back in at Abbey Road Studios though, the innovations were only just beginning.

Picking up right where Revolver left off, Sgt. Peppers was the first jump into psychedelia for the Fab Four, making a glorified soundtrack for the rapidly approaching Summer of Love. Adopting different personas as part of an imaginary band, each song on this album points to a different musical tick that the band were dealing with at the time, from John Lennon creating a whimsical fairground on Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite or Paul McCartney commenting on hippy children running away from their lives at home on She’s Leaving Home.

While George Harrison brought out his mystical side on Within You Without You, some of the more innovative tracks like A Day in the Life was unprecedented for its time, creating musical chaos and reigning it in to become one of the most celebrated songs in the Beatles canon. The Beatles had classic records both before and after Sgt. Peppers, but this is the peak of what the Lennon/McCartney machine could do when working together.