20 Most IMPORTANT Classic Rock Albums Ever Made

It was a bit of a shame when the Beatles started to become a more studio-centric band during the mid-60's. After stunning the world after their Ed Sullivan Show performance, they had become the face of pop music and the archetype of what a pop rock act should be. However, the time for being cute was over. It was time to go a bit deeper.

Once the Fabs came off of their first studio creation Rubber Soul, fans were intrigued by the band's next singles "Paperback Writer" and "Rain," whose harsher sound foreshadowed more shocking things to come. Despite the black and white cover, Revolver is some of the most colorful music the band would ever create. No longer needing to call back to their rockabilly roots, each songwriter takes a different approach to their tunes, with George Harrison's indictment of tariffs on "Taxman" to John Lennon's whimsical "And Your Bird Can Sing."

With its predecessor doing so well, the band also stretched their sound to include any genre imaginable, from hard rock to folk to Eastern music to classical. Each of these are done incredibly well, but it all builds to "Tomorrow Never Knows," which still sounds like the future of music a half a century after its release. Rubber Soul may have hinted at something different, but Revolver was the point of no return. After this record, rock's golden age was officially underway.