I'd have to go with Revolver as a more influencial album musically speaking, from the Beatles anyway. But yeah, this is the album that solidified the Beatles as one of the greatest recording rock entities of all time. It also open a pandora's box for what could and shouldn't be done.

It could never be replicated by anyone else, even The Beatles themselves. It has all the excesses of progressive rock that came a few years later, which most proggers point to the this album as the genesis of the progressive rock genre, as well as the psychadelic rock craze it so obviously spawned. At the time Sgt. Peppers sounded so experimental, but nowadays it sounds more like a quintissential 60's pastiche of pop and psychadelia. It also spawned a slew of imitations that fell so terribly short.

It is definately a milestone in pop culture as it redifined what was supposed to be hip in the eyes of corporate America, as well as the media and the buying public. This is the point where the 'hippy look' started to infiltrate fashion (although it was more a mix of psychadelia and roaring '20s). The Beatles appearence upon the release of Sgt Peppers influenced long hair as a viable alternative hairstyle for men. No, The Beatles weren't the first band to sport long hair, but they validated the look. Their appearence on the cover of Sgt Peppers was in stark contrast to the mop-topped look of their last album (which they quite frankly spawned that hair craze as well). The tremendous popularity and validation of the album sales meant that no respectable rock band would be 'clean cut' for years.

Beatle-influenced psychadelia also infiltrated television after the success of Sgt Peppers, most evident in the vareity show genre, where new editing technology lent itself to the over-indulgences of some video mixers, where nearly any pop band's TV appearences were accompanied by swirling, kalaidescope imagery, and zip zoom camera effects, as well as other distractions. This, coupled with poorly performed lipsyncing, is part of TV's most embarissing (and laughable) era.

I love this album, but haven't listened to it in whole for years. Maybe I should whip it out (the CD) and try to wash William Shatner out of my ears.