Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

Exactly what I love the Beatles for. Right at the moment where they could have just started ****ting in a bag and selling it to people, they tried new things, and took big risks.

However, I think one thing that can be pointed out that even if Revolver was when Beatles started bridging into new styles it was Sgt Pepper when they decided to completely throw out the rulebook, and write music that sounds like nothing they did before basing it off of a multitude of genres that may seem foreign to them. However, I'm not sure if it's common knowledge or not, but the inspiration for Sgt Pepper was Frank Zappa's "Freak Out!".

Personally, I don't think the albums are really that similiar. However, the concept of densly mixing multiple genres, and formula breaking experimentation is something they both shared. The Mothers for many reasons would never be the pop darlings the Beatles where, however, it's not completely impossible that any other major band would pick up an album like Freak Out!, and make it what the final phase of the Beatles was. Zappa, not being a Beatles fan, would have existed regardless of the Beatles.

So, it's very likely that if they wouldn't have done it, somebody else might have. Not to say though, that like how Freak Out and Sgt Pepper differ, they wouldn't have done it in a different way changing the course of music in general. Still, I don't think it would really effect the existence of bands, or the concept of there being at least one or two pop bands breaking the mold, and really doing something significant.

Then again, as stated, that's not really going to be happening again anytime soon. However, You have to remember, the conditioning for the pop music industry was way less systematic than it is today, and when guys like Jimi Hendrix came out people felt comfortable enough to actual accept something that drastically different, mainstream musicians had to actually take heed.