No "Pet Sounds"

POD 1965
Brian Wilson has his first mental breakdown on tour with the Beach Boys.
In OTL, the result is that he quits touring to concentrate on writing songs & producing their recording sessions.. but what if the illness is much, much worse?

Brian retires from music altogether.. the rest of the band carry-on pretty much as a surf band. The classic album 'Pet Sounds' is never written.

What impact does this have on the Beatles, and pop in general?

Bearing in mind that Pet Sounds is cited as a huge influence on Sgt Pepper.. I'm thinking the Beatles 1967 album will have a harder edge to it than Sgt Pepper did... possibly getting hard rock kick-started a few months earlier than in OTL?
 
Without Pet Sounds, there's no Sgt. Pepper's. Without Sgt. Pepper's, and this isn't an overstatement, there is no Flower Child, Psychedelic 60's, though the counter culture will develop.
 
Without Pet Sounds, there's no Sgt. Pepper's. Without Sgt. Pepper's, and this isn't an overstatement, there is no Flower Child, Psychedelic 60's, though the counter culture will develop.

I dunno about that, there's still plenty of weird stuff happening.. the Flower Child stuff could well still occur, it'll be interesting to guess how the world's biggest pop group will reflect the trends.


Without a "production race" between The Beatles and the Beach Boys, I can still see a place for layered productions, but perhaps something more 'edgy' than Sgt Pepper turned out.. Maybe John Lennon has more input into the project and it turns out more under-produced?
 
Blues-driven rock and soul continue to increase in popularity. Without the psychedelic craze, the Beatles next album has a bluesier sound and by 1971 they release a blues-rock, very soulful record. During the late 60s and early 70s, underground protopunk bands are rebelling against the popular crooning soul music by creating loud, fast, and energetic songs. Prog still develops as an offshoot of the blues, but soul becomes even more popular in the 70s and dominates the charts in the 80s.

Or at least that's how it plays out in my mind. As long as punk still develops, I'm fine. :p
 
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