Editing Rubber Soul (section)

===Rivals' response===
{{See also|Album era}}
{{quote box|quote= It was the most out-there music they'd ever made, but also their warmest, friendliest and most emotionally direct. As soon as it dropped in December 1965, ''Rubber Soul'' cut the story of pop music in half – we're all living in the future this album invented. Now as then, every pop artist wants to make a ''Rubber Soul'' of their own.<ref name="Sheffield/RS" />|source=– [[Rob Sheffield]], 2015|width=25%|align=left|style=padding:8px;}}

Music historian [[Bill Martin (philosophy)|Bill Martin]] says that the release of ''Rubber Soul'' was a "turning point" for pop music, in that for the first time "the ''album'' rather than the song became the basic unit of artistic production."{{sfn|Martin|1998|p=41}} In author David Howard's description, "pop's stakes had been raised into the stratosphere" by ''Rubber Soul'', resulting in a shift in focus from singles to creating albums without the usual [[filler (media)|filler]] tracks.{{sfn|Howard|2004|p=64}} The release marked the start of a period when other artists, in an attempt to emulate the Beatles' achievement, sought to create albums as works of artistic merit{{sfn|Howard|2004|p=64}}{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=36}} and with increasingly novel sounds.{{sfn|Turner|2016|pp=68–70}} According to Steve Turner, by galvanising the Beatles' most ambitious rivals in Britain and America, ''Rubber Soul'' launched "the pop equivalent of an arms race".{{sfn|Turner|2016|pp=69–70}}

[[Brian Wilson]] of the Beach Boys described ''Rubber Soul'' as "the first album I listened to where every song was a gas" and planned his band's next project, ''[[Pet Sounds]]'', as an attempt to surpass it.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=75}} ''Rubber Soul'' similarly inspired [[Pete Townshend]] of [[the Who]] and [[the Kinks]]' [[Ray Davies]],{{sfn|Decker|2009|p=77}} as well as Jagger and [[Keith Richards]] of the Rolling Stones, who issued their first album of all-original material, ''[[Aftermath (The Rolling Stones album)|Aftermath]]'', in April 1966.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=36}} The album was also an influence on Bob Dylan, [[Stevie Wonder]]<ref name="Myers/WSJ" /> and the Byrds.{{sfn|Du Noyer|2020|p=80}} [[John Cale]] recalled that ''Rubber Soul'' was an inspiration as he and [[Lou Reed]] developed their band [[the Velvet Underground]]. He said it was the first time "you were forced to deal with them as something other than a flash in the pan" and especially admired Harrison's introduction of Indian sounds.<ref name="Alexander/Mojo">{{cite magazine|last=Alexander|first=Phil|title=The 101 Greatest Beatles Songs|magazine=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]|date=July 2006|page=90|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

In his chapter on ''Rubber Soul'' in the [[List of Cambridge Companions to Music|Cambridge Companion to Music]]'s volume on the Beatles, James Decker credits the album with effecting the "transformation" of 1960s pop.{{sfn|Decker|2009|pp=75–76}} In addition to citing it as the precedent for early experimental works by bands including the Kinks, [[Love (band)|Love]] and [[Jefferson Airplane]], Decker writes that ''Rubber Soul'' presented "a variety of techniques hitherto unexplored in popular music" while encouraging listeners "to be cognizant of more flexible dimensions of pop music and to ''desire'' and ''expect'' them as well".{{sfn|Decker|2009|p=89}} Music historian Simon Philo also sees it as heralding the experimentation that characterised late-1960s rock. He describes it as an album-length confirmation of the "transformation of pop's range and reach" that the Beatles had first achieved when "[[Yesterday (Beatles song)|Yesterday]]", McCartney's introspective and classically orchestrated ballad, topped US singles charts in late 1965.{{sfn|Philo|2015|pp=87–88}} In a 1968 article on the Beach Boys, [[Gene Sculatti]] of ''[[Jazz & Pop]]'' recognised ''Rubber Soul'' as the model for ''Pet Sounds'' and ''Aftermath'', as well as "the necessary prototype that no major rock group has been able to ignore".<ref name="Sculatti">{{cite web|last=Sculatti|first=Gene|url=http://www.teachrock.org/resources/article/villains-and-heroes-in-defense-of-the-beach-boys/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714191639/http://teachrock.org/resources/article/villains-and-heroes-in-defense-of-the-beach-boys/ |title=Villains and Heroes: In Defense of the Beach Boys|magazine=[[Jazz & Pop]]|date=September 1968|publisher=teachrock.org|archive-date=14 July 2014|access-date=20 June 2017}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Du Noyer comments that the Beatles' contemporaries from their pre-fame years playing at [[the Cavern]] in Liverpool, such as [[The Searchers (band)|the Searchers]] and [[Gerry Marsden]], faded as a result of their ignoring the changes presented by ''Rubber Soul''. He adds: "Some went cabaret and [[Cilla Black]] became the new [[Vera Lynn]]."{{sfn|Du Noyer|2020|p=80}}}}
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