Editing Revolver (Beatles album) (section)

== Influence and legacy ==
=== Development of popular music and 1960s counterculture ===
{{quote box|quote= The unearthly sounds that ''Revolver'' released into the world were at once the antithesis of the human and a provocative indication of the ''[[Numinous|mysterium tremendum]]''{{nbsp}}... As they took their audience through a radically defamiliarized acoustic universe, these sounds were essentially {{em|questioning}} sounds. They kept forcing their audience to ask: what is this I'm listening to?{{sfn|Bromell|2002|p=98}} |source=– Author and academic [[Nick Bromell]], 2000|width=25%|align=left|style=padding:8px;}}
MacDonald deems Lennon's remark about the Beatles' "god-like status" in March 1966 to have been "fairly realistic", given the reaction to ''Revolver''. He adds: "The album's aural invention was so masterful that it seemed to Western youth that The Beatles {{em|knew}} – that they had the key to current events and were somehow orchestrating them through their records."{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=213}} MacDonald highlights "the radically subversive" message of "Tomorrow Never Knows" – exhorting listeners to empty their minds of all ego- and material-related thought – as the inauguration of a "till-then élite-preserved concept of mind-expansion into pop, simultaneously drawing attention to consciousness-enhancing drugs and the ancient religious philosophies of the Orient".{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=192}} Author [[Shawn Levy (writer)|Shawn Levy]] writes that the album presented an alternative reality that contemporary listeners felt compelled to explore further; he describes it as "the first true drug album, not a pop record with some druggy insinuations, but an honest-to-heaven, steeped-in-the-out-there trip from the here and now into who knew where".{{sfn|Levy|2002|p=241}}{{refn|group=nb|In Nick Bromell's recollection, many teenagers would soon experiment with psychedelic drugs, but through the existential questions raised by ''Revolver'', the Beatles "made {{em|being}} feel right even for their fans who never experimented with psychedelics".{{sfn|Bromell|2002|p=101}} He comments that the album demanded that fans "learn a new way of listening, develop a new kind of taste", and their loyalty in doing so was apposite to the norm that pop culture should adhere to "a familiar, frictionless world".{{sfn|Bromell|2002|p=89}}}}

According to Simon Philo, ''Revolver'' announced the arrival of the "underground London" sound, supplanting that of Swinging London.{{sfn|Philo|2015|p=112}} Barry Miles describes the album as an "advertisement for the underground", and recalls that it resounded on the level of [[experimental jazz]] among members of the movement, including those who soon founded the [[UFO Club]].{{sfn|Miles|2006|pp=72, 77}} He says it established rock 'n' roll as an art form and identifies its "trailblazing" quality as the impetus for [[Pink Floyd]]'s ''[[The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]]'' and for Brian Wilson to complete the Beach Boys' "mini-symphony", "[[Good Vibrations]]".{{sfn|Miles|2006|p=77}} Citing composer and producer [[Virgil Moorefield]]'s book ''The Producer as Composer'', author Jay Hodgson highlights ''Revolver'' as a "dramatic turning point" in recording history through its dedication to studio exploration over the "performability" of the songs, as this and subsequent Beatles albums reshaped listeners' preconceptions of a pop recording.{{sfn|Hodgson|2010|pp=viii–ix}} In his review for ''Pitchfork'', Plagenhoef says that the album not only "redefin[ed] what was expected from popular music", but recast the Beatles as "avatars for a transformative cultural movement".<ref name="Plagenhoef/Pitchfork" /> MacDonald cites ''Revolver'' as a musical statement that, further to the ''Rubber Soul'' track "[[The Word (song)|The Word]]" and "Rain", helped guide the counterculture towards the 1967 [[Summer of Love]] due to the widespread popularity of the Beatles.<ref>MacDonald, Ian. "The Psychedelic Experience". In: {{harvnb|''Mojo Special Limited Edition''|2002|p=32}}.</ref>

''Revolver'' has been recognised as having inspired new subgenres of music, anticipating [[electronica]], [[punk rock]], [[baroque rock]] and [[world music]], among other styles.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=xiii}} According to ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', the album "signaled that in popular music, anything – any theme, any musical idea – could now be realized".<ref name="RS 500 Greatest" /> Through the Beatles' example, psychedelia moved from its underground roots into the mainstream, thereby originating the longer-lasting [[psychedelic pop]] style.<ref name="AM/PsychPop">{{cite web|title=Psychedelic Pop|url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/psychedelic-pop-ma0000011915|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161208111908/http://www.allmusic.com/style/psychedelic-pop-ma0000011915|archive-date=8 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Russell Reising and Jim LeBlanc credit the songs on ''Revolver'' with "set[ting] the stage for an important subgenre of psychedelic music, that of the messianic pronouncement".{{sfn|Reising|LeBlanc|2009|p=100}} As with ''Rubber Soul'', Walter Everett views the album's "experimental timbres, rhythms, tonal structures, and poetic texts" as the inspiration for many of the bands that formed the [[progressive rock]] genre in the early 1970s.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=95}} He also considers ''Revolver'' to be "an innovative example of [[electronic music]]" as much as it broke new ground in pop by being "fundamentally unlike any rock album that had preceded it".{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=31}}{{refn|group=nb|While recognising it as the inspiration for [[the Moody Blues]]' 1968 album ''[[In Search of the Lost Chord]]'', Everett says that ''Revolver''{{'}}s most profound influence on the Beatles' contemporaries was through "its general emancipation from Western pop norms of melody, harmony, instrumentation, formal structure, rhythm, and engineering".{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=67}}}} ''Rolling Stone'' attributes the development of the Los Angeles and San Francisco music scenes, including subsequent releases by the Beach Boys, [[Love (band)|Love]] and [[the Grateful Dead]], to the influence of ''Revolver'', particularly "She Said She Said".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-beatles-songs-20110919/she-said-she-said-19691231|title=100 Greatest Beatles Songs: 37. 'She Said, She Said'|publisher=[[Rolling Stone|rollingstone.com]]|date=19 September 2011|access-date=24 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924154855/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-beatles-songs-20110919/she-said-she-said-19691231|archive-date=24 September 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

Steve Turner likens the Beatles' creative approach in 1966 to that of [[modern jazz]] musicians, and recognises their channelling of Indian and Western classical, Southern soul, and electronic musical styles into their work as unprecedented in popular music.{{sfn|Turner|2016|p=6}} He says that, through the band's efforts to faithfully translate their LSD-inspired vision into music, "''Revolver'' opened the doors to psychedelic rock (or acid rock)", while the primitive means by which it was recorded (on four-track equipment) inspired the work that artists such as Pink Floyd, [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]], [[Yes (band)|Yes]] and [[the Electric Light Orchestra]] were able to achieve with advances in studio technology.{{sfn|Turner|2016|pp=404, 414}} Turner also highlights the pioneering [[Sampling (music)|sampling]] and tape manipulation employed on "Tomorrow Never Knows" as having "a profound effect on everyone from [[Jimi Hendrix]] to [[Jay-Z]]".{{sfn|Turner|2016|p=405}}{{refn|group=nb|He also recognises ''Revolver'' as the forerunner to songs celebrating recreational drugs – whether LSD, amphetamines, [[heroin]], cannabis or [[MDMA|ecstasy]] – by Hendrix, the [[Small Faces]], [[the Velvet Underground]], [[Primal Scream]], [[Lil Wayne]] and Jay-Z.{{sfn|Turner|2016|pp=404–05}}}}

Rodriguez praises Martin and Emerick's contribution to the album, saying that their talents were as essential to its success as the Beatles'.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|pp=xii–xiii}} While also highlighting the importance of the production, David Howard writes that ''Revolver'' was a "genre-transforming album", on which Martin and the Beatles had "obliterated recording studio conventions".{{sfn|Howard|2004|pp=2, 20}} Combined with the similarly "visionary" work of American producer [[Phil Spector]], Howard continues, through ''Revolver'', the recording studio had become "its own instrument; record production had been elevated into art."{{sfn|Howard|2004|pp=2, 3}}

=== Ascendancy over ''Sgt. Pepper'' ===
{{quote box|quote= There's a case to be made that the Beatles went on to do ''Sgt. Pepper's'' because there was nowhere else to go but too far. With ''Revolver'', they had mapped out the pop universe so perfectly that all they could do next was tear it up and start again.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|pp=228–29}} |source=– [[David Quantick]], writing in ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]'' magazine, 2000|width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}
Whereas ''Sgt. Pepper'' had long been identified as the Beatles' greatest album, since the 2000s ''Revolver'' has often surpassed it in lists of the group's best work.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|pp=xi–xii}} Sheffield cites the album's 1987 CD release, with the full complement of Lennon compositions, as marking the start of a process whereby ''Revolver'' "steadily climbed in public estimation" to become recognised as the Beatles' finest work.{{sfn|Brackett|Hoard|2004|p=53}} Everett also attributes the "problem" regarding the album's standing in the US to the "inferior track listing" available to Americans until the CD release.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=329}}{{refn|group=nb|Riley calls ''Revolver'' the Beatles' best album but also, in the edition issued by Capitol, their "most artistically compromised".{{sfn|Riley|2002|pp=181–82}}}} In Britain, its supremacy over ''Sgt. Pepper'' was one of the cultural revisions established by the [[Britpop]] phenomenon in the 1990s.{{sfn|Stanley|2014|p=531}} Writing on the [[BBC]]'s website in August 2016, [[Greg Kot]] identified the "More popular than Christ" controversy and the attention subsequently afforded the release of ''Sgt. Pepper'' in 1967 as the two factors that had contributed to ''Revolver'' being relatively overlooked. Kot concluded that the ensuing decades had seen this impression reversed, since ''Revolver'' "does everything Sgt Pepper did, except it did it first and often better. It just wasn't as well-packaged and marketed."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160804-what-is-the-greatest-beatles-album |first=Greg|last=Kot |title=Why Revolver is the greatest Beatles album |date=5 August 2016|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|In his 2004 review for ''PopMatters'', Medsker similarly opined that "It's taken almost 30 years for music historians to put the Beatles work into proper perspective. ''Sgt. Pepper'' carried the title of best album of all time for ages{{nbsp}}... In the last couple years, however, revisionist history has actually changed things for the better. ''Revolver'' is king."<ref name="Medsker/PM" />}}

Rodriguez writes that, whereas most contemporary acts shy away from attempting a [[concept album]] in the vein of ''Sgt. Pepper'', the prototype established by ''Revolver'', whereby an album serves as an "eclectic collection of diverse songs", continues to influence modern popular music.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=xiv}} He characterises ''Revolver'' as "the Beatles' artistic high-water mark"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7461767/beatles-revolver-album-anniversary|first=Steve|last=Marinucci|title=The Beatles' 'Revolver' Turns 50: Classic Track-by-Track Rundown|date=5 August 2016|publisher=[[Billboard (magazine)|billboard.com]]|access-date=24 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616011340/http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7461767/beatles-revolver-album-anniversary|archive-date=16 June 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> and says that, unlike ''Sgt. Pepper'', it was the product of a collaborative effort, with "the group as a whole being fully vested in creating Beatle music".{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=xii}}

=== Appearances on best-album lists and further recognition ===
''Revolver'' has appeared high up in many lists of the best albums ever made,{{sfn|Ingham|2006|p=41}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/xz25 |first=Daryl|last=Easlea |title=The Beatles ''Revolver'' Review |publisher=[[BBC Music]]|year=2007|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> often in the top position.{{sfn|Prendergast|2003|p=180}}<ref name="PMStaff">{{cite web|author=PopMatters staff|title=Re-meet the Beatles: The Records – 1964–1965|url=https://www.popmatters.com/beatles-records-day-two-1965-2496121142.html?rebelltitem=1|website=[[PopMatters]]|date=9 November 2009|access-date=11 April 2022}}</ref> It was voted the third-best album of all time in the 1998 "Music of the Millennium" poll<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/50266.stm|title=The music of the millennium|publisher=[[BBC News Online]]|date=24 January 1998|access-date=25 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160902041735/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/50266.stm|archive-date=2 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> conducted by [[HMV]] and [[Channel 4]],<ref>{{cite news|author=Anon|title=Spin of the Century|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/spin-of-the-century-1.130767|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|date=31 January 1998|access-date=25 June 2020}}</ref> and in the following year's [[Music of the Millennium|expanded survey]], which polled 600,000 people across the UK.{{sfn|Badman|2001|pp=586, 640}}<ref>{{cite news|first=Matt|last=Wells|title=How Robbie headed Amadeus in the race to be music's man of the millennium|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/nov/08/millennium.uk1|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=9 November 1999|access-date=22 June 2020}}</ref> Also in 1998, it was ranked first in [[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]'s ''[[All Time Top 1000 Albums]]'', directly ahead of ''Sgt. Pepper'' and ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]'',{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=147}} and it was first again in the 2000 edition of the book.{{sfn|Reising|2002|p=3}}{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=671}} ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]'' placed it at number 1 in its list of the "50 Greatest British Albums Ever" in 2000;{{sfn|Reising|2002|p=2}}{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=72}} four years later, the album topped the same magazine's list "The Music That Changed the World".{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=769}} In 2001, it topped [[VH1]]'s "100 Greatest Albums",{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=769}}{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=150}} compiled from a poll of more than 500 journalists, music executives and artists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canoe.com/JamMusicBeatles/jan4_beatles-ap.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041113105505/http://www.canoe.com/JamMusicBeatles/jan4_beatles-ap.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 November 2004|agency=Associated Press|title=Beatles' 'Revolver' judged best album|website=[[Jam!]]|date=4 January 2001|access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref> In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked ''Revolver'' third on its list of the "[[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|500 Greatest Albums of All Time]]",<ref name="rollingstone1">{{cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-beatles-revolver-19691231 |title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time: The Beatles, 'Revolver' |date=31 May 2009 |publisher=[[Rolling Stone|rollingstone.com]] |access-date=24 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326154835/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-beatles-revolver-20120524 |archive-date=26 March 2014}}</ref>{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=149}} a position it retained on the magazine's revised list nine years later.<ref name="RS 500 Greatest">{{cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/the-beatles-revolver-54033/|author=Rolling Stone staff|title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 3. The Beatles, 'Revolver'|publisher=[[Rolling Stone|rollingstone.com]]|date=31 May 2012|access-date=4 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004034222/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/the-beatles-revolver-54033/|archive-date=4 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2004, ''Revolver'' appeared at number 2 in ''[[The Observer]]''{{'}}s list of "The 100 Greatest British Albums", compiled by a panel of 100 contributors.{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=150}} In 2006, it was chosen by ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine as one of the 100 best albums<ref>{{cite magazine| last1=Tyrangiel| first1=Josh| last2=Light| first2=Alan| title=The All-Time 100 Albums| date=13 November 2006| magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]| url=http://www.time.com/time/2006/100albums/index.html| access-date=24 June 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109195005/http://www.time.com/time/2006/100albums/index.html| archive-date=9 November 2007| url-status=dead}}</ref> and topped a similar list compiled by ''[[Hot Press]]''.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} That same year, ''[[Guitar World]]'' readers chose it as the tenth best guitar album of all time.{{sfn|Editors of ''Guitar World''|2010|p=281}} In 2010, ''Revolver'' was named the best pop album by the official newspaper of the [[Holy See]], ''[[L'Osservatore Romano]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wakin |first=Daniel J. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/arts/music/15arts-VATICANSTOP1_BRF.html |title=From the Pope to Pop: Vatican's Top 10 List |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=14 February 2010 |access-date=24 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004105710/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/arts/music/15arts-VATICANSTOP1_BRF.html |archive-date=4 October 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2013, ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' placed the album at number 1 in its "All-Time Greatest" albums.<ref name="EntertainmentWeekly1">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20712079_20711843_21221826,00.html#21351463 |author=EW staff|title=10 All-Time Greatest |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=15 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017123134/http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20712079_20711843_21221826,00.html |archive-date=17 October 2013|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> In September 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked ''Revolver'' at number 11 on its new list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".<ref>{{cite web|editor-last=Fine|editor-first=Jason|title=The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 11. The Beatles, ''Revolver''|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/the-beatles-revolver-2-1063222/|publisher=[[Rolling Stone|rollingstone.com]]|date=22 September 2020|access-date=24 September 2020}}</ref>

In 1999, ''Revolver'' was inducted into the [[Grammy Hall of Fame Award|Grammy Hall of Fame]],{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=770}} an award bestowed by the American [[Recording Academy]] "to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame|title=Grammy Hall of Fame|publisher=grammy.org|access-date=24 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110122042616/http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame|archive-date=22 January 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> According to art and culture journalist [[Robin Stummer]], writing in 2016, Voormann's cover is similarly recognised as "one of the finest pop artworks".<ref name="Stummer/Guardian" /> The album has been the subject of several tribute albums,{{sfn|Reising|2002|pp=9–10}} such as ''Revolver Reloaded'', a multi-artist CD included with the July 2006 issue of ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=769}} Beatles [[tribute band]]s have named themselves after ''Revolver'', and Reising lists [[Revolver Music|Revolver Records]], the [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] magazine ''[[Revolver (magazine)|Revolver]]'' and Revolver Films as other examples that appear to honour the 1966 album.{{sfn|Reising|2002|pp=8–9}} In his view, "Like few other rock and roll recordings, ''Revolver'' has assumed the status of cultural icon, approaching in its many avatars, its impact and its endurance the status of some of the definitive works of Anglo–American culture such as [[Herman Melville]]'s ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' and [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]''."{{sfn|Reising|2002|p=9}}