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===Innovations=== {{see also|Recording studio as an instrument}} ''Pet Sounds'' came to inform the developments of genres such as pop, rock, jazz, [[electronic music|electronic]], [[experimental music|experimental]], [[punk rock|punk]], and [[Hip hop music|hip hop]].<ref name="Pitchfork50">{{cite web |last1=Hart |first1=Ron |title=The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds Celebrates its 50th Anniversary: Artists Pay Tribute to the Eternal Teenage Symphony |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9870-the-beach-boys-pet-sounds-celebrates-its-50th-anniversary-artists-pay-tribute-to-the-eternal-teenage-symphony/ |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |date=April 12, 2016 |access-date=April 21, 2020 |archive-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616053153/https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9870-the-beach-boys-pet-sounds-celebrates-its-50th-anniversary-artists-pay-tribute-to-the-eternal-teenage-symphony/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Similar to subsequent [[experimental rock]] LPs by [[Frank Zappa]], the Beatles, and [[the Who]], ''Pet Sounds'' featured countertextural aspects that called attention to the very recordedness of the album.{{sfn|Lowe|2007|pp=38, 219}} Professor of American history [[John Robert Greene]] stated that the album broke new ground and took rock music away from its casual lyrics and melodic structures into what was then uncharted territory. He furthermore called it one factor which spawned the majority of trends in post-1965 rock music, the only others being ''Rubber Soul'', the Beatles' ''[[Revolver (Beatles album)|Revolver]]'', and the contemporary folk movement.{{sfn|Greene|2010|p=155}} The album was the first piece in popular music to incorporate the [[Electro-Theremin]], an easier-to-play version of the [[theremin]], as well as the first in rock music to feature a theremin-like instrument.{{sfn|Lambert|2007|p=240}} With ''Pet Sounds'', they were also the first group to make an entire album that departed from the usual small-ensemble electric rock band format.<ref name="Sommer2016">{{cite web |last1=Sommer |first1=Tim |author-link=Tim Sommer |title=This Is Your Brain on 'Pet Sounds' |url=http://observer.com/2016/05/this-is-your-brain-on-pet-sounds/ |website=[[The Observer]] |date=May 16, 2016 |access-date=May 13, 2018 |archive-date=May 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516071455/http://observer.com/2016/05/this-is-your-brain-on-pet-sounds/ |url-status=live }}</ref> According to David Leaf in 1978, ''Pet Sounds'' and ''Good Vibrations'' "established the group as the leaders of a new type of pop music, [[Art Rock]]".{{sfn|Leaf|1978|p=74}} Academic [[Bill Martin (philosophy)|Bill Martin]] states that the band opened a path in rock music "that went from ''Sgt. Pepper's'' to ''[[Close to the Edge (Yes album)|Close to the Edge]]'' and beyond". He argues that the advancing technology of [[multitrack recording]] and [[mixing board]]s were more influential to experimental rock than [[electronic instruments]] such as the [[synthesizer]], allowing the Beatles and the Beach Boys to become the first crop of non-[[classically trained]] musicians to create extended and complex compositions.{{sfn|Martin|2015|p=75}} In ''Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop'', Mark Brend writes: {{blockquote|Other artists and producers, notably the Beatles and Phil Spector, had used varied instrumentation and multi-tracking to create complex studio productions before. And others, like [[Roy Orbison]], had written complicated pop songs before. But "Good Vibrations" eclipsed all that came before it, in both its complexity as a production and the liberties it took with conventional notions of how to structure a pop song.{{sfn|Brend|2005|p=19}} }} The making of "Good Vibrations", according to Domenic Priore, was "unlike anything previous in the realms of classical, jazz, international, soundtrack, or any other kind of recording",{{sfn|Priore|2005|p=55}} while biographer [[Peter Ames Carlin]] wrote that it "sounded like nothing that had ever been played on the radio before".{{sfn|Carlin|2006|pp=95–96}} It contained previously untried mixes of instruments, and was the first successful pop song to have cellos in a juddering rhythm.{{sfn|Brend|2005|pp=18–19}} Musicologist [[Charlie Gillett]] called it "one of the first records to flaunt studio production as a quality in its own right, rather than as a means of presenting a performance".{{sfn|Gillett|1984|p=329}} Again, Brian employed the use of Electro-Theremin for the track. Upon release, the single prompted an unexpected revival in theremins while increasing awareness of [[analog synthesizer]]s, leading [[Moog Music]] to produce their own brand of [[ribbon controller|ribbon-controlled]] instruments.{{sfn|Pinch|Trocco|2009|pp=102–103}}{{refn|group=nb|Even though the Electro-Theremin was not technically a theremin, the song became the most frequently cited example of the theremin in pop music.{{sfn|Brend|2005|p=16}}}} In a 1968 editorial for ''[[Jazz & Pop]]'', Gene Sculatti predicted that the song "may yet prove to be the most significantly revolutionary piece of the current rock renaissance ... In no minor way, 'Good Vibrations' is a primary influential piece for all producing rock artists; everyone has felt its import to some degree".<ref name="scullati" /> Discussing ''Smiley Smile'', Daniel Harrison argues that the album could "almost" be considered art music in the Western classical tradition, and that the group's innovations in the musical language of rock can be compared to those that introduced [[atonality|atonal]] and other nontraditional techniques into that classical tradition. He explains: "The spirit of experimentation is just as palpable ... as it is in, say, [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]]'s [[Drei Klavierstücke (Schoenberg)|op. 11 piano pieces]]."{{sfn|Harrison|1997|p=47}} However, such notions were not widely acknowledged by rock audiences nor by the classically minded at the time.{{sfn|Harrison|1997|p=59}} Harrison concludes: "What influences could these innovations then have? The short answer is, not much. ''Smiley Smile'', ''Wild Honey'', ''Friends'', and ''20/20'' sound like few other rock albums; they are ''sui generis''. ... It must be remembered that the commercial failure of the Beach Boys' experiments was hardly motivation for imitation."{{sfn|Harrison|1997|p=59}} Musicologist [[David Toop]], who included the ''Smiley Smile'' track "[[Fall Breaks and Back to Winter]]" on a companion CD for his book ''[[Ocean of Sound]]'', placed the Beach Boys' effect on sound pioneering in league with [[Les Baxter]], [[Aphex Twin]], [[Herbie Hancock]], [[King Tubby]], and [[My Bloody Valentine (band)|My Bloody Valentine]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Bush|first=John|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/ocean-of-sound-mw0000538713|title=Ocean of Sound – David Toop|work=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=January 11, 2014|archive-date=February 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204174743/http://www.allmusic.com/album/ocean-of-sound-mw0000538713|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Sunflower'' marked an end to the experimental songwriting and production phase initiated by ''Smiley Smile''.{{sfn|Harrison|1997|p=52}} After ''Surf's Up'', Harrison wrote, their albums "contain a mixture of middle-of-the-road music entirely consonant with pop style during the early 1970s with a few oddities that proved that the desire to push beyond conventional boundaries was not dead", until 1974, "the year in which the Beach Boys ceased to be a rock 'n' roll act and became an oldies act".{{sfn|Harrison|1997|p=52}}
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