Beatles: Sgt Pepper vs Abbey Road

Hi,

This is sad, because in many ways, it does not take in consideration (afaik) that at the time, all the music on the radio was formulated cereal mish mash, and most of it was so childish and ridiculous as to keep the serious music listeners off the radio. Serious music folks did not listen to radio, then ... and likely don't do so now, or bother with PA or JMA. We discovered, then, with SPR, that the folks listening was a completely different set of folks. 

But:

1. Sgt Pepper's was in STEREO ... and it blew up the market for more individual players to take home, and this album was a must ... the majority of the radio dial at the time, was in MONO. A few years back, AM tried going stereo but it was too expansive and prohibitive, and almost a complete equipment change.

2, It's content, was different, as compared to the average stuff on radio that sounded the same after 3 songs, however, you did not have the album, because it wasn't in stereo, now.

3. Compared to a lot of stuff on the air in those days, Sgt Pepper's was much more educated and worked through ... the majority of works on the air at the time, did not have as good a rendition on the studio as the Beatles got at Abbey Road, for example, and the production made a lot of the rest of the AM dial music, sound really poor. 

4. What you gonna get, and listen to? Crappy sounding AM radio stuff, or the new STEREO thing? And it was a double whammy ... different, and then in STEREO. 

5. The Rolling Stones immediately followed up the idea! The "Between the Buttons" album I got was in Stereo, but there was very little separation as if the folks that made it sound stereo, did not know what to do. It was their next album where the STEREO was much more visible.

I kinda hope that folks get to see the history of things a bit better, it changes the perceptions ... and I have this weird idea that Internet folks don't have these thoughts in mind when they say some of these things. It MADE a heck of a difference, and helped change the times, and how music was perceived.

It was, also, one of the first big production albums (as a manner of speaking) that finally told us all that the recording industry was changing and FINALLY accepting rock music ... it would be a few more years, but classical music was still more important in terms of recording, and the quality ... and no one wanted to spend time and money on a cheap rock band with long hair, as many folks said at Abbey Road ... until one album made them more money than classical music ... mostly because the band did not get paid as much! The BBC owned studios did not pay the artists a whole lot, as they felt they were doing many bands a favor! It will be neat, and far out, when these things get into the public domain in the next 10 years. Already the comedy stuff in the 1950's is available, and its listing is ... way out there and over the top ... you can't even figure out what to listen to!