Cultural impact of the Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The group is considered to be one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and widely influential bands of all time. Their co-founder and principal composer, Brian Wilson, is widely considered one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the late 20th century. With record sales estimated at over 100 million, they were one of the few American bands formed prior to the 1964 British Invasion to continue their success, and among artists of the 1960s, they are one of few central figures in the histories of rock.

From the beginning of their career, the Beach Boys struggled with their reputation and audiences, often being dismissed as a superficial pop group due to their initial target demographic, early songs which celebrated a politically unconscious youth culture, and failure to blend in with the hippie movement. In later years, a reassessment of the band's contributions shows many effects on popular music, artists, and studio recording. While they were at the vanguard of the "California Sound", the Beach Boys helped spur many trends and various musical genres and movements. This includes being one of the first rock groups to exert studio control; inspiring a higher craft in popular music; advancing the field of music production; serving as a primary influence for many punk, alternative, and independent musicians; and being progenitors for a variety of pop/rock subgenres including vocal surf, psychedelic rock, experimental pop, art rock, progressive rock, power pop, and indie rock.

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