ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in perspective with regard to the rise of a 'phonographic tradition' in twentieth-century popular music. If Zappa's Freak Out therefore appears to be no more than a possible influence on Sgt. Pepper, the same cannot be said of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. The chapter argues that the specificity of popular music as we know it today lies in its dependence upon the third medium that has been available since the late nineteenth century for preserving, disseminating and transmitting music: phonography. With regard to the Beatles' relationship with phonography, it may thus be stated that it contained the seeds of what would determine their sound throughout the first phase of their recording career. In contrast, at a distance of 40 years, Sgt. Pepper appears as the record that made popular musicians' shift to phonographic composition complete insofar as it was, in essence, the product of tape recording and multitrack technology.
