When it comes to naming the greatest Beatles album, the debate never really ends. But when it comes to influence? That conversation may have a clearer answer.
Collider has ranked The Beatles' 1968 self-titled double album, commonly known as The White Album, as the most important classic rock album of all time, citing its sheer ambition, experimentation and genre-spanning scope as the deciding factors.
Released at a time when rock music was rapidly evolving, the album feels less like a single artistic statement and more like an entire universe. Spanning 30 tracks across two LPs, The White Album embraces folk, blues, proto-metal, avant-garde sound collage, country, pop and hard rock, sometimes all within a single listening session.
That eclecticism is precisely what makes it so influential. Rather than refining one signature sound, the band stretched in every direction at once. The experimental "Revolution 9" pushed rock into abstract, tape-loop territory, while "Helter Skelter" delivered an aggressive, distorted energy that would later be cited as an early precursor to heavy metal. Elsewhere, tracks veer from delicate acoustic ballads to playful character studies and stripped-down rockers.
A general view of the 'White Album' room is seen at the Beatlemania exhibition in 2009 in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Krafft Angerer/Getty Images)The album was surprising to some fans, who likely expected a different sound as the follow up to 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
"On Sgt. Pepper we had more instrumentation than we'd ever had," explained Paul McCartney in a 1968 interview. "More orchestral stuff than we'd ever used before, so it was more of a production. But we didn't really want to go overboard like that this time, and we've tried to play more like a band this time-- only using instruments when we had to, instead of just using them for the fun of it."
The album's strength lies in how it condenses the past and future of rock music into one expansive project. It reflects everything that had come before in the 1960s while hinting at countless sub-genres that would emerge in the decades to follow. Few albums feel as overwhelming in both size and ambition.
The Beatles had already redefined popular music multiple times by 1968, but The White Album showed just how far rock could stretch without breaking. It proved that a mainstream band could be daring, messy, experimental and commercially viable all at once.
More than half a century later, its influence is still audible across rock, alternative, indie and heavy music. Whether you see it as their best album or simply their boldest, one thing is clear: when it comes to importance, The White Album stands in a league of its own.
Related: 1966 Hit Ranked Best ‘American Rock Album’ of All Time
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