It was 44 years ago that...

Will someone please explain how Sgt. Pepper "altered the direction of a music genre"? What did we get after SP that we did not have before that was directly influenced by SP? I was alive and listening to music back then, but apparently unaware of its "impact". I do know I did not care for it then. Never have, until recently. Once I got the CD mono box set and played on my vastly improved (vs. back then) rig, so I do like it now, but don't see its signifigance.

Exile on Main Street and London Calling blended genres better than any other albums.

The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, Radiohead's OK-Computer, Pearl Jam's Ten, and London Calling by the Clash coming to mind.

i gotta agree with rockadanny--sgt. pepper was certainly eagerly awaited and massively hyped, but aside from more lavish production didn't really do anything musically that different from rubber soul or revolver (or for that matter, from pet sounds or some of the other ambitious pop of the era like the left banke or the zombies). i was also kinda underwhelmed by sgt. pepper--other than day in the life, the songs just don't move me like virtually the rest of their catalogue. just my biased and likely misguided opinion, of course.

to the original question, in addition to many of the above-named records, it seems like virtually everyone who heard "velvet underground and nico" was inspired to form a band to remake it.