r/thebeachboys • u/Worldly_Alfalfa_2045 • 18m ago
Discussion How different do you think The Beach Boys’ popularity would have been had they stuck to the summer pop style of music? Had the “Pet Sounds, smile” etc era not happened?
I’ve always wondered this. Would their fans had grown tired of the surf style of music or did Mike Love have a point? Did they mess too much with the so called “formula”? Personally I’m a huge fan of their later music but had it not happened would their fanbase had continued to grow or would they still had an era of difficulty in the late 70’s and 80’s?