As Flower Power appeared to wane, the pop scene failed to make headlines. No pop group succeeded in popularity and fame as had the Beatles who had disbanded and gone their separate ways [by 1970]. 

Their live performances, their one night stands, their exhausting tours were ready for interment. In a symbolic gesture they created the Sergeant Pepper L.P. record [released in 1967]. The satirical photmontage [sic] on the sleeve illustrated the melancholy event. The streaming, vibrating texture of sound in major and minor keys on the disc kept the ear alerted for inventions that were pleasant and tuneful enough for any butcher’s boy to whistle. 

But there were no butcher’s boys and by this time the intellectuals, the musicians, the psychiatrists were beginning to take the Beatles and their music seriously.  At last 'Pop' seemed to be going somewhere.  But not, as yet, for me, despite the charm of Lucy in the Sky, Within You, Without You, When I am Sixty-Four, etc., that occur in Sergeant Pepper.