Rubber Soul
According to music historian Bill Martin, the December 1965 release of "Rubber Soul" was the "turning point" for popular music, in that for the first time "the "album" rather than the song became the basic unit of artistic production." Author David Howard agrees, saying that "pop's stakes had been raised into the stratosphere" by "Rubber Soul" and that "suddenly, it was more about making a great album without filler than a great single." In January 1966, "Billboard" magazine referred to the opening sales of "Rubber Soul" in the US (1.2 million copies over nine days) as proof of teenage record-buyers gravitating towards the LP format. While it was in keeping with the industry norm in the UK, the lack of a hit single on "Rubber Soul" added to the album's identity in the US as a self-contained artistic statement.