You might know The Beatles. You might have heard of them in movies or TV. You might know some of their songs, or at least have heard some of them. You might even find yourself quite familiar with an album or two. But I bet you didn't know how much they influence you as an individual at this very moment in time.

June 1st of this year marked the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' famous album, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. You might be asking, what exactly is the significance of 50-year-old album today? With this anniversary we are reminded not only of how amazing this band was, but how important their influence was on music, society, and the individual soul that still is very prevalent in our daily lives.

This album marked an enormous change in The Beatles' career. Up to this point, the world saw them as cheeky boys with long hair and matching suits in a pop band. The teen hysteria might have been strange, but not completely different from previous rock singers. Their music style, although filled with a different life and sound, was nothing very far off the beaten path. Although their past two albums, Rubber Soul and Revolver, began to show a change in depth and sound of their music, no one could have guessed what these boys were evolving into.

By 1966 The Beatles were fed up with what their careers became. Constantly touring, making albums about every 4 months, and the complete loss of privacy, The Beatles wanted to be more than a stage show. After they decided to stop touring that summer, they wanted the opportunity to create completely new and different music that had ever been done before. They had the idea of becoming almost a new band, with a new sound and even a new name. Thus the beginning of their new band, Sgt. Peppers' band with their front man Billy Shears, was born.

They wanted to explore their musical abilities and did so by taking advantage of the fact that this album was not to be performed live. This idea gave them the freedom to expand from their four characteristic instruments. Classical strings, brass, and woodwind instruments were brought in, and even exploration with Indian music and pre-recorded sounds were used. In this way they began to find their own individual style: the mop tops were lost, different facial hair was grown, highly colorful and patterned outfits were adorned by each individual member. They were no longer "the boys" pictured together and clumped into a group, but started to become their individual selves.

Sgt. Peppers marked a fundamental shift in not only the Beatles' career but music in general. Nothing like this had ever been produced and created before. It combined their rock and roll roots with psychedelic sounds, whimsical characters and events, and inventive use of instruments themselves. It was a masterpiece, an opera of the generation, and rightfully so: this album gave the world the push it so badly needed.

By 1967 society as we knew it was a boiling pot, just about to bubble over. The first half of the '60s carried the ideas and cultural beliefs from previous decades: one was to marry young, live in a suburban household, with unbreakable gender roles and societal norms. Influences of drugs, premarital sex and a growing war in Vietnam stirred the lives of young people, and a desire to break free of the norm, to find independence and to fight for peace became common themes of a generation. Themes that this album put to music.

This album has been called the unofficial start to the famous Summer of Love. Both the album and the ideas of that summer were the same: it was about revolution, it was about independence, it was about breaking free from the chains of established society. It was about discovering yourself, a concept that had not been explored before this time and has been a major theme in society since. People of each generation have been searching for themselves ever since the pioneers of the late 1960s lead the way, with this album blasting in the background. That means 50 years, to the day, of soul-searching, of breaking free, of finding oneself.

With this album came the concept that The Beatles didn't have to be "The Beatles." They didn't want to be what the world had seen them as for the last few years anymore; they wanted more. With this album, they realized they didn't have to do what the world was expecting of them. With this album, they preach this idea to people all over the world, for generations to come: you can be whoever you want to be. From Paul telling us to take the time for a number of things that weren't important yesterday, to the tale of the girl leaving home to release her repressed feelings of independence and self-choice. From George telling us to see beyond ourselves to find peace of mind waiting there, and being reminded that it's getting better all the time, The Beatles are telling us to be ourselves to the fullest and to stop holding back, in their perfectly musical and quirky ways.

Within 40 minutes, The Beatles encompass the anthem of the world, an anthem that can still be shouted from the rooftops today: find yourself, and then be yourself. Both in content and concept, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band celebrates and encourages individuality, independence, and a necessary change from childhood innocence into adult self-discovery. As we start off Summer 2017, I leave you all with this message: styles and fads might change, but you can thank your lucky stars that The Beatles existed.