Brian Wilson, the creative force behind The Beach Boys, always chased musical originality, even as the band's trajectory took a bittersweet turn following the release of Pet Sounds. Although Pet Sounds is now hailed as a landmark achievement, the commercial failure of the follow-up project Smile allowed The Beatles to overtake The Beach Boys as pop's leading innovators, a shift Wilson felt keenly despite regarding them as friendly rivals.

Wilson faced resistance from within his own camp, including his father and bandmate Mike Love, over the more experimental, psychedelic direction of his songwriting. He also described feeling haunted by producer Phil Spector, recalling an imagined inner voice telling him he would never surpass classics such as "Be My Baby" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", urging him not to even try. Despite these pressures, and later exploitation by figures such as Eugene Landy, Wilson continued to produce work regarded as some of pop music's finest achievements.