Many, many musically knowledgeable people consistently point to the Beach Boys as having broken new musical ground with harmonies, complex music, electronic music etc. etc. Try as I might, all I can conjure up when I hear them or hear of them, is that “surfer music” that ultimately all sound like the same song to me. Surfing USA, Little Deuce Coupe, Surfer Girl etc. etc. - all sounded like Chuck Berry music with a California, surfer feel to it. Much like the Byrds were often Dylan music with a Rickenbacker guitar feel. I’m sure there’s some good stuff in there, I just never have “gotten” it.
Taste is individual no doubt but as is often the case with bands featuring a ‘new sound’ it was the combination of several factors that made the Beach Boys unique. To wit:
Chuck Berry was a definite influence of course (as he has been to 90% of bands anyway!) but Brian Wilson’s great love was the Four Freshmen and their harmonies which he gladly nicked for use over a rock beat and chord progression.
Yes the Beach Boys and their record label(s) milked the surfing thing for all it was worth but song and lyric subjects quickly moved on to other things (mostly relationships) after the initial flush of success.
Ironically, ‘surf’ music means the Ventures and Dick Dale and not the Beach Boys to many people.
There’s a whole lot of later work that’s quite different. But I happen to think “Surfer Girl” — which I saw performed recently in the old T.A.M.I. show movie — is one of htemost brilliant rock and roll songs of all time.
Of course you’re excused for thinking that “Surfin’ USA” reminds you of Chuck Berry...as for the others, you have to look pretty hard to find a tune similar to “Surfer Girl” in the genre IMO.
Try listening to any of the cuts off of their albums Pet Sounds, and Surf's Up, and you'll quickly see what people are raving about.
Heck, go all the way back to Good Vibrations, if you want. That was the point where they leaped past the old Chuck Berry mold, and blazed a new trail into groundbreaking sounds and arrangements.