zenith the following year in the Summer of Love". Aftermath is regarded as the most artistically formative of the Rolling Stones' early work. Their new sound on the album helped expand their following by the thousands, while its content solidified their dark image. As Ritchie Unterberger observes, its contemptuous perspective about society and women contributed significantly to the group's reputation as "the bad boys" of rock music. According to John Mendelsohn from PopMatters, the social commentary of "Mother's Little Helper" in particular "cemented their reputation as a subversive cultural force", as it exposed the hypocrisy of mainstream culture's exclusive association of psychoactive drug use with addicts and rock stars. The NMEs Jazz Monroe writes that Aftermath simultaneously disowned and reimagined rock tradition and forever elevated the Stones as equals to the Beatles. Writing for The A.V. Club, Hyden describes it as "a template for every classic Stones album that came afterward", crediting its "sarcastic, dark and casually shocking" songs with introducing themes Jagger would explore further in the future through a "complex, slippery persona" that allowed him to "be good and evil, man and woman, tough and tender, victim and victimiser". This deliberately "confounding, complicated image" helped make Jagger one of the most captivating lead musicians in rock, Hyden concludes. The album proved influential in the development of rock music. Its dark content pioneered the darker psychological and social themes of glam rock and British punk rock in the 1970s. The music historian Nicholas Schaffner, in The British Invasion: From the First Wave to the New Wave (1982), acknowledges the Stones on the album for being the first recording act to engage themes of sex, drugs and rock culture "with both a measure of intelligence and a corresponding lack of sentimentality or even romanticism". The attitude of songs like "Paint It Black" in particular influenced punk's nihilistic outlook. Some of Aftermaths blues-oriented rock elements foreshadowed the blues-rock music of the late 1960s. Schaffner suggests "Goin' Home" anticipated the trend of extended musical improvisations by professional rock bands, while Rob Young of Uncut says it heralded "the approaching psychedelic tide" in the manner of Rubber Soul. Summarising Aftermaths impact in 2017, the pop culture writer Judy Berman describes "Paint It Black" as "rock's most nihilistic hit to date" and concludes that, "with Jones ditching his guitar for a closetful of exotic instruments and the band channelling their touring musicians' homesickness on