 Author Robert Rodriguez highlights the Byrds as having achieved "special notice as an American act that had taken something from the Brits, added to it, then sent it back".In doing so, Rodriguez continues, the Byrds had joined the Beatles and Dylan in "a common pool of influence exchange, where each act gave and took from the other in equal measure".According to music critic Tim Riley, "Rubber Soul" served as a "step toward a greater synthesis" of all the elements that throughout 1965 represented a "major "rock 'n' roll" explosion", rather than just the emergence of folk rock.