The Kinks’ ‘Sunny Afternoon’ Captures 1966’s Class Tensions and Transforms Pop with Bittersweet Irony

When Sunny Afternoon was released in June 1966 by The Kinks, it arrived as a curious contrast to the psychedelic experimentation overtaking the charts. Instead of swirling guitars and abstract lyrics, it offered something far more subversive—an upper-class lament delivered with a sense of irony.