The Beatles were a popular British rock and roll band in the 1960’s. At the time, they were the most popular musicians in the world and had profound effects on culture worldwide. Just because they were the most popular, however, does not mean that they were universally loved. They weren’t. John Lennon himself once said, “You have to be a bastard to make it. That’s a fact. And the Beatles were the biggest bastards on Earth” (Thill). After reviewing an online biography about the band and various books about their societal impact, I have found that through their unique hairstyles, illicit drug use, and rock music, the Beatles grew a strong connection to American counter culture and were widely opposed by conservative America because of it.
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Rock was a relatively new movement among the music industry, so it was rapidly developing. It was adopted by the youth and became the music of the counterculture (Wald 231). In Meet the Beatles, Stark states:
By 1965, Americans were already familiar with the notion that youth were on the march, inspired by the moral clarity of the civil rights movement. Student protesters seemed to be everywhere… Though rock had always been associated with rebellion, folk music was, of course, the traditional music of political protest. When folk and rock began to converge—thanks in large part to both the Beatles and Dylan—rock began to acquire much of the edge and relevance that folk had carried in American culture, even if the newer genre weren’t nearly as pointedly political as those of folk music had been
Of course, this was yet another reason for the conservative public to despise the Beatles. Ian Inglis, a visiting fellow in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Northumbria, covers this in his book, The Beatles, Popular Music and Society. A disapproving view of rock and roll wasn’t held by most in the band’s religiously ambiguous home country of England, but it was adopted by much of America, especially in the South, who considered rock music to be sacrilegious
The Beatles were formed in London and consisted of four prime members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. When they first came out from Liverpool to America, they gave a clean look toward people by wearing suits and trimmed haircuts. The Rolling Stones, also formed in London later on, also consisted of four prime members in the beginning: Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts. Throughout their career, they let they hair grow long and wear whatever they wanted including concerts, giving off the “I don’t care” look. The Beatles gave a clean impression, perceived as perfect school boys while The Rolling Stones gave a dirty image to the public and didn’t care about other’s opinion and rebelled against “the man”. As t...
The Beatles are an iconic English rock band and are widely regarded as the “foremost and most influential act of the rock era” (Unterberg). Formed in Liverpool in 1960, the Beatles were comprised of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, with Stuart Sutcliffe on bass guitar in January and Pete
Although considered the day Rock ‘n’ Roll was born, many other events in American history have given foundation to this much loved idea. Rock ‘n’ Roll is much more than just music, rather it is the movement which underlines cultural imperialism. Rock had been promoting a culture of comfort and freedom from social constraints as well. Although the style of ‘Rock music’ is easily adaptable into many different sounds, it is still thoroughly identified by its definingly amplified rhythm. The sudden worldwide popularity of rock and roll resulted in an unparalleled social impact. Rock ‘n’ Roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language in a way few other social developments have equaled. The social impact is so large that rock stars are worshipped worldwide. In its early years, many adults condemned the style of music, placing a stigma on its name, and forbid their children from listening and following its ways. Many considered Rock ‘n’ Roll culture as a bad influence to all people, but as the genre aged and the now not-so-young crowds had matured, Rock was respected and
Hamburg had a street called Reeperbahn which had more strip clubs than any street in the world. Hamburg also had a really high crime rate because all the gangs from Berlin moved to Hamburg due to the Berlin Wall (Davies 80.) This makes me think this is why their parents were hesitant about letting them go. They played in an Indian club called Indra. They became very good, so good that they started playing 7 days a week until 2 am. Eventually the club got so loud that they had to move due to complaints by the neighbors (Davies 82.) They would play so much they would usually get around 5 hours of sleep. This shows that if you want to be really good at something you must work really hard. They wanted to play and wanted to be successful and were willing to work for it. The Beatles were not only headliners at parties; the Beatles also were big partiers themselves. There were also fights in the club while they were playing. There was so fighting and alcohol that the people inside the clubs would be half dead (Davies 83-84.) This also caused some on-stage fight or arguments. Sometimes they would throw food at each other while performing. It did get out of hand sometimes. The group made very few friends while they were in Hamburg. They didn’t like the Germans. John said,” They are all half-witted.” They didn’t make friends with the British people there because they would start arguments with Germans (Davies 85.) Eventually they had to come back home. When they came back from Hamburg, one of their friends put up a sign that said: The Beatles, Direct from Hamburg. This lead to people thinking they were German. People actually complemented them on how well English they spoke (Davies 97-98.)
While the 1950s and 60s were a time of segregation in America. Most Americans, especially older individuals and groups found the beat and lyrics to Rock ‘n’ Roll sickening. It reminded them of a kind of African American type music. They didn’t like the fact that their children were listening to it because “Rock ‘n’ Roll was credited with and criticized for promoting integration and economic opportunity for blacks while bringing to ‘mainstream’ culture black styles and values.” While Americans began to feel that they were beginning to grow closer and closer to the ways of Afr...
According to history1900.about.com “About this same time, the Beatles began to shift to psychedelic influences. They started using marijuana and LSD and learning about Eastern thought.” The eastern thought and early western philosophy was the idea of matters in basic human existence. This is around the time when the Beatles music started fighting for world peace and talking about how we should come together. John Lennon’s song “imagine” tells people how the world would be a better place without religion, war, conflict, possessions, and greed. He also explains that he isn’t the only person to have fought for this. Doing so many peace riots happened in the 60’s during the vietnam war. These peace riots were usually filled with hippies which was a term for people that are “with nature”. You could say that the Beatles were hippies for they fought for these riots trying to end the war in vietnam. This made a major impact to how we view the world now and how we need to protect our environment now. allmusic.com states “They were also the first British rock group to achieve world wide
... War activists. As a result, this new type of music was seen as a way to establish a sense of identity and pride in oneself by the current generation. Rock ‘n’ roll concert events were a perfect way to get those activists together to simultaneously protest what it was they believed in, be it anti-technology, sexual stereotypes, communal living or pro-drug use or just simply desiring peace. Musicians rose to further fame by voicing the ideas of its listeners across a broad platform and drugs created a type of music that could enhance the timelessness of their drug experience in a supposedly new state of consciousness. Rock ‘n’ roll had gained popularity before the hippie movement began but the characteristics of the movement certainly helped to provide a gateway for new musicians to gain popularity and for those same musicians to exhibit further musical exploration.
The 1960’s was one of the most controversial decades in American history because of not only the Vietnam War, but there was an outbreak of protests involving civil and social conditions all across college campuses. These protests have been taken to the extent where people either have died or have been seriously injured. However, during the 1960’s, America saw a popular form of art known as protest music, which responded to the social turmoil of that era, from the civil rights movement to the war in Vietnam. A veritable pantheon of musicians, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan sang their songs to encourage union organizers to protest the inequities of their time, creating a diverse variety of popular protest music, which has reached out to the youthful generations everywhere demanding for a revolutionary change. The protest music took the children of the 1960’s to a completely new different level. Musicians of this generation were not going to sit and do nothing while the government lied to the people about what was going on in Vietnam. Instead, they took their guitar-strumming troubadours from the coffee houses, plugged them in, and sent the music and the message into the college dorm rooms and the homes of the youth of America. However, as decades went by, protest music does not have much of an impact as it use to because of the way things have changed over the years. Through the analysis of the music during the 1960’s, there shall be an understanding on how the different genres of protest music has affected social protesters based on how musicians have become the collective conscience of that generation through their lyrics and music and the main factors that contributed to the lack of popula...
Rock ‘n’ roll and 20th Century Culture According to Philip Ennis, rock ‘n’ roll emerged from the convergence of social transformations which resulted from World War II (Ryan 927). Despite its pop culture origins, rock music is arguably one of the strongest cultural factors to develop in this century. Artists such as Lennon, McCartney and Dylan defined the emotions of a generation and, in the last decade, it as even been acknowledged by members of the establishment which it hoped to change as a major influence in the country. In order to understand how rock went from a sign of rebellion to a cultural icon, it is necessary to understand where it came from.
The Beatles were a boy band formed in Liverpool England (1963 A New Civil War Raging); the band was made up of John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. The Beatles were a pop rock band formed in the year 1960. Their music has influenced many people all over the world, having multiple number one singles to selling many number one albums. The Beatles influenced people like Oasis, Pink Floyd, The Byrds and many other artists and bands to name. The Beatles were together for a short time when they had broken up only 10 years of being together. Although The Beatles broke up they had come over to America in the year 1964, only 11 weeks after America’s President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. On February 9th, 1964 The Beatles had made their first American television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. This episode of The Ed Sullivan Show had an audience of 73 million views (Wikipedia). The Beatles they were very unpopular with adults and newspapers (1963 A New Civil War Raging). Although adults and newspapers hated The Beatles, teens and young adults were very popular and had already had concerts lined up for a tour in America....
The 1960s was a time of Rock, Rock and Roll, Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock, etc. Rock was established in the 50s but took off in the 60s. One of the most popular bands at that time was The Beatles. The Beatles, in my opinion and many others, was the most influential band of the decade, not only changing rock but music in general forever. The Beatles were a rock band formed in Liverpool, but eventually
Today we still hear our mentors and elders speak of the political, social, and musical revolution that came about in this time. The 1960s Rock and Roll brought about a political revolution including racism issues and the youth culture dealing with post-war issues. The social revolution of this time embraced the trippy, psychedelic patterns and the bright colors with flowers and all on everything you saw (posters, blankets, clothing items). The musical revolution was known all over the world and everyone wanted to be involved, and they get involved by going to music festivals and obsessing over the Rock and Roll bands. Without 1960s Rock and Roll, there would never have been a revolution that shaped the world in so many different ways. Positive or negative, the effect Rock and Roll had on the people was legendary and set a reputation that cannot be
During the turbulent era of the 1960s, youth excelled boundaries and expectations to adequately improve the world. Throughout this time, many individuals were trying to juggle the conflicts between racism, sexism, and the turning point in the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive. This battle occurred in 1968, and was a watershed moment in the Vietnam War that ultimately turned many Americans against bloodshed. “The total casualties – dead, wounded, and missing in action – had grown from 2,500 in 1965 and would top 80,000 by the end of 1967” (Willbanks 6). Destruction from the poignant fighting convinced rising numbers of Americans that the expense of United States’ commitment was too immense. The Anti-War movement gained momentum as student protesters and countercultural hippies condemned this kind of violence. As a result, many American citizens attended a three-day concert, Woodstock, because they desperately needed a place to be rescued from the brutality and turmoil. A young member of “The Beatles,” John Lennon, created music that was essential for the success of antiwar uprisings, as well as Woodstock attendees who justify the purpose of attending. Woodstock abruptly became a compelling icon; a turn of events where even all of the world’s calamities could not conquer the notions of peace, harmony, and cultural expression driven by young Americans to assert their voices as a generation, by genuine music and proclaims made by Woodstock celebrators.
The Beatles wrote hundreds of songs throughout their long career and many of which had the same main ideas in them. Those two ideas seem to standout in most of their songs, and they are the ideas of peace and love. They were so passionate about these two ideas especially world peace, that they became avid participants and leaders in the anti-war movement, against the War in Vietnam. It seemed strange ...
The year is 1964 and Britain conquered America one again. Only this time, it was in the form of four young men from Liverpool- John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, otherwise known as “The Beatles.” As the band stepped out from a Boeing 707 at the JFK Airport, more than 3000 Americans screamed and waved their placards in the air. This was a band that had not yet set foot in the United States and yet the adulation of the fans was overwhelming. Indeed, this was the start of “the British Invasion.”