The Beatles are an English rock band who originated in Liverpool, England in 1960. They were a huge success locally even before they began to make records in the United Kingdom. The band was comprised of four members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They owe much of their early, quick success to manager Brian Epstein who molded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin who enhanced their musical potential. Early in the 1960’s, their widespread fame in the United Kingdom was first referred to as “Beatlemania”. Eventually, they acquired the nickname “the Fab Four” as Beatlemania grew rapidly in Britain. By 1964, the Fab Four made their way overseas and officially became international pop stars. The Beatles were the leading factor in the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market. The Beatles experimented with several different types of musical genres, ranging all across the board, from rock and roll to psychedelic. In Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever, Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz describe the Beatles’ musical evolution: In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Fab Four revolutionized the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll’s doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Beatles as one of their era’s most influential cultural forces, but they didn’t stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock’s stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release... ... middle of paper ... ... most successful “Hot 100” artists. As of 2014, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with twenty. They have received 10 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Score and 15 Ivor Novello Awards. Collectively included in Time magazine’s compilation of ‘the 20th Century’s 100 most influential people’, they are the best-selling band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. The popularity of the Beatles proves time and time again to be nothing short of eternal. Like any great works of art, the Beatles’ records carried and still do carry an ageless brilliance that continues to captivate new generations of listeners. Their records are still heard heavily today on the radio, continue to sell in immense quantities, and are forever remembered through the covers done by pop and rock artists in present day.
The 1960s and 1970s was an influential time in history, especially in the music industry. Between these two decades many new music genres were created and legends that are still praised today were born. There are many similarities in the type of music that was listened to at these times but each decade is different and unique in their own way.
One Hundred and One Albums that Changed Popular Music. (n.d.). Google Books. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from http://books.google.com/books?id=G4mP7u6mPdkC&pg=PA172#v=onepage
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 known, respectively, as the fathers of modern pop music. After their first #1 hit “Please Please Me” was released in 1963 the Beatles were set in motion to become one of the most influential groups of musicians to ever rock our world. With over forty-nine records, 37 #1’s, and thirty- four number one albums (the highest amount of any band in history), there is no denying that they made a monumental ripple in the musical world. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr surprisingly all come from humble beginnings in a town that, until their superstardom, was barely noticed on the map. Liverpool, being kn...
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
The Beatles and the Beach Boys are two of the most recognized, well-known and most popular musical acts of the 1960’s right through to the 1970’s. I will be focusing on the group acts rather than solo performers such as John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison of the Beatles, who took their own stylistic approach to their music after the Beatles’ separation. Each group’s arrangement and use of instruments classify them as part of the overall associated sound and typical subject matter of songs in the 1960’s, yet remain different enough to distinguish between each group’s desired sound.
British rock ‘n’ roll began in the 1950’s and it wasn’t until the 1960’s when The Beatles heightened the start of the British Invasion. The band consisted of eclectic individuals such as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The Beatles’ group dynamic was founded on team-based operations as well as two-way innovations such as problem-to-solution and solution-to-problem of team building. However, like every group, internal and external interaction arose creating competition, which lead to both positive and negative conflict.
Martin, Marvin. The Beatles: The Music Was Never the Same. New York: F. Watts, 1996. Print.
The Beatles’ changed popular music forever; there are few people who will argue with this statement. Before The Beatles, only solo artists like Elvis Presley were popular. They were the first band to have huge mainstream success, and thus, after Beatlemania, musicians began to preform in groups more often, instead of trying to “make it on their own” (Lulu). The Beatles also changed the conditions that musicians would come to record under. Prior to The Beatles, record companies held great power over musicians; musicians were told when and where to record by their record labels. As The Beatles became megastars, they re...
Since at this time in history the role of the producer was becoming significantly important, the Beatles took full advantage of this. The role of producer George Martin was one of the crucial elements in the success of the Beatles. He used his experience to bring out the potential in the group. His earlier experience of producing recordings prepared him for the open-minded, experimental approach to the studio which the group began to develop as they became more experienced. Particularly notable, along with the use of studio tricks such as sound processing, unconventional microphone placements, and vari-speed recording, was the Beatles' use of unconventional instruments for pop music, including string and brass elements, Indian instruments like the sitar, tape loops and early electronic instruments. (This is no surprise since a good amount of their work took place in India)
...rickson, Steve. "No Ordinary Fad: Making Sense of the Beatles, Whose Music Has Been Digitally Remastered and Featured in a New Video Game." Los Angeles Magazine 1 Sept. 2009: n. pag. Print.
It’s obvious that during the 1960’s, America was introduced to new fashion trends, music, and political opinions by this boy band. The Beatles have influenced everything from hairstyles to new ballads, from music videos to using their fame for good. The Beatles’ legacy still lives on today, and hopefully will live on forever. When they arrived in America to 3000 fans waiting at the airport, they brought a distraught America back into rock n’ roll, exceeded expectations, and lifted spirits higher than any band before.
When people think about the 60’s the majority of them all think about the Beatles. The Beatles is a band that made Rock and Roll a totally, different type of music. Even though The Beatles were such a hit, as time went on they started to fall apart. Over 50 years later, the Beatles are still classified as one of the best band of all time.
“During the grim 1950’s when Britain was still recovering from post war blues - four cheeky, young lads from Liverpool, with an eye for the big time, took to busking and with a steely determination were convinced they had the talent to make records.” "The Beatles Biography." The Beatles. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. Paul McCarthy, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison, Pete Best, and Stuart Sutcliffe, better known as The Beatles, took the world by storm after they released their released their first demo record in 1963. The progress they would make after this event would lead to an even greater event known as the British Invasion. The Beatles, along with other bands from the United Kingdom, would make great contributions to pop culture and change the world as people knew back then into the world we know today.
The Beatles are even today known as the greatest and most influential act of the rock era. They introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any genre that were simultaneously the best at what they did, and the most popular at what they did. They were also the first British rock group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made rock truly an international phenomenon.