How Did The Beatles Influence The Counterculture Movement

On May 14th, 1970, Rolling Stone printed an article called, “One Guy Standing There, Shouting ‘I’m Leaving.’” The Beatles had split up. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had broken up one of the world’s most popular and loved bands. It had been a hard and fast decade for the British Fab Four and only six years of real time and direct influence on the tumultuous counterculture movement in The United States. Like The Beatles, America started the ‘60s off clean cut but ended the decade entirely different; transformed. The Beatles evolved with and within the 1960s and reflect a time of great social change, and their psychedelic phase coincided with the hearty years of the counterculture movement, forever placing them in the discourse of that era.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney met in 1957 when they were 17 and 15, respectively. Bass player Paul was invited to join rhythm guitar player John’s band, The Quarry Men. A year later, 15 year old guitar player George Harrison joined the group. In 1960 the group changed their name from The Quarry Men to The Beatals, then to The Silver Beetles, and finally became The Beatles later that year. In 1962, Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as The Beatles’ drummer and,

as they say, the rest is history (Hill 16).
The Beatles first came to America in February of 1964 to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show and to play a few concerts. The four Liverpool lads skyrocketed to fame and began filming a movie in March of that year, A Hard Day’s Night. Two months later, Madame Tussaud’s unveiled their wax models of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and the group ended the year with loads of new friends, such as Cassius Clay and Ed Sullivan and the hearts of many American citizens (Hill 22).
In the summer of 1964, The Beatles met Bob Dylan. Dylan turned The Beatles on to marijuana, which opened a spiritual and musical avenue The Beatles would go down. Eventually, George would adopt Hinduism after a trip to India and John became a critical part of the antiwar movement. Paul later admitted to smoking marijuana every day, and The Beatles spoke about their manic-inducing highs after smoking on the set of A Hard Day’s Night. The Beatles, already disliked by many American parents for their bushy hair and risque lyrics like, “I want to hold your hand,” and “please please me,” became even more taboo after becoming affiliated with cannabis, an integral part of the American counterculture movement. As The Beatles music changed during the mid-1960s, so did America (Lee).
1967 was a massively transformative year for The Beatles. They released the albums Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, arguably their most trippy albums. It is in these albums that some claim to hear secret messages about Paul’s alleged death (a conspiracy never proven), and that The Beatles try to separate themselves from their image both artistically and spiritually. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is performed by The Beatles under the guise of the titular band, and symbolically represents their detachment from their former selves--who they were before fame. Magical Mystery Tour is, clearly, a magical mystery that was admittedly created under the influence of various substances.
1967 is also the year in which the American counterculture movement was at its height. The war in Vietnam was escalating, it was the “summer of love,” and the country witnessed race riots across the nation. During this year, droves of hippies flocked to San Francisco, California and the faces of the counterculture movement received more media coverage at antiwar rallies, concerts, and political protests. The “summer of love” eventually came to an ugly end as hard drugs like meth and cocaine and heroin became more popular in these outcast communities, ostracized somewhat from established and respected American culture (Cosgrove).
The Beatles, who had tried LSD in 1965 after being slipped the drug by a dentist friend, admitted that their 1967 albums were partially a creative result of their psychedelic drug use.

Their dapple in psychedelic rock is legendary and influential to this day. Psychedelic rock is identified as a type of rock music that is directly influenced by the experience of hallucinogenic drugs, and the music reflects drug-like states through the use of intense volume fluctuation and feedback. Their dapple in psychedelic rock is largely what drew The Beatles into the studio and out of the concert circuit--that, and legend has it, they couldn’t hear themselves singing or playing when performing live due to the thunderous cheering from the audience

(O’Brien).
The music produced by The Beatles in the late 1960s became extremely experimental and unlike anything rock listeners had heard before. George incorporated the sitar into their music after he discovered the instrument in India, John began playing with the feedback sounds of the guitar, and their live and sometimes drug-induced banter would sometimes make it onto a track: for example, at the end of Helter Skelter when George yells, “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” The Beatles’ psychedelic phase also brought along great personal change as the band members began to slowly drift apart and their creative differences started to be a daily challenge for each of them (Hill 168).
By the time the band officially broke up in 1970, they had created a notorious legacy that differs depending on who you talk to. Many conservative Americans were turned off by their haircuts, their whimsical antics, their drug use, etc., and John angered many in 1966 when he famously stated in an interview that The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” For the right side of America, The Beatles represented mischief and ideals that were less than wholesome. According to American culture, The Beatles were a facet of the counterculture; they did not fit into established American culture or reflect projected American ideals.
For the left side of America (the more liberal and progressive minded citizens), The Beatles became more and more exciting and intriguing as the decade went on. Their early music was tight and nonthreatening and boppy, while their later music was trippy and unpredictable and original in its psychedelic experimentation in the studio. For all, regardless of political affiliation or stance on psychedelic music and drugs, The Beatles are undeniably one of the most influential rock bands in music history and, still, one of the most popular music groups in the world. Their impact both on and from 1960s American counterculture is insurmountable in its importance.