The Beatles: Counterculture in America

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On the evening of February 9, 1964, The Beatles made their American television debut and shook Americans by storm. The four lads from Liverpool redefined American culture, popular music, and traditional standards of living. After The Ed Sullivan show, The Beatles became a worldwide household name, and millions of people around the world began to get sucked into a world where The Beatles were like royalty. For the ten years The Beatles were collectively together as a group, they changed the way people dressed, thought of music, changed cultural views of sex, and race, and ultimately changed music and culture permanently. The Beatles never realized the effect that their influence would have on the public, they just wanted to play music in America. As an avid Beatles fan, I have always been intrigued about The Beatles influence on the world, especially in America. I pondered different issues within The Beatles change, and I found myself asking: how did the Beatles’ dependence on counter-culture change and image change music industry and The American public? Although The Beatles did not intend to change American culture, The Beatles changed America by helping bridge the gap between set gender roles, helping shift public opinion towards the civil rights and anti-war movements, and their devilishly good looks and marketing team were able to transform The Beatles into a band everyone knew and loved.
Early on in The Beatles career, they were criticized for their feminine-style haircuts and their less-than manly mannerisms. Before The Beatles, there were strict regulations on how male and female celebrities had to appear. Men were to be clean-shaven, have short hair. Women were to have shoulder length hair, and be pleasing to their man. T...

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.../www.biography.com/news/we-love-them-yeah-yeah-yeah-7-ways-the-beatles-changed-american-culture#awesm=~oFJ06g8c7zUUKN
Norman, P. (1981). Shout!: The Beatles in their generation. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Platoff, J. (2005, June 02). John Lennon, “Revolution,” and the Politics of Musical Reception. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jm.2005.22.2.241
Paul McCartney on the meaning behind songs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=127012
"Revolution" lyrics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/revolution.html
The Beatles banned segregated audiences, contract shows. (2011, September 18). Retrieved May 25, 2014, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14963752
Whitehead, J. W. (2014, February 06). 50 years after The Beatles: Isn't it time for another political & cultural revolution? Retrieved from

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