The Beatles (essay)
Throughout The Beatles career they have had major impact on
popular culture all the way from the 1960s to now, and are commonly marked as
an influence to popular musical artists all over the world. The Beatles
consisted of:
Paul McCartney on vocals, bass, keyboard, drums and guitar
and played a Hofner Violin bass.
John Lennon on
vocals, guitar, harmonica and keyboard and he played a Gibson 330.
Ringo Starr on vocals, drums and percussion and he played a
Ludwig drum kit on stage.
George Harrison on vocals, guitar and sitar and he played
both Gretsch and Gibson guitars.
The Beatles formed in Liverpool in 1960 and went on to do
the local circuit like the cavern club only to get their big break on the Ed
Sullivan show on February 9th 1964 (despite having a hit with 'Love Me Do' back in 1962). This then sparked their worldwide career with a crazed fan
base/following called Beatlemania.
The Beatles sound originally started as a four-piece band
setup with a step into rock and roll and skiffle music. They then went on to
develop an experimental period in their music by delving into 60s psychedelic
music once they stopped touring. However, throughout their short career of just
10 years they covered lots of ground, from love songs such as ‘love me do’ back
in 1962 all the way to their psychedelic era with ‘Lucy In The Sky With
Diamonds’ from Sgt peppers in 1967 and ‘abbey road’ in 1969. The Beatles music
still lives in popular culture today with an ever-expanding fan base due to timeless
songs.
The music of the older Beatles differs dramatically to the
younger Beatles music with more experimental textures rather than just a
simple, swung song from their much older material. This is made clear in ‘A Day
In A Life’ where they incorporate things such as pianos and orchestras with
lots of key changes throughout. As The Beatles progressed to their older years
their writing styles started to differ and they started to talk about things
more than love like “were Sargent Peppers lonely hearts club band”.
The Beatles have also had mass economic impact, as they are the
biggest band in history, selling over 600 million albums worldwide.
The Beatles have had many awards and achievements such as:
·
Rock and Roll hall of fame induction in 1988
·
The Beatles have received 10 Grammy awards
·
The Beatles were the top of the billboard hot
100 artists
·
The Beatles have all individually been awarded a
place in the hall of fame
Revolutionizing
The Beatles were also known to help revolutionise recording techniques
with their producer George Martin who developed ideas like speeding up and
slowing down the tapes as featured in ‘strawberry fields forever’ and ‘In my
life’. George martin also arranged orchestras for the Beatles like the feature
in ‘A day in a life’, where the orchestra builds up tension as it changes to
another song.
The image that the Beatles chose affected the popular
culture at the time, as they where the biggest band around. In the beginning of
the Beatles career they wore suits and had mop top haircuts, this effected
popular culture, as at the time this was cool and stylish. The Beatles then
changed their style to suit the era such as in 1967, where they took on their
hippie look to stay relevant to the times changing.
The Beatles have also had mass political impact with songs
such as ‘all you need is love’ all the way to ‘come together’. The Beatles
touched upon everything from peace, religion to politics. The Beatles wrote
‘all you need is love’ as a propaganda song to stop the world waging war and
‘give peace a chance’. This is clear in the lyric ‘All you need is love’, where
they give a message of saying love is the best option.
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