Pop goes the Beatles! A Brief History of The Beatles and their impact on Popular Music and Culture.

Why the Beatles? The Beatles shaped music and culture not only for their generation, but for generations to come! They were mimicked for all that they did, including haircuts, clothing and outlook on life. Their style and innovative music set the standard for all musicians to follow in the pop culture world.

Who are the beatles? The Beatles consisted of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. They were also known as The Quarry Men, The Beatals and The Silver Beetles.

How did they start? John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met in 1957 at a fair in England not too far from Liverpool. George Harrison joined the band in early 1958. Since John, Paul and George all played guitars, they still needed a drummer and someone to play the bass.

Drummer Issues In 1959 Stu Sutcliffe, an art student who couldn’t play at all, filled the position of bass guitarist. Why? Simply because they needed one. In 1960 Pete Best became the drummer but was later replaced by Ringo Starr in 1962. Stu quit the then Quarry Men to continue pursuing his art career.

What’s in a Name? Before Stu left, in 1960 he suggested that they rename the band. He recommended the name of “The Beetles” in honor of Buddy Holly’s band , the Crickets. John Lennon changed the spelling of the name to the “Beatles” as a pun for “beat music”, which was another name for Rock ‘n’ Roll.

How did they change music? They certainly didn’t invent any of these techniques but are credited for having an undeniable steamroller effect that basically influenced a permanent change in the way the industry functioned for years to come. In this presentation, I will only list a few so we can get to the fabulous music they have created.

The Music Video Although early Jazz artists created short music- film performances of their songs called Soundies, the Beatles were Pioneers for the idea of the music Video. The Music Video is a short, stand-alone film of a musical act presenting a current song that may or may not be a live performance.

The Concept Album Prior to 1966, pop acts went into the studio to create a stack of singles which were released individually to the public and then again as an album. Typically, the band had no input as to which songs went on the album, the order or what was used as the cover art. The record company made these decisions for them.

The Concept album (cont.) With the guidance of their producer, George Martin, the Beatles released the industry’s first concept album called “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. The Idea behind “Sgt. Pepper” was that the Beatles were playing the part of another band giving a concert in the park and all of the songs on the album were part of that outdoor affair. We will talk more later about this album and its music.

Lyrics Printed on the Album The first pop Album to feature actual printed lyrics on the album was the Beatles’ 1967 release of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Soon, it would be considered non-standard to not do so.

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album Sleeve

American FM Radio By 1968, the American radio dial preferred to have music on AM and talk radio on FM, and most AM stations played music in a three-minute single format. This meant that any singles significantly longer or shorter than three minutes were ignored by AM stations, because it would wreck their repetitive hourly format to play it. When the Beatles released “Hey Jude” as a single in August, 1968, it was nearly 7 1/2 minutes long, and AM stations simply chopped off the song at the 3:00 mark, which denied listeners the chance to hear their favorite part – “Na na na nanananaaa.”

American FM radio continued Radio pioneer Tom Donahue used the promise of a whole “Hey Jude” single coupled with other innovative ideas (commercial-free blocks of music, playing whole album sides at a time, etc.) as a means to lure listeners away from local AM stations to his uniquely programmed FM station, and the idea eventually snowballed across the country. Within ten years, American radio stations had almost completely switched places, and put music on FM and talk radio on AM.

To Review The Beatles inspired many generations and established many innovative trends in the music industry. The Beatles consisted of John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. They were innovators and pioneers of the music video, American fm radio, concept albums and album lyrics printed on the cover.

The Music of the Beatles The Beatles, of course, had many many hits and due to the fact that we only have a short time to talk about them, we can only listen and discuss a few. “A Day in the Life” *“I Want to Hold Your Hand” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” “Yesterday”