The Beatles came to limelight in the 1960s where they burst into the pop music industry and transformed it through their creativity. The band originated from Liverpool in England though their impact was felt in other parts of Europe including Germany and Scotland. This paper entails a comprehensive discussion on the life and work of the Beatles band.
The founder of Beatles band John Lennon was inspired by Elvis Presley who came into the rock music scene with a shining star. At the age of sixteen, Lennon formed a group known as Quarrymen which he named after his school. On July 6, 1957, Lennon met one of his band members Paul McCartney at a church function. He later convinced McCartney to join him in the music project in which the two formed one of the most formidable songwriting groups of all time. One year later McCartney introduced his friend George Harrison to John Lennon who accepted him to be a member of the band. It is interesting to learn that Harrison too brought his college friend Stuart Sutcliffe who later joined the group. The group was joined by Pete in 1960 following their demand for a drummer a hole which was filled by Pete ( McMillian, 2014).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In 1958 the group got more inspired by another group known as Crickets through their leader Buddy Holly’s songwriting style. It should be put into consideration that it was the Crickets which inspired Lennon and the other group members to change the name of their band to Beatles (Biography.com, 2014) . The Beatles went through some other additional members and name changes before it settled on its last name. After the name Quarrymen, the group changed its name to Johnny and the Moondogs which later changed to Silver Beatles. Finally, the term silver was eliminated from the title and the group remained to be called simply as Beatles. The Beatles were rising in fame as they begun adulating to their young female fans who were inspired by their songs. This extended to adults whom people thought could not fall into their charm ( McMillian, 2014). The Beatles was discovered in 1961 by Brian Epstein who saw potential in the band leading to the signing of contracts with them and secured a contract with EMI as the new Beatle manager. The release of ‘Please Please Me’ in January 1963 in Britain was an immediate hit by Beatles. This was the band’s first album released on English soil. It remained in the top position in the charts for the next six months in Britain. In the United States, the group was not given recognition at this time until they set foot in the United States with a promotional campaign which became a talk in the United States entertainment scenes. The opportunity given to Beatles by one of the most renowned American television shows Ed Sullivan Show worked well for the band as they earned a lot of fame and financial benefits from the show. In January 1964, the Beatles released a hit known as “I want to hold your hand” which topped the charts for seven weeks. The hit dropped to the second position in which it gave room to another hit song called “She loves you”. All these songs made the Beatles to be within the top five slots of the music charts for three months. Apart from that, the Beatles had some other seven songs within the top one hundred list (Turner, 1999).
In the year 1964, Beatles found an interest in the film industry where they released ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ a fictional movie of their lives shot in black and white. The following year in 1965, the group released another film known as “Help!” which was a madcap (Venezia, 1997). This was a fantasy which was different from the first movie and had a color component with features of colorful European settings. “Help!” brought much support to the group as people were more impressed by its creativity. However, contrary to the first film it did not impress some critics.
The albums released in 1965 and 1966 were the turning point for the group’s recording history as they released two albums Revolver and Rubber Soul. Among the artistic works of the Beatles, Revolver stood out as it encompassed beauty, confusing happiness, soothing and excitement to its listeners pegged on its lyrical wonders and beauty (Reising, 2017). These two albums combined different components of music and places because they featured storytelling characteristics, the instrumentation was classical, the new structure brought about new concepts in the world of rock music. Their recordings became sophisticated as they employed new techniques. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ were among the songs that these new techniques were applied on. Due to the technicality of live performances of such complex songs, the group starting shunning live performances which distanced them from their fans. The problem for the group escalated when in one of their interviews, Lennon claimed that the group was popular than Jesus (Venezia, 1997). This made some fans to burn their albums and issue death threats. Such happenings led the Beatles to leave the United States.
The band embarked on scripting and directing more screenplays such as Magical Mystery Tours came in in 1967 for the British Broadcasting house. This tour was aimed at appearing on national television but not on the traditional concerts or record-buying population ( Faulk,2016). Unfortunately, the tour was unrehearsed and disorganized making it a total failure. It failed from achieving its intention of creativity and freshness as envisioned. However, subsequent albums saw some success from individual works such as “Fool on the Hill” by McCartney and “I am the Walrus” by John Lennon (Turner, 1999). In 1968 there were differences in the artistic approaches by the members of the band with each trying to prove his idea. This led to their break up. The same year they recorded a two-record set entitled the Beatles, this was the first record produced by Apple Records which was the band's new label. Importantly, the records made during this time had no attachment of the members to each other. The second half of 1968 and initial stages of 1969 saw most of the band members working alone. This could be confirmed when John Lennon was spotted performing alongside his wife in the Plastic Ono Band. The case was intensified with one of the band members Starr appearing in the film The Magic Christian.
Still caught up on the dilemma of whether to part from each other, the group spent some months recording a film known as “Let it Be” to demonstrate that the group worked together. However, it ended up showing how the group continued building rifts amongst themselves. It was interesting to all their followers in 1969 when they released the album Abbey Road which saw them work together at their best. With Harrison coming up with a solo song dubbed Here Comes the Sun which Lennon attributed as one of the best songs. In 1980, John Lennon was murdered in New York by Mark David Chapman who shot him severally in front of his apartment. His songs which were on tape were released by the remaining band members. Twenty years later George Harrison succumbed to brain cancer in California Los Angeles. The remaining duo Starr and Paul McCartney continue to release records for the band (Venezia, 1997).
In conclusion, the Beatles left an indelible mark not only on rock and roll but also on popular culture as their influence has been reverberating through multiple generations. The band’s music still resonates globally even after half a century of the release of some of their songs. The band's reputation as being iconic is therefore justified and warranted.
References
Biography.com (2014). John Lennon Biography. Biography.com. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/john-lennon-9379045 .
Faulk, B. J. (2016). British rock modernism, 1967-1977: the story of music hall in rock . Routledge.
McMillian, J. (2014). Beatles vs. Stones . Simon and Schuster.
Reising, R. (2017). 'Every Sound There Is': The Beatles' Revolver and the Transformation of Rock and Roll . Routledge.
Turner, S. (1999). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song. New York: HarperPerennial.
Venezia, M. (1997). The Beatles. New York: Children's Press.
