Saturday, September 14, 2013
THE BEATLES were an English rock band
formed in Liverpool in 1960. Their best-known lineup,
consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, became considered by many
as the greatest and most influential act of the rock era. Rooted
in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the Beatles later
utilized several genres, ranging
from pop ballads to psychedelic
rock, often incorporating classical elements in innovative ways. In the
early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania",
but as their songwriting grew in sophistication, they came to be perceived by
fans and cultural observers as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era's sociocultural revolutions.
Starting
in 1960, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act
and producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They
gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first modest hit, "Love
Me Do", in late 1962. They acquired the nickname the "Fab Four"
as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they
had become international stars, leading the "British Invasion" of the
United States pop market. From 1965 on, the Beatles produced what many critics
consider their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential
albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band (1967), The Beatles (1968), and Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful
musical careers. Lennon was shot
and killed in December 1980, and
Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr remain
musically active.
According
to the RIAA, the Beatles are the best-selling band in the United States,
with 177 million certified units. They have had more number-one albums on the
British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act. In 2008, the
group topped Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most
successful "Hot 100" artists. As of 2013, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with 20. They have received 7Grammy
Awards, an Academy Award for Best
Original Song Score and 15 Ivor Novello Awards. Collectively
included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most
influential people, the Beatles are the best-selling
band in history, with EMI Records estimating sales of over one billion
units. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the best artist
of all-time.
Former Rolling Stone associate editor Robert Greenfield
compared the Beatles to Picasso,
as "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come
up with something that was unique and original ... In the form of popular music, no one will
ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive". They not only sparked the British
Invasion of the US they became a globally influential phenomenon as well.
Their
musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide. Many
artists have acknowledged the Beatles' influence and enjoyed chart success with covers of their songs. On radio, their arrival marked the
beginning of a new era; in 1968 the programme director of New York's WABC radio
station forbid his DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music.
They helped to redefine the album as something more than just a few hits
padded out with "filler",
and they were primary
innovators of the modern music video.
The Shea Stadium show with
which they opened their 1965
North American tour attracted an
estimated 55,600 people, then the largest audience in concert
history; Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a
giant step toward reshaping the concert business." Emulation of their clothing and
especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global
impact on fashion, wrote Gould.
According
to Gould, the Beatles changed the way people listened to popular music and
experienced its role in their lives. From what began as the Beatlemania fad,
the group's popularity grew into what was seen as an embodiment of
sociocultural movements of the decade. As icons of the 1960s counterculture, Gould continues,
they became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism in various social and
political arenas, fuelling movements such as women's
liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism. 335 According
to Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more popular than Jesus" controversy
in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and
"began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher
consciousness."
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