The Beatles are unquestionably the best rock band in the history. Almost miraculously they personified the peak of music in that era of 60’s when music had the power to really change the world (Roberts, 2001). They defined the music we call rock and roll. If we analyze the time when the Beatles performed it was a time of revolution, a time of youthful change and creativity and the Beatles were a major part of that revolution.
The Beatles performed in an era of rapid technological changes, their fame grew day by day so an extent that nothing could contain them eventually the hysteria was given the name of Beatlemania.
According to Edward J. Rielly who is a Professor of English at St. Joseph’s College in Maine and author of works such as F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, and The 1960s amongst other non-fiction books, in 2003, “The year 1964 was the year of the American counter revolution, and music and American culture would never be the same again. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, better known as the Beatles, arrived in the United States in February. Their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show let loose the phenomenon known as Beatlemania” (Rielly, 2003).
Contemporary musician don’t rank Beatles so high, according to them the Beatles were simply lucky to become a phenomenon. Another argument that is being given is that they sold a lot of records not because they developed good music but because their music was easy to sell to the masses they didn’t had any technical innovation besides that they were photogenic.
Beatles were actively participating in both the social and political revolution. Their fame was touching different horizons and eventually in 1963 ascent was branded as Beatlemania and after that there was no looking back for the Beatles, whatever they put together they became the centre of media attention and were always in the lime light.
Formed in Liverpool England in 1960 the Beatles is one of the most commercially successful and significantly highly praised bands in the history of rock music. During their stardom the band consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). Their initial musical style consisted of skiffle but after that they developed different genres. Their clothes, hair style, made them a trend setter while their fame extended and they became a major part of the cultural revolution of the 1960’s. the Beatles sold over one billion records internationally, their innovative music and cultural influence has made them a true legend evident of this fact is that in 2008 billboard magazine released a list of top selling hot 100 artists and Beatles were number 1 in the list.
According to famous media personality and television show host Tim Riley, “The Beatles treated the album as a journey from one place to another. They built cornerstones into their records by positioning their songs in relation to one another: beginnings and endings of sides can sum up, contradict, qualify, or cast a shadow over the songs they introduce or follow” (Womack & Davis, 2006).
Beatles contribution to rock music
Beatles have tremendous contribution towards the musical world. They were the first one to give credit to their inspirations i.e. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochrane, etc. apart from that they were the first one to use the trio of guitars that is the rhythm, lead and bass guitars along side with the drums. They also incorporated the wooden instruments into their music like violins and symphony etc. they also used the exotic instruments like sitar into their recordings (Miles, 2002). Before the Beatles there was the concept of a lead singer but they break the custom of having just one lead singer and in Beatles they allowed each of their members to sing on lead at any given song.
According to Chris Ingham, author of The Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Metallica – Hit the Lights, in his 2003 book, The Rough Guide to the Beatles, “The Beatles were fresh local produce who ushered in a new status quo, and drew up new templates they bequeathed to the groups that followed them. Their TV performances were polite, well-groomed, unthreatening affairs, but The Beatles were a Trojan horse concealing the future” (Ingham, 2003).
Apart from this the greatest contribution of the Beatles is that they along with their producer George martin removed the old-fashioned 4-track recording technique and established the high track recording technique which was never experimented before.
According to Music History Ph. D., author of numerous books, journal articles, book reviews and Assistant Professor of Music History & Culture, Syracuse University, Theo Cateforis im 2007, “producer George Martin was instrumental in the group’s development and success, especially after the Beatles ceased touring in 1966 and became solely studio recording artists. Martin not only worked with the Beatles on all their arrangement, but he also performed crucial keyboard lines on songs like In My Life and many others” (Cateforis, 2007).
This recording technique is still in use and it was a major development in sound recording. Before this innovation recording was done on a performed tape but the Beatles made it possible to record each sound differently and later on combined it into one format. They were the first to introduce the backward tracking on a song by them named Rain.
They used to compose their songs by themselves almost 90% of them. At that time most of the musical bands had record companies as their composers, in this regard also Beatles are the trend setters. They used unusual sounds like gibberish and what appeared to be nonsensical phrases into their recordings.
The concept of music videos was also presented by the Beatles. The Beatles invented the music video the first one ever made which was telecasted on the television was paperback writer and rain in the 1965. Another innovative thing that was introduced by the Beatles was of charity concerts. Nowadays we see a lot of charity concerts that are arranged for fund raising or any other reason. Beatles initiated this idea when they arranged a concert that donated all the profit to charity.
We can surmise from the discussion presented above that The Beatles were an exceptional music band that contributed to not only music but also to culture. They remain a representing icon of the evolution of music and can be referred to be nothing less than the biggest evolution of music in the history of music.
Reference List
Cateforis, T. (2007). The Rock History Reader. New York: Routledge.
Ingham, C. (2003). The Rough Guide to the Beatles. London: The Penguin Group.
Miles, B. (2002). The Beatles: A Diary. London: Omnibus Press.
Rielly, E. J. (2003). The 1960s. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Roberts, J. (2001). The Beatles. Colorado: Twenty-First Century Books.
Womack, K., & Davis, T. F. (2006). Reading the Beatles: cultural studies, literary criticism, and the Fab Four. New York: State University of New York.