felicia+cormier

Felicia Cormier Professor Kingsley English 101 Section 08 10/13/09

“More Popular than jesus” During the 1960’s and early 1970’s, many people will say they remember the iconic boy band of that time as the Beatles. The members of this band were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Stuart Sutcliffe. The Beatles were the first “Boy band” of their time and since then, there have been many more who have created boy bands by their legend. For example the 1980’s and 1990’s had their versions of the Beatles, which were the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys. The Beatles are frequently cited as the most successful and critically acclaimed band in modern history.

The Beatles made a cultural impact on the world through their innovative music. As a band they helped define the 1960’s. Their style was, as we would call it today, “hippy”. The types of clothes they wore were a little different from the U.S. People’s because they were from Britain. But they wore mostly neutral colors, or pastels. Some signature clothing that they wore were vests and bell bottoms. Their hairstyle was a fairly long man’s haircut, parted down the middle accompanied by long sideburns. These statements from their clothes made them trend setters. Members of this band experimented with drugs such as LSD and weed, which a lot of people from the ‘60s are stereotyped for doing. These specific drugs are known as psychoactive drugs. Specifically, LSD is known to give a person hallucinations, known as “trips” where the subject will experience things such as colors and weird visuals. It also distorts time perception and cognitive shifts, which are when a person shifts from their conscious brain to unconscious. The drugs they experimented with during the late sixties influenced their music dramatically.

When they came over to the United States it was called the “British invasion,” by many people. They started off from Liverpool, England and their record sales and concerts in Europe did amazingly well. Their first appearance in the U.S. Was on the Ed Sullivan show. They played their famous song “ I want to hold your hand” in front of a live audience. Their appearance on the television show was greatly successful. The Beatles dominated in record sales in the United States. The only artist that has sold more records than the Beatles had one billion records sold and he was the infamous Elvis Presley. The type of music that they created was a mix of 1950’s style rock and roll, psychedelic rock, experimental, love ballads, and various classical types. The Beatles audience was mainly teenagers and young adults, these people were the offspring of the baby boomer’s. The baby boomers were known to be the men and women of the fifties, they produced a large quantity of children during this time period after winning World War II.

The Beatles awareness of social issues influenced their social and cultural revolutions during the sixties. During this time period, the United States were going through a lot of major conflicts. These involved issues such as the Cuban missile crisis, JFK’s assassination, Civil rights movements and most importantly the Vietnam war. Many citizens were against the Vietnam war. Many people were against the idea of the Vietnam war. They openly criticized America’s involvement in the war and since the Beatles represented peace and love, and anti-war ideals, people looked up to them during this time. The Beatles made songs about peaceful things such as love, women, sunshine, et cetera. One example of the Beatles lyrics from their song “A Hard Days Night,” demonstrates their portion of songs that based on love media type="youtube" key="8ZThkK7KjIo" width="425" height="350" “It’s been a hard day’s night I should be sleeping like a log. But when I get home to you I find the things that you do will make me feel alright. But when I get home to you I find the things that you do. Will make me feel alright. When I’m home everything seems to be right. When I’m home feeling you holding me tight, all through the night, yeah.”

This Beatles song was extremely popular. It was written by the band member John Lennon with the help of Paul McCartney. “A Hard Day’s Night” is about a working man that is just looking forward to going home to his wife/girlfriend/lover. The lyrics in the song represent their theme of in their songs. The Beatles wanted to send out the message to their audience to believe in love, During the period of time where the Beatles were creating music, they were promoting love and peace to their audience, which was, as we all know, a lot of people. One of the band members, John Lennon, wrote all of the Beatles music. He was an extremely talented man and was the main band member to put out the message to their audience. He put melodies into the songs and made them sound sophisticated and dream-like. This style was different for the time, he was ahead of his years. Lennon was also popular when he created his own music, and produced them alone instead of with his band. The most popular song he created is also known as the anthem of peace, it is titled “Imagine.” Some other examples of his songs that were popular are titled “Love is Real” and my personal favorite “We all Shine On.” He is known for his famous quote about his band, saying “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus” which was more of an observation than a boastful statement.

Today, the Beatles are still recognized for influencing the music industry. Just recently a movie called “Across the Universe” was made and came out in theaters. This movie was a musical that went along with the Beatles songs. The movie itself is named after one of the Beatles songs named “Across the Universe.” The song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was made around the same time as the controversial space race was going on with the United States and Russia. It received good reviews and did well in the box office. Back in the ‘60s the Beatles themselves were known to make movies. They did this partly because of the fact they were so popular. The fans during their concerts would be so loud and crazy that they were nervous to perform. Some of their movies were of their songs “A hard day’s night” and “Help.” During the later years of the Beatles popularity they were strictly a studio band. They only produced and performed songs in front of a television as a safety precaution. The Beatles were an influencing band of the sixties who are now seen as legends for what they had accomplished. After being the only band to sell millions of their records, they are still being recognized today. The boy band may not be performing any concerts or anything anymore, but they are still making products with their bands name on it. For example, the newly popular video game called Rock Band, just recently came out with a version of their game formatted to the Beatles. It is called “The Beatles: Rock Band” and instead of just having a character in the game, the player can actually be the members of the band. They were pop icons from their music and trends that they had created. The band the Beatles will be remembered in history for their many accomplishments as trendsetters, amazing music creators and performers.



__Citations__ John Lennon, 2009 __[]__ The Beatles, 2009 __[]__ / Last.fm Ltd., 2009 __[]__ The Beatles: Rock Band, 2009 __[]__ /