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From a small start-up band playing in the Amsterdam club scene, the four man guitar band known as the Beatles grew to the point that John Lennon could confidently state that they were bigger than Jesus. But somewhere between the clubs and religious controversy the Beatles put out some of the world’s greatest all-time hits, became one of the greatest music groups of all time, and revolutionized the world of rock and roll. From off stage to on stage, from the recording studio to the shelves, the Beatles changed everything they tried. From drugs to religion the Beatles developed revolutionary opinions and outstanding confidence. They changed the way musicians performed and published albums and even how they lived. The Beatles revolutionized music culture, music industry, and their music was a revolution of an off the charts scale. The Beatles changed music forever.
The Beatles music was new and exciting. It had sounds, rhythms and lyrics that no band had used before. They incorporated all sorts of sounds such as fairground organs, brass bands (which were common in jazz but not rock), full orchestras and foreign instruments, such as the sitar. Having such a wide array of instruments made touring hard for the Beatles, they were incapable of performing all of their songs on stage, and some of the songs they did perform were lacking key sounds that made the albums unique. Many of the newer Beatles albums were never even performed live. Once the Beatles stopped touring they were able to incorporate even more sounds in the studio. By splicing tracks and playing tapes backwards, they were able to create sounds that could never be replicated outside of the sound room. The Beatles music was new and sounded great; it revolutionized the way rock songs were composed and recorded. It introduced a wide variety of sounds and sound techniques to the music scene.
In the time period that the Beatles made it big, the “hippie” culture was in full swing. Marijuana and harder drugs were in high demand; people were abandoning Christianity and experimenting in other religions on a scale never seen before. The Beatles were the first band to openly experiment with other religions and incorporate drug culture and drug use into their music. This made them very popular amongst the open minded “hippie” population. Drug reference is highly trending in today’s music and many musicians portray themselves from atheist to satanic, but the Beatles started it all. Although the Beatles were not the heavy metal head bangers, which are stereotypical of this kind of culture. They experimented in a variety of different forms of meditation and other religions in a time where musicians were either Christians or chose not to share their religious beliefs. The Beatles were open users of both marijuana and LSD; although they were not the first band to use drugs they were the first to publish drug influenced or related music. From the early clean rock culture that they made it big in, the Beatles changed the music culture in such a drastic way, that the drug/sex oriented music of today is now acceptable.
The Beatles advanced the music industry more than anything else; they were a band of many firsts. The Beatles were responsible for incorporating all sorts of new techniques into making their music, after they stopped touring (they were the first band to stop touring while continuing to put out new music) they started incorporating all sorts of groovy sounds and techniques; such as playing recordings of things like birds chirping, different events and instruments with different distortion, reverse and splicing. Distortion and sound effects are common practice for today’s musicians, but in the Beatles day and age it could only be achieved off stage in the sound room the Beatles were the first to start experimenting with all these different ideas and using them in their music. The Beatles found all sorts of unique ways to market their music and many of their techniques continue to be used today. An exciting part of today’s music industry is music videos; music videos that have exciting scenes, foolish faces, and great close ups of the musician’s make songs more memorable and more marketable. The Beatles started the trend. Although the Beatles were not the first group to put out a video with music or music with a video, they were the first group to publish what we would call a music video in today’s standards. They did several videos for several of their songs featuring the band in different locations while singing, running, goofing off, and anything else that seemed to go with the specific song. The Beatles were the first group to incorporate extravagant photo shoots and concepts into their album covers. Every single album they made could be defined not only by the music, but the cover art as well. They did covers as simple as the white album and extravagant as Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, each one unique and memorable. The Beatles were the first group to play live on talk TV, the first band to play their music over FM radio opposed to AM (which was at the time known for music), and the first to print the lyrics on the back of their albums; a practice that made the listening all the more fun for the fans. Even if the Beatles didn’t revolutionize music, or the music culture, they sure rattled the music industry.
The Beatles were without a doubt one of the greatest bands to ever grace the face of the earth; despite the break ups, the drugs, the Lennon shooting and the other misfortunes that befell the group they still managed to change everything that rock and roll music was. The Beatles changed how rock ad roll music sounded, was written, was recorded, was played, and was sold. The Beatles made concept covers, music videos, original sounds and original lyrics everything standard and expected of great bands. They revolutionized the world behind the music and bent the rules that restrained the song writers and performers. The Beatles changed everything that rock and roll music was. They rattled the world and were the crush of every teenage girl throughout Europe and North America. They will most likely go down in history as the greatest group musicians to ever rule the rock and roll scene or publish an original album; they will without a doubt go down as the band that revolutionized rock and roll.
10 Beatles innovations, Listverse.com, 5 April 2013 http://listverse.com/2012/10/11/10-beatles-innovations-that-changed-music/
How the Beatles changed rock and roll, yahoo, 5 April 2013 http://voices.yahoo.com/how-beatles-changed-rock-roll-569237.html
huffingtonpost.com, 5 April 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-anderson/the-beatles-changed-every_b_11738.html
Revolutionary hall of fame, 2.gibson.com, 6 April 2013 http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/revolutionary-hall-fame-1215.aspx
thebeatles.com, 6April 2013 http://www.thebeatles.com/
The Beatles, Wikipedia, 5April 2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles |
