The Beatles’ Effect
It was the early 1960s. Rock and Roll was blooming in the market of the United States. Heard were the likes of The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley a few years earlier, who were the most popular artists during their time. However, a new wave was about to change and shock the music industry forever.
The Beatles began to have their effects in the United States when they released the single “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, which quickly topped the charts in 1963. This would be the beginning of Beatlemania within the United States, which was supported by their first showing on the “Ed Sullivan Show”.
Their presence showed their sound to the people, which instantly became a hit in the United States and made them famous within a day. They then went on to release more music whilst touring, which attributed to their domination in the charts in the United States and in Great Britain. They had brought music in a new form that no one had ever heard before. They had also developed the identity of a boy band, one which would cause groups to pop up in the United States such as The Archies and The Monkees.
Because of their success in the United States, they started the British Invasion, where multiple groups from Great Britain took their music overseas and experienced great success. One of these bands were The Rolling Stones. The Beatles provided a pathway into the United States and without it, music of the United States wouldn’t be influenced as it was during that time.
Allowing other bands from Great Britain to achieve great success in the United States was one of The Beatles’ effects on American culture and allowed a diversification of music in America to occur. Another one of their effects would come at the expense of playing live.
The group had been touring massively through their early years and were beginning to grow tired. They were starting to feel the frustration of playing live, having to deal with fans shouting at every second and beginning to make songs that weren’t ideal playing live. They ended touring after the release of their 7th album “Revolver”. Around this time, they were beginning to experiment with their sound and change music production.
The Beach Boys had released “Pet Sounds”, which came to influence The Beatles massively in what could be done in the studio as well as what could be written for music. After “Revolver”, the group began to work on their next album, “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”, which was filled with revolutionary work in the studio.
The influence of psychedelics had brought upon them ideas in the studio to use in their album. Working with George Martin, they used multiple instruments in the album instead of the guitar, bass, and drums to make music. They experimented with the tape they recorded on, creating tape loops and effects that no one had ever heard before. This would attribute to the grand allure of the album compared to their earlier works, and the idea of music production.
They also developed on the idea of complex lyrics for this album. Alluding to memories of the past during their youth along with psychedelic influence, brought to the album a mixture of deep music that was a whole different experience when listening.
They pushed what it meant to write songs, moving from innocent subjects to moving onto emotion and human feeling, which would end up influencing artists not only in the United States to focus on their writing, but the whole world.
Without The Beatles, we would not see the influence of music, the production of music, and what it meant to make music. The United States was a catalyst for how The Beatles would reap their influence and revolutionize music in the world. Even today, their influence can still be felt in the music we listen to in the present.
