The Beatles was a British rock ‘n’ roll quartet band of the 1960s that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, all of whom were vocalists besides the different instruments they played for the band. The band, initially called The Quarrymen until 1960, was formed in 1957 by guitarists and songwriters Lennon (1940-1980) and McCartney (1942-present). A while later, they inducted Harrison (1943-2001), a bass guitarist. Starr (1940-present), the band’s drummer, was the last inductee replacing Pete Best in 1962, weeks before the production of their first single 'Love Me Do'. Although the song only managed to reach the British Top 20, it was an encouraging start for the band who topped the local charts with their next releases, “Please Please Me” and “From Me to You”. The Beatles started experiencing international recognition and success, particularly in the US, in the wake of 1964, a trend they maintained for the next six years until the band’s official 1970 breakup. However, each of the band’s members continued to pursue musical exploits individually with significant success.
Lennon and McCartney, the main songwriters of the band, sought to perfect popular music genres such as jazz and rock which they had grown up listening to, and which they felt were, in various ways, unfulfilling. Jazz, for example, tended to drown the verse in the music. Rock music, on the other hand, was creativity-constricted and flooded with many poorly executed songs. The band, with the help of producer George Martin, sought to rejuvenate these crumbling classic genres through simple, provocative, disturbing music which is at the same time entertaining, delightful, and comforting.
To Rock ‘n’ roll, The Beatles inculcated the features of identity, physicality, tonal language, and ideal melody traits of rhythm, harmony, and counterpoint in ways that no music outfit has been able to match. They drew from the entire spectrum of music in its development chronology: traditional African folks, British poems, rhythms and blues (RnB), country music, and pop music, the rampant genre at the time. The band’s youth-inclusive approach proved that rock ‘n’ roll, like other genres, could meet the music concerns of entertainment, recording, hard work, devotion and professionalism, singles and albums production, successful band identity, and perpetual relevance among others.
The Music of the 1960s
Numerous authors concur that the 1960s were dominated by rock ‘n’ roll, a part of popular music (conveniently called pop music), more than by any other music genre. Unlike prior music genres of the 1950s, the jazz-blues-country music eras, that were objectified by middle-aged to aged cronies, rock ‘n’ roll was predominantly recorded and performed by the youth, some as young as teenagers. For this reason, it was mostly seen as a protest genre and governments were actively trying to sanction some of the songs that were played on radio fearing that the transnational youth culture would threaten the countries’ political stability. Truly so, Heilbronner comments that the 1960s was significantly characterized by violence and protests ranging from wars, civil unrest, and in some cases, deprivation, and repression, and so were the themes adopted by the pop music of the time.
There is a widespread agreement amongst music scholars that although rock ‘n’ roll was pioneered by Elvis Presley sometime in 1955 for a young audience, its roots are embedded in other music genres. Starr et al. depicts the genre as highly popular amongst all youth in the late 1950s and into the ‘60s, influencing their culture and behavior. Presley’s songs such as “School Day” and “Summertime Blues” dominated school and summer vacations while “Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots” among others were a fashion sensation. Rock ‘n’ roll musicians such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry created RnB-based rock ‘n’ roll music with considerable success. While underlining the originality and individuality of the tune in “Yesterday”, McIntyre entertains the thought that Paul McCartney’s (of the Beatles) composition could remotely have been inspired by Ray Charles’ version, which McCartney adored, of an earlier song ‘Georgia in my Mind’ by Hoagy Carmichaels. Carmichaels, McIntyre continues, may similarly have been inspired by prior music works as part of the far-stretching domain of song tradition.
Bibliography
Starr, Larry, Christopher Alan Waterman, Gene Austin, Don Azpiazu, Ray Barretto, Chuck Berry, Rubén Blades et al. American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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Riley, Tim. 'For the Beatles: notes on their achievement.' Popular Music 6, no. 3 (1987): 257-272.
McIntyre, Phillip. 'Paul McCartney and the creation of ‘Yesterday’: the systems model in operation.' Popular Music 25, no. 2 (2006): 201-219.
Rorem, Ned. 'The music of the Beatles.' Music Educators Journal 55, no. 4 (1968): 33-83.
Unterberger, Richie. “The Beatles: Biography & History.” AllMusic. Accessed September 20, 2019. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-beatles-mn0000754032/biography.
O'Grady, Terence J. 'The Ballad Style in the Early Music of the Beatles.' College Music Symposium 19, no. 1 (1979): 221-30.
Heilbronner, Oded. Music and protest: the case of the 1960s and its long shadow. (2016): 688-700.