The Beatles and Their Impact
The Beatles embodied the 60s, defining the fashion, the music and the overall pop culture that followed the decade. Fronting the British Invasion, their influence can be seen across the globe, especially changing the United States. The band went from a local phenomenon performing in their home of Liverpool, England to becoming the best-selling band in history, now with over 600 million records sold, sparking a musical revolution in the process.1,2
In 1957, at 17 years of age, John Lennon founded his band dubbed “The Quarry Men”, a group that played around Liverpool with no consistent members.3 After hearing 15 year old Paul McCartney playing guitar, John asked him to join the band, until eight months later, George
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The Beatles were one of the first artists to consider their albums more strongly, not thriving off of the success of key singles.10 Songs besides singles were not only filler, creating thematic songs that were consistently high quality, from beginning to end.11 Long before music videos’ popularity in the 1980s, The Beatles made full length films featuring their music, in essence being the first music videos. 12 They also pioneered the genre of Psychedelic Rock along with The Beach Boys, being some of the first to highly chart using guitar feedback and electronic effects within their music.13 It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of America’s young people began to play guitar and form bands from the influence of The Beatles, heightening the amount of garage rock bands forming in the US.14
“Beatlemania”, the term used to describe the intense fandom surrounding The Beatles, was clearly visible through their impact upon fashion.15 The hairstyle shared by each Beatle, the “mop-top”, was seen as messy and was often disdainfully looked upon by adults, yet it began to be widely imitated across youth.16 Their hair grew longer and longer, and other groups followed as longer hair became more socially accepted due to their influence.17
It is difficult to understand the extent to which The Beatles have affected us, transforming music, fashion, and culture in general. The Beatles remain one of, if not the most, influential band in