The Monkees Research Paper

The Monkees

Pretend for a moment that it is 1966, and you are driving to work, tuning the radio in your car. You stop on a station playing “Last Train to Clarksville” by The Monkees, a song you recognize from their popular TV show. The Monkees was a band of four boys that starred as themselves in a TV show as themselves and produced music. Though the band had a relatively short lifespan, the members produced plenty of episodes of their show and songs during it, and later wrote more songs after the breakup of the band via reunion tours. The members of the Monkees were very influential in the development of television and music during the 1960’s.

Band Members

The Monkees was a band that consisted of four young men. Their names were Micky Dolenz,

The Monkees followed the everyday lives and problems of four friends who had a band together. The show featured a band that had not previously existed, but one that was created purely for the purpose of the show. As explained before, because of this, three out of four boys who acted in the show had no musical background or experience (Pendergast and Pendergast 854). After the show was launched in 1966, The Monkees began producing music and touring as an actual band (Pendergast and Pendergast 854). The success found in the show led to the success of Monkees music recording. More concert tickets were sold because of the popularity of the show, and vice versa (Pendergast and Pendergast 855). Humorous antics, among other things, led to positive audience reception, with the show going as far as, “winning … an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series” (Pendergast and Pendergast 855). Over the course of their careers, The Monkees TV show was imperative to the success and popularity of the music of the

After learning to play their instruments, The Monkees began releasing songs for use in their show as well as for general public listening. Fortunately for them, quite a few of these tracks grew popular, some of them even managing to make top charts. The Monkees started off strong with, “”Last Train to Clarksville,” their first single, [which] was a top ten hit” (Pendergast and Pendergast 854). As previously stated, this was likely due to the audience they had already built with the show. Other songs such as, “”Daydream Believer,” “Valerie,” “Girl,” and “I’m a Believer”” were also popular with fans (Pendergast and Pendergast 854). When More of the Monkees, the band’s second album was created, they, especially Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork, grew angry at the lack of control that they had over its production (Deming). This anger would later lead to arguments which caused the group to split from their producer (Deming). The Monkees traded the help of their producer for creative freedom. Overall, it is hard to say whether this did more harm or