Beatles Music: Songs Of The Co Essay, Research Paper

Beatles Music: Songs of the Counterculture

The 1960 & # 8217 ; s are thought of by many to be the most eventful and altering decennary in the history of America. In this clip period at that place was much exhilaration every bit good as convulsion in America caused by many factors, including the magnetic leading of John F. Kennedy, black leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. protesting for civil rights and Malcolm X prophesying black high quality and force, Indians protesting, adult females petitioning for equal intervention, faith being taken out of public schools, the abortion issue combustion, people protesting war, and many other events. The state was altering and making so quickly as a turning counterculture was lifting among the largest group of striplings America had of all time seen. In this decennary the music of & # 8220 ; The Beatles & # 8221 ; fueled and enhanced the aggressive counterculture and came at a perfect clip, when America needed them most.

When Kennedy was assassinated after the air of exhilaration he had caused, the state was shocked and slightly depressed as rumours of war added to this sad clip in America. The state needed an emotional lift and hebdomads subsequently the Beatles showed up. They were cheerful, exciting, longhaired and hopped right into the waiting weaponries of the American music scene with hits like & # 8220 ; Love Me Do & # 8221 ; , & # 8220 ; Please Please Me & # 8221 ; , and & # 8220 ; I Wan na Hold Your Hand & # 8221 ; . By April of 1964 the top five singles in the U.S. were all Beatles vocals. Wilfred Mellers, a Professor of Music at the University of York wrote: & # 8221 ; the Beatles, in common with other masterminds, such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, knew the right clip and topographic point to be born. & # 8221 ;

Kurt Loder of Time Magazine wrote:

& # 8221 ; their overflowing gift for songcraft, harmoniousness and instrumental exhilaration, their dapper suits, and bang-up haircuts, their bright epigrams and ready smilings, made them look about other worldly, as if they had merely beamed down from some distant and far happier planet. & # 8221 ;

The Beatles were in the right topographic point at the right clip and took control of the Black Marias and the heads of people in a manner that no 1 else would of all time once more. & # 8220 ; Beatlemania & # 8221 ; took over the state from 1964 through 1967. America had become attached to the Beatles, particularly the young person of America who were at the same clip sing an absence of spiritual strong belief, unwanted fright of atomic war, and hankering for the idealism that Kennedy stood for. The vocals the Beatles wrote non merely suit in with the turning counterculture, but helped light it slightly. The Beatles became the reflecting stars of the counterculture, which was displayed in the manner they acted and in their music, which besides worked against the apparently more edgy 1950 & # 8217 ; s American Culture and greatly emulated the turning lecherousness for alteration of the 1960 & # 8217 ; s, and the desire to make a N

ew civilization withdrawing from the universe of “adults.”

In the Beatles vocal & # 8220 ; A Day In The Life & # 8221 ; , McCartney said he was simply reflecting on his young person, saying: I was merely retrieving what it was like to to run up the route to catch a coach to school, holding a fume and so traveling to category. I would hold a Woodbine ( a cheap unfiltered British coffin nail ) and person would talk and I would travel into a dream. & # 8221 ; In the vocal he sings of being late for the coach, smoking a coffin nail, kiping through school, and he besides alludes to smoking marihuanas, non precisely painting a image of a parents dreamchild. Smoking marihuana was a immense portion of the 1960ss counterculture. In & # 8220 ; I Am The Walrus & # 8221 ; , a confused nature was used and displayed the usage of acid that the Beatles were on when they wrote the vocal, doing up words like & # 8220 ; semolina sardines & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; crabalocker. & # 8221 ;

In the vocal & # 8220 ; Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds & # 8221 ; many falsely created the thought that the letters of the rubric stood for the popular drug LSD. This was surprisingly false as the thought was really from a image his boy had drawn for him old ages earlier. Although Lennon stated the rubric was non about drugs, he left small uncertainty that he wrote the vocal without the assistance of a few drugs. & # 8220 ; Surrealism to me, is world, & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; Psychedelic vision is world to me and ever was. & # 8221 ;

All these vocals topped the charts, non to advert other countercultural vocals like & # 8220 ; Tomorrow Never Knows & # 8221 ; ( Lennon & # 8217 ; s try to capture the LSD experience in sounds and words ) , & # 8220 ; Piggies & # 8221 ; ( doing merriment of the in-between categories ) , and & # 8220 ; Happiness is Warm Gun & # 8221 ; ( enough said ) . They made exciting music about marihuana, LSD, and surrealism and by the sixtiess became a voice for the rebelling teens of that clip period. In 1967 the Beatles released & # 8220 ; Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, & # 8221 ; which reflected the Beatles & # 8217 ; 1960ss experience with drugs and eastern mysticism, and was considered by many to be the Beatles finest work. By the clip SPLHCB came out, the rarest thing in America was a adolescent with hair gelled directly back. From 1964 to 1969 the Beatles had 30 vocals in the Billboard top 10. Through these legion chart toppers the Beatles accelerated the counterculture motion by seting the state by taking the state by storm in 1964 and finally puting down their acerb stone with a dedicated clump of fans still following.

By the terminal of the 1960 & # 8217 ; s the Beatles had bridged a spread between instrumentalists like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley to many of the performing artists at Woodstock like Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana. None of these groups would hold been the same or prospered as good if it was non for the Beatles, who came in a clip when America genuinely called for them. The vocals and actions of the Beatles changed the universe and specifically fueled the counterculture of the 1960 & # 8217 ; s, set uping history everlastingly.