How The Beatles Rose to Their Fame

It was the fall of 1962, a monsoon of teenage screams swamped the 728-seat studio, and a line from 53rd Street Broadway down to 51st barricaded Manhattan. This was the night The Beatles would change American history forever. The Beatles February 9th performance on the Ed Sullivan Show defined the rest of their own careers, and unknowingly, a culture eternally.

The fab four are known for many things, but never for their conservative production of trademarked American songs, making a world without “Eleanor Rigby” or “I Want to Hold Your Hand” almost unrecognizable. Even a half-century later, their presence is unmistakable; the group racks up 150 million Spotify streams each month and teenagers hang their own vintage Beatles’ posters in their rooms. Their revolution in sound was watershed in opening the floodgates for so musicians after, but beyond the songs, a revolution in political thought formed.

Ever since The Beatles ventured across the pond, the four talented moptops altered our music, our fashion, our lifestyle—and hallmarked the way we viewed authority for generations to come. Before their revolution in sound, only kings, popes, and perhaps a few intellectuals could hope to exercise such influence in their lifetime.

Thesis Point One

Like some form of super glue, The Beatles’ inconceivable sound is forever stuck to the image of 60s music. After the end of the 50s rhythm and blues era, the middle ages of music lied awaiting a sound to revive the industry, and so The Beatles were primed and ready to create a brand new psychedelic genre of music. “Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid” (Dylan).

The Beatles tinkered with chords, harmonies, and modern audio art in hopes of creating a new, psychedelic sound that conveniently reflected the growing use of cannabis in the 60s. No musician before The Beatles merged music the way the four mop-topped boys did. From rock to soul, classical to pop, grass-roots, and even Indian (sometimes all in one song) the Beatle’s unique sound was unheard of.

The Beatles were the first band to ever use feedback in a song. During one of the Beatle’s early recording sessions, John Lennon unintentionally pressed his electrified acoustic guitar against an amplifier, and so a virginal audio form was created and the rest is on rock and roll history. The new audio trick allowed longer sustained tones that were traditionally difficult to produce using natural playing techniques. The beginning of 'I Feel Fine' was the first-ever song to feature feedback. Because of this, the Beatles can also be credited, respectfully, with the popularity of electric guitars and the subsequent hard rock genre that engulfed the 70s.

Paul McCartney, the bassist, often gave a song an innovative sound by not playing the root note but the third or the fifth. Most famously he used this technique on what is still probably the most instantly recognizable single chord in rock history, the opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night.” Say Lennon did play the root note, the G, instead it would have sounded like an ending, not a beginning. Instead, the chord hangs there lavishly, like a ballerina mid-bounce; over the years the focus on the guitar chord has claimed the most attention, but it’s actually McCartney’s D and his quirky playing techniques that make the general impact so shocking and exhilarating.

Now the drums. Poor Ringo always overlooked, even still, he has his special artistry: the open high-hat. A high-hat essentially is the rod mounted through two cymbals, attached to the sides of the drum sets with a pedal to compress the disks together. In most early songs Ringo kept that high-hat open. This diverted the traditional four distinct beats into a rolling, continuous, clatter of sounds ( making a constant t-tsch-t-tsch-t-tsch-t-tsch noise). In “I Want to Hold Your Hand” think of the bridge: “And when I touch you, I feel happy inside …” Remember how it gets softer, quieter? What makes that happen? John and George are playing a little softer, sure, but mainly, Ringo has just closed the high-hat. Totally changes the mood of the song—instantly it’s more subdued and intimate. Now try to imagine the song with the high-hat closed through the verse. Completely different song—far less frantic, less pulsing, less everything.

“[Eleanor Rigby] was a shock to Beatle fans that were used to upbeat love songs from the Fab Four. This was a song with no happy endings. Nonetheless, despite the somber subject matter, the song spent four weeks topping the British pop charts” (Edmonds).

The Beatles also challenged their own boundaries by producing songs that weren’t simply catchy and upbeat (i.e. Eleanor Rigby and Yesterday) too. Known of course for their sound—brimming with joy and fever, and, by the standards of the day (this is an important and extremely undervalued point), loud, they also produced gloomy, almost disheartening tunes which showed that artistic capabilities don’t have to be circumscribed by the boundaries of a single genre.

Thesis Point Two

The Beatle’s influence extended farther than just their songs, and one of the biggest testaments to that strength is the hold they had over American fashion.

“What do you think about when you think of the 60s? Big round glasses, flared pants with funky colors, peace signs? John Lennon’s glasses, striped flares are basically Beatle trademarked, and peace is each of their middle names. I’m not saying they are the only factor, but the amount of influence they had on fashion alone is insane” (The Beatles: Eight Days a Week 01:05:38 - 01:06:03).

Free-flowing, hippie shirts and flared pants were pioneered as Beatle fashion. As with any icon, admirers lusted to be just like the four, and since the group had no shortage of fans, a new sector of fashion emerged up from their own closets.

All of a sudden, men were growing their hair out and women were wearing mini skirts. The Beatles also brought boots into fashion. 'Beatle boots,' are tight ankle-length boots, traditionally black and pointed at the toe. Brian Epstein, while perusing London streets in 1963, stumbled upon footwear company Anello & Davide. There Epstein spotted the iconic black Chelsea boots and coined four pairs for each Beatle. From Beatle, fashion was set in stone, and in under a year’s time, the shoe was in a good portion of American men’s closets.

“The Beatles suit and tie, although simplistic, was revolutionary for embraced pure, unadulterated music as most genuine” (Fricke)

Later, like their music, The Beatles populated the minimalist design. Away from audio tricks also meant away with the flashy, brightly-colored clothing and into solid black or white suits. Regardless, The Beatles initiated unconventional trends unlike that of any musical group.

Thesis Point Three

The Beatles and their nonconformist energy can also be credited to the start of many defining cultural movements that advocated for that same peace-loving ambiance started by the group.

“From there these new attitudes—which, make no mistake, were anti-authority—fused with politics, where they linked arms with a nascent political consciousness among young people that in turn produced a whole new set of political demands and grievances” (“How The Beatles Changed the World, 00:45:25 - 00:45:54).

At the heart, the Sixties were about personal liberation. We take that freedom as a given now. Today, there’s no turning back on individuality, the freedom to be who you, and bearing an interest in a life different from your parents’, and in many ways, The Beatles spearheaded that revolution in thought.

Up until the 60s, the idea of merging political thought and music was unheard of. Once Americans recognized that their music wasn’t teeny-bop tunes limited to teenagers, it started to gain the momentum needed for the world to recognize the music as “art”; and once it did, it started to impact other forms of cultural expression too, giving rise to an apostate awareness beginning in the musical realm and eventually spreading into literature, film, and other cultural empires.

“For most of history, most people just worked, feared God’s wrath, raised their children, and died, and the Beatles challenged that idea by striving for a life fulfilled by your own choosing” (Burrows 46).

The Beatles gave rise to the idea that your destiny is your own choosing (i.e. Taxman and Revolution), and so a individual and societal revolution arguably more profound and far-reaching than most political ones emerged alongside the catchy tunes and brilliantly solemn ballads.

Conclusion

The 4 Liverpool lads upended the cultural landscape in such a way that their presence ventured from the music industry to our own closets, and even our ideologies.The Beatles’ music reflected its era (cannabis use, political turmoil, etc.) but also transcended it so that even now it remains supplementing each successive generation that discovers it. Moreover, because of the popularity of their music, their fashion became synonymously admired and replicated. Their sound, fashion, or premise though would be nothing if it weren’t for the weight it all held. The Beatles came into the spotlight at a time with vast internal conflicts, and disunity then unified the nation with catchy, yet meaningful metaphors for peace.

Ultimately, the Beatles served the world Avante Garde fashion trends, unorthodox musical techniques, and a reconstruction of political thought that later came to define the 60s and the rest of time.