The Beatles: Revolutionized Popular Culture

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“All you need is love”. “Whisper words of wisdom, let it be”. “Here comes the sun”. These household phrases are all attributed to one band: The Beatles. Considered the most successful recording artists of all time, this band is one that has transformed the music industry, revolutionized popular culture, and in essence, changed the world. The most important criteria to focus on while evaluating The Beatles as a musical group are innovation, influence, popularity/success and relevance today. Innovation is one of the most important things for a band to possess. Being innovative means doing something that no one has done before. The Beatles are among the most innovative musicians of all time. Their innovation encompasses their originality and…show more content…
The concept lies in the Beatles' creation of Sgt Pepper's band, which performs a show to a created audience. It has an opening, a performance and a closing, and a brilliant encore, A Day in the Life. The Beatles creative studio techniques could be considered be the most important innovation in their catalog. As David Thurmaier writes, “Above all, the Beatles remained curious about all types of music, and they continually reinvented their own music by injecting it with fresh influences from multiple cultures. This experimentation adds a dimension to their work that separates it from their contemporaries' music” (Boyd). “I Feel Fine” was the first song to feature feedback, which was recorded accidentally when a guitar was placed too closely to an amplifier, but was later included at the start of the song. They were also the first band to create songs with so many studio effects that they could not be performed live. During their most creative period, the Beatles produced not only songs but whole albums that were impossible to perform live. Breaking tradition again, they created deliberately distorted recordings of their own voices and made artificial alterations to the sounds of their instruments. They used layer upon layer of…show more content…
A number of different musicians have cited The Beatles as being majorly influential in their careers. Dave Grohl, of Nirvana and The Foo Fighters, has said that he would not have become a musician if it wasn’t for The Beatles. He has said “When I was young, that’s how I learned how to play music – I had a guitar and a Beatles songbook. I would listen to the records and play along”. Brian Wilson, of the Beach Boys, said that The Beatles music inspired with his own music. “When we were listening to it that night I said to myself, ‘Now I’m gonna make an album just as good as Rubber Soul’”. This prompted him to release “Pet Sounds”, an album listed as the second greatest album of all time in Rolling Stone’s list, right behind “Sgt. Pepper”. A number of other artists have said that The Beatles have made an impact on their musical career: Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Billy Joel, Michelle Phillips (The Mamas and the Papas), Nancy Wilson (Heart, Gene Simmons (KISS), Maurice and Robin Gibb (The Bee Gees), Joni Mitchell, Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) and Bruce

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