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By Mergea Tania and Haneş Diana

The Beatles were a highly influential English rock band formed in 1960 in Liverpool. They gained popularity in the UK and then saw enormous worldwide popularity in the early 1960s. Their songwriting grew more sophisticated over time and they produced innovative and influential albums in the mid-1960s. They broke up in 1970 but each member enjoyed successful solo careers. The Beatles transformed popular music and influenced musicians worldwide with their commercial success and musical innovations. They helped redefine the concept album and were pioneers of music videos.

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Mergea Tania
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164 views

By Mergea Tania and Haneş Diana

The Beatles were a highly influential English rock band formed in 1960 in Liverpool. They gained popularity in the UK and then saw enormous worldwide popularity in the early 1960s. Their songwriting grew more sophisticated over time and they produced innovative and influential albums in the mid-1960s. They broke up in 1970 but each member enjoyed successful solo careers. The Beatles transformed popular music and influenced musicians worldwide with their commercial success and musical innovations. They helped redefine the concept album and were pioneers of music videos.

Uploaded by

Mergea Tania
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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By Mergea Tania

and Hane Diana

The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band
formed in Liverpool in 1960. Their bestknown line-up, consisting of John
Lennon, Paul McCartney, George
Harrison, and Ringo Starr, became
considered by many as the greatest
and most influential act of the rock era.

In the early 1960s, their enormous


popularity first emerged as
Beatlemania", but as their songwriting
grew in sophistication, they came to be
perceived by fans and cultural
observers as an embodiment of the
ideals shared by the eras sociocultural revolutions.

Starting in 1960, the Beatles built their


reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and
Hamburg over a three-year period. They
gained popularity in the United Kingdom after
their first modest hit, Love Me Do", in late
1962. They acquired the nickname the "Fab
Four" as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the
following year, and by early 1964 they had
become international stars, leading the
British Invasion" of the United States pop
market.

From 1965 on, the Beatles produced what


many critics consider their finest material,
including the innovative and widely influential
albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966),
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967),
The Beatles (1968), and Abbey Road (1969).
After their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed
successful musical careers.

According to the
RIAA, the Beatles are
the best-selling band
in the United States,
with 177 million
certified units. They
have had more
number-one albums
on the British charts
and sold more singles
in the UK than any
other act.

They have received 7 Grammy Awards, an Academy


Award for Best Original Song Score and 15 Ivor Novello
Awards. Collectively included in Time magazine's
compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential
people, the Beatles are the best-selling in history, with
EMI Records estimating sales of over one billion units. In
2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the best artist
of all-time.

Legacy
Former Rolling Stone associate editor Robert
Greenfield compared the Beatles to Picasso, as
"artists who broke through the constraints of
their time period to come up with something that
was unique and original ... In the form of popular
music, no one will ever be more revolutionary,
more creative and more distinctive".

They not only sparked the British Invasion


of the US,they became a globally
influential phenomenon as well. Also,
their musical innovations and commercial
success inspired musicians worldwide.

Many artists have


acknowledged the Beatles'
influence and enjoyed
chart success with covers
of their songs. On radio,
their arrival marked the
beginning of a new era; in
1968 the programme
director of New York's
WABC radio station forbid
his DJs from playing any
"pre-Beatles" music.

They helped to redefine the album as


something more than just a few hits
padded out with "filler", and they were
primary innovators of the modern
music video.

The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their


1965 North American tour attracted an estimated 55,600
people, then the largest audience in concert history;
Spitz describes the event as a "major breakthrough ... a
giant step toward reshaping the concert business."

Emulation of their clothing and especially their


hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion,
had a global impact on fashion, wrote Gould.

According to Gould, the Beatles changed the


way people listened to popular music and
experienced its role in their lives. As icons of the
1960s counterculture, Gould continues, they
became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism
in various social and political arenas, fuelling
movements such as women's liberation, gay
liberation and environmentalism.

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