Johnson 5
Milton Johnson [author of the paper] [do not write words in brackets]
Mr. DuBoff [teacher or professor]
Language Arts 6 [author’s class]
25 December 2006 [due date of the paper in European style]
The Beatles: The Most Important Band in History [title of paper, centered]
Success in the music world can be measured in many ways. How much money a person or group earns, honors received from other people or groups, and good reviews from experts or critics are three standards for success. In all of these situations, the Beatles were the undisputed leaders of the entertainment world, and have remained very popular for the last forty years. However, the biggest way to measure success is how a person or group has influenced other major artists or society in general. That type of influence can create success across many generations. The Beatles had a significant and lasting effect on both music and culture that is felt well beyond the 1960s; they are the most important band in history.
The Beatles became overnight sensations around the world after they appeared on television in the United States, and “. . . more than 73 million people watched them perform on live television during the extremely popular Ed Sullivan Show. Less than four weeks later, the Beatles held the top five music singles in America simultaneously” (Glassman 70). All of this popularity and attention led to unmatched personal and professional success. By the mid-1960’s, The Beatles had made an amazing amount of money: “Heading into 1967, each of the Beatles had an estimated personal wealth of between $8 and $10 million” (Glassman 79). At the height of their career, they were at the top of the world both financially and creatively, and every move they made and style they wore (such as long hair) were copied by millions of fans. In 1964, just before their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a news reporter mocked them for their long hair: “During the press conference, a reporter asked whether they expected to get haircuts soon? ‘We had one yesterday,’ the Beatles answered, and everybody loved them for the comeback” (Pirmantgen 11). They had achieved the first measure of success: they were rich and influential. They did not follow trends; they created them.
In 1965, the Beatles received the highest honor possible for British citizens: “In June, Buckingham Palace announced that the Beatles were to be made Members of the Order of the British Empire” (Glassman 73). They are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have won twelve Grammy awards, including Best Song, Best Album, Best Group, Lifetime Achievement Awards, and Best Music Video for a song from a greatest hits collection released in 1996 (“Grammy” 1-2). The Beatles have won every important award in their field.
It is often true that successful pop musicians give up being creative and innovative if they want to make hit records, and artists and groups such as Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and the Backstreet Boys have paid for their monetary success with unfavorable reviews and ridicule. However, the Beatles were extremely popular and critically acclaimed: “When Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, critics agreed that the Beatles had made a masterpiece. Twenty years later, Rolling Stone magazine called it the best album recorded during the previous two decades” (Burgan 35). Sgt. Pepper was a different type of album, a concept album with unifying themes that appealed to multiple generations. It was a groundbreaking departure from all previous pop offerings: “. . . the tightly produced ‘conceptual’ album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was perhaps the high point of the Beatles’ recording career” (“Beatles” Gale). The Beatles experimented with new styles and types of music and were very innovative. “. . . the Beatles music contained a new sense of melody. Their chord progressions were also more complex, and the lyrics of their songs were more imaginative and meaningful” (McLeese 190). Most groups did not even write their own songs, but The Beatles boasted the most innovative songwriting duo in pop music history: “Most of their material was credited to Lennon and McCartney as a team; in time Lennon's sardonic songs were recognizable because they were generally composed in the first person, while McCartney's songs developed scenarios with offbeat characters” (“Beatles” Britannica). Lennon and McCartney were good songwriters on their own, but their collaborations were legendary. The Beatles wrote songs universally hailed for their quality and their appeal across a broad range of society.
The Beatles broke up over thirty years ago, yet their impact is still hotly debated. “Today, music critics and analysts are still discussing the impact of the Beatles—not only on music but also on popular culture” (Glassman 8). The importance of the Beatles was so great that it cannot be stressed enough: “The impact ofthe Beatles upon popular music cannot be overstated; they revolutionized the music industry and touched the lives of all who heard them in deep and fundamental ways” (“Inductees” 1). Only the greatest band in history could have such a long-lasting impact on both entertainment and society.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had a profound effect on musicians who came after them. “. . . one measure of their influence is their acknowledged and obvious impact on the music of many of the top-rated recording artists, even of the 1990s” (Glassman 8). Their musical innovations even inspired a successful Broadway show: “During the 1970s, a stage show called Beatlemania offered a musical history of the group with musicians dressed to look like the Fab Four at different stages of their careers” (Burgan 42). Not even Elvis Presley created that type of lasting impression with fans, critics, fellow musicians, and society. The Beatles are alone at the top of the music world; even after breaking up in 1970, they are still extremely popular and their CD anthologies still sell millions of copies whenever they are released. They became wealthy, popular, envied and respected because of their skills, and no one has yet matched their achievements as a band and a creative pop music icon.
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