The Beatles : The Greatest Band Ever Essay

The Beatles are one of the most innovative rock bands of all time. They have not only changed the way rock and roll is looked at, but also the way that the music is recorded. They have influenced the artists of the 60s and the 70s, and also many generations later and to come. Originating from Liverpool, England, the Beatles, or the Fab Four, consists of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Topping the charts in ’63 with “Love Me Do,” and bringing in the highest rated viewing in history while performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles are definitely a band that broke the sound barrier of rock

Everyone, Americans and Europeans alike, have heard-of, if not grown off of, a generation and culture started by an ensemble of four shaggy-haired Liverpool musicians that the world went mad over; no one can deny that no greater event impacted today's pop culture than "Beatlemania". But not everyone has heard the story behind the Beatles, who were they? How did they become the band and how did they make it big? What's the story of their struggle?

This '65 Beatles album, with U.S. advanced sales of $1 million, was transitional, featuring film songs and other recordings, more introspective lyrics, and the influence of Dylan and Folk Rock. It is...

Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band immediately fell into a success that could have never been foretold. The album spent twenty-seven weeks at number one on the UK charts and fifteen weeks at the top of US charts, the best success any Beatle’s album ever achieved. No other album of the Beatles carried as much influence as did Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Hints of influence can be seen from indie rockers, to modern rappers, like Kanye West, and their use of densely layered productions. The Beatles’ experimentation with recording technology led to the first use of eight-track recording in Britain because of the bands use of orchestral overdubs in “A Day in the Life” that required two four-track recording machines to be used with one another. This album created new ways for music to be made and opened doors for all other recording artists. Musicologist Allan Moore argues that this album returned an idea of the musical process. In the case of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the “process” involved the use of recording technology as part of the Beatles composition process. The album itself led way to album covers as art and the popularity of the concept album, where albums were designed to play all the way through. After the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the music industry experienced a never before seen shift in the popularity of albums, as album sales became increasingly more than single sales. The album helped to define

The Beatles are considered by many people as the beginning of rock, and their career throughout this journey lasted nearly a decade. The band was formed in 1960. Their career takes off in the U.S. in February of

Gladwell suggests that the reason The Beatles were so successful was due to 1,200 live performances in Hamburg, Germany from 1960-1964. A few gigs lasted up to eight hours long, and

1963 proved to be the beginning of the Beatles phenomenon with the release of their hit “Please Please Me”. This hit topped the British charts early in 1963 and remained there for 30 weeks (Unterberger, 2005). The Beatles continued evolving rock by adding a unique style of their own and continuously trying new ideas and adding a new flare to their music. Each of the albums showed a progression of the artists.

During the next 10 years, the British foursome out of Liverpool went on to become the most successful musical act of all time. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles are the best-selling musical act of all time in the United States. They released more than 40 different singles and albums that reached number one at one point or another. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them the #1 group

The Beatles had been touring virtually nonstop since they came to America. The band decided to call it quits after their 1966

The Beatles started as an English skiffle group in the late 1950s. By the time they reached their peak popularity, the term “Beatlemania” was coined to explain the frenzied obsession with the group. A former associate editor from Rolling Stone drew a comparison between the Beatles and Picasso, calling them “artists that broke through their time period to come up with something that was unique and original.” Throughout their discography, the Beatles have time and time again released music that both broke musical trends and engrossed the masses. They have held an “unprecedented top five spots on the

Gaining some popularity with a few hit singles, the Beatles slowly started their climb to the top. It wasn 't until they

While they were originally famous for the light-weight pop music, their later works achieved a combination of popular and critical acclaim perhaps unequaled

Their second release, Please Please Me, rose to number one in the British singles chart and their commercial success thereafter was continuous. The group’s tours of Britain in 1963 created an unprecedented excitement, known as "Beatlemania", which was reproduced in the USA when, on 9 February 1964, they appeared on national television singing their fifth single I Want To Hold Your Hand to an estimated audience of 70 million, an event unanimously identified by social commentators as a turning-point in postwar American culture. In the months after this breakthrough, the Beatles dominated the American singles charts, at one stage occupying the top five positions, a feat unheard of before and since.

The Beatles are known to many as one of the greatest bands of all time. Their music has

Believe it or not, on January 1st of 1962, the group known as The Beatles flunked their audition at Decca Records in London, England. The label’s executive, Dick Rowe, brushed them off like they were nothing. He simply stated that “guitar groups are on the way out.” Little did Rowe know, The Beatles would soon conquer modern society and alter the course of pop and rock music. There have been no other entertainers in the history of music that has been so popular, influential, or as groundbreaking as The Beatles. In the early 1960’s, their popularity was often called “Beatlemania,” as thousands of screaming fans would crowd their concerts and sing-along with the Fab Four. They sold over 600 million albums internationally and had 20 Number One hit singles – a Billboard record that has yet to be broken. The band took over the entertainment media with music videos and films, but also influenced sociocultural, political, and fashion movements throughout the sixties and seventies. From experimenting with several different genres to incorporating classical elements into their melodies, The Beatles still reigns as one of the most creative and successful bands several decades later. Today, fifty years later, The Beatles and their music are still engraved in the hearts of many.