The Beatles
For this week’s analysis I chose the Pop Rock group The Beatle’s. This English rock band formed in 1960 out of Liverpool and is considered the most popular and critically acclaimed band in popular music (Spitz, 2005).
The band The Quarrymen was created by a teenage high school kid named John Lennon and some of his buddies from school in 1957 and was joined by Paul McCartney later that year who also invited another individual by the name of George Harrison to join (Spitz, 2005). In 1960, all of John Lennon’s original school friends left the group in order to pursue their respective college careers thus leaving John, Paul, and George to rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer to play with them (Spitz, 2005). Another friend of John’s named Stuart Sutcliffe joined the band as a bassist and actually thought of the name The Beetles. The name of the band went through some changes to include Johnny and the Moon dogs, Long John and the Beetles, and The Silver Beatles. The Beatles finally stuck in August of 1960 (Spitz, 2005). For a short time, an individual named Pete Best joined the band as a drummer who was later replaced by Ringo Starr and Sutcliffe left the band (Spitz, 2005).
In 1964, The Beatles left England and came to the United States. On February 9th they performed live on The Ed Sullivan Show which was watched by 74 million people, thus creating the birth of Beatle mania (Spitz, 2005).
The Beatles set the foundation for the popular culture of rock and roll and are considered the best and most popular band of all time. It is very difficult to imagine where music, as we know it today, would be like if it wasn’t for The Beatles. They will remain icons for music forever along with names like Elvis and many other icons of the music industry.
Spitz, B (2005). The Beatles. Little Brown. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
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