Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Beatles and The Cultural Shift

There was a cultural revolution in the 1960s.  It was probably the biggest and fastest change in the way the youth in America dressed, wore their hair, music they listened to, and rebellious attitude towards "The Establishment," meaning the older generation and the government.  The Beatles were just the beginning of the shift.

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow landed at New York's Kennedy Airport, and "Beatlemania" arrived.  It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll group that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with "I want to Hold Your Hand."  The "Fab Four," dressed in mod suits along with their trademark bowl haircuts, were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the group stepped off the plane.

Two days later, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and George Harrison made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show which was aired in black and white.  The audience was packed with screaming teenage girls and made it hard for the estimated 73 million television viewers to hear their performance.  Sullivan immediately booked the Beatles for two more appearances that month.  The group made its first public concert appearance on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, DC with 20,000 fans in attendance.  The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the music hall because of chaotic fan hysteria.  On February 22, they returned to England.

The Beatles' first American tour left a major imprint on the nation's cultural memory.  From the big band music of the early 1950s through Doo Wop in the middle of the decade into the Rockability of the late 50s, teenagers of the mid 60s were poised to break away from the more rigid landscape.  The Beatles, with their new sound and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift.

Their singles and albums sold millions, and at one point in April 1964 all five best-selling U.S. singles were Beatles songs.  By the time they released their first feature film, "A Hard Day's Night," Beatlemania was epidemic the world over.  In August 1964, the four boys from Liverpool returned to the United States for their second tour and played to sold out arenas across the country.

The Beatles gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative studio recordings, such as 1967s Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a masterpiece of popular music. The Beatles' music remained relevant throughout the great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledge the songwriting genius of the Lennon-McCartney team.

In 1970, the Beatles left a legacy of 18 albums and 30 Top 10 U.S. singles to pursue solo careers.

As a side note... This author saw the Beatles on September 22, 1964 at Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas. We could barely hear because of all the non-stop screaming. I am not sure we will ever see anything like "Beatlemania" again.

1 comment:

  1. Dad purchased a black and white TV and put it in a special cabinet in the basement of our home. Gathering around the TV for certain shows became a family tradition. Sundays included the Wonderful World of Disney, followed by the Ed Sullivan Show, followed by Bonanza.

    I still remember watching the inaugural performance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Like many parents, Dad wasn't much enthused by the clean-cut, mop-haired young men dressed in suits and playing loud rock and roll music in front of screaming fans. Beatlemania struck the US, especially among the junior high and high school girls. During the preceding four years, college campuses across America became the home of a different musical movement, spotlighted on the TV show Hootenanny. That show was a great forum for groups like The Kingston Trio and The New Christy Minstrels (which morphed into The Association).

    America was facing turbulent times. President Kennedy had been assassinated recently. LBJ was leading the push for the Civil Rights Act. The US was becoming embroiled in Vietnam, a faraway country that represented the last hope of keeping communism out of Southeast Asia. Hippies were becoming more prevalent in San Francisco. It was a very turbulent time. The anti-war movement was fomenting as the US became embroiled in Vietnam.

    This was part of the backdrop for Beatlemania. The test of time is that many Beatles songs are played routinely on the oldies channels across America!