IndexIntroductionLyricsMusical CompositionProduction TechniquesConclusionIntroductionIn a career span of ten years (1960-1970), the Beatles emerged successfully influencing and changing the music of the world we live in today. They were pioneers in building the bridge between post production and live recorded music, flourishing with creative, artistic and yet insightful musical ideas that also led to crossing borders and cultures in the 1960s. The Beatles known as the Fab Four were Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. In August 1965, the Beatles played Shea Stadium for the first time and introduced Arena Rock to the world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Along with their brash personalities, celebrity and dynamic energy, their music has led to several chart-topping songs, huge tours, creating a huge buzz. Beatlemania was introduced, and because of the hysteria and celebrity, whatever the Beatles did, the world could follow. This essay will examine how The Beatles influenced popular music by examining their lyricism, songwriting, blending of styles, innovative studio techniques, and use of the studio as a tool. The members constantly established their own style, each contributing uniquely to The Beatles' repertoire. Ringo supported the Beatles with a percussive foundation for their tough but imaginative music. With his Ludwig Super-classic set, he provided the classic groove primarily with the articulation of strong rhythms on the bass drum and counterbeats on the snare, using crashes and cymbals extensively, reserved for the articulation of a song's structural points. Completely immersed in the contemporary art scene, McCartney's Hofner bass and violin parts provided a distinctive visual image, adding direction to the song's journey, often blending with unique chords to color the music. Lennon had to fill himself with lyrics and rhythm guitar. Harrison, also known as the quiet Beatle, provided lead guitars and occasional vocal harmonies for the group. It would also combine the oriental flavor with the group's spirituality pursued in the music of the second half of their career. Producer and engineer George Martin and Geoff Emerick also provided key roles in the Beatles' development, bringing studio technology into pop music. LyricsWith the core writing team of Lennon and McCartney, they produced a vast library of stories with lyrics. Often whimsical and dreamy, the songs were written across a spectrum from topics such as love, autobiographies, world peace and revolution. John's ideas were often songs about personal experiences, sex, grief, politics or peace. He often wrote in the first person with a satirical/cynical sense of humor and loved puns. McCartney, on the other hand, were more often third-person and fictional. He wrote more songs with stories and songs about love, being generally more optimistic. They were typically grander and more dramatic while Lennon's were more acerbic and witty. (Hartzog) This created a great balance in bringing their differences and ideas together. Some songs also had to be written in a surrealist and theatrical way. Like "I am the Walrus" with Lennon making up psychedelic-influenced lines like "Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for a van to come" and "Custard of yellow stuff, dripping from a dead dog's eye." “Come Together” begins the song with a play on words like “Here's the old flat top, he comes slow, he's got joo joo eyes.” Through their music, the Beatles havealso doled out little bits of wisdom: Money Can't Buy You Love, Beware of The Taxman, Think For Yourself, Revolution and Keep Your Bathroom Window Closed. In "Blackbird" for The White Album (1968), McCartney diverted the meaning of the song to speak directly about the civil rights of black Americans fighting for equality in the world, especially women. Blackbird would eventually bring YouTube mass media and several musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dave Grohl and Bobby McFerrin to perform it. All in all, the Beatles were writing stories and looking around the world, trying to create a better one. Musical Composition Incorporating odd tempos and strange melodic phrases, the Beatles experimented with new music and often converged styles from their influences. In 1965, when Rubber Soul was written, it had a lot of "Motown flavor, with a 'feel' inspired by Motown bassist James Jamerson", as McCartney described. Having a Motown style as the album's main groove, Rubber Soul also incorporated a blend of musical styles with soul, oriental and folk music. New instrumentation was also prominent on the album and instruments such as sitar, harmonium and fuzz bass were introduced. The sitar was used extensively in "Norwegian Wood", playing the leading lines in the song's melody. The song marked the first example of a rock band playing a sitar or any Indian instrument in one of their recordings. With the addition of the sitar on several subsequent Beatles albums, it was influential in the development of raga rock and psychedelic rock during the mid-1960s, helping Ravi Shankar and Indian classical music become popular in the West. In the 1964 song “I Feel Fine,” guitar feedback was one of the first appearances in popular music. In Revolver (1966), the Beatles flourished with a new creative magic, directly using the studio as an instrument, which we will discuss in the paragraphs relating to studio production, adding a mystifying mixture of unusual sounds and instruments. Producer George Martin was also known for incorporating motifs and ideas from classical music into the album. In 1967, they decided to write only as members of “Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Heart Club Band”, an alter ego created by them. This would later be known as one of the first "concept albums", introducing a new compositional method for future artists. The alter ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically. With musical styles including vaudeville, circus, music hall, avant-garde and Indian classical music, the Beatles bent/broke genre boundaries, adding psychedelia to their repertoire. Another example of artistic fusion is when the Beatles included photographs of people together from the worlds of art, politics, science, philosophy and athletes on the legendary album cover. They included personalities such as Bob Dylan, Oscar Wilde, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Karl Marx and the Hindu guru Sri Paramahansa Yogananda. Dedicating themselves to the soundtrack of the film, the Beatles introduced to the cinema their ninth studio album Magical Mystery Tour (November 1967), with 6 out of 11 songs dedicated to the comedy television film "Magical Mystery Tour" and the tenth studio album Yellow Submarine ( 1969) with 6 songs written specifically for the animated film “Yellow Submarine”. In 'The Beatles', also known as The White Album (1968), they continued to have contrasts and changes in their writing ideas. With 30 songs on the White Album, it ranged from British Blues and Ska to Karlheinz Stockhausen and avant-garde electronica. In Abbey Road (1969), the Beatles introduced an eight-song medley, joining each song together as a single piece. The edited song fragments would then give rise to an operatic structure for the side.