Like some kind of fervent super glue, the Beatles' sound is forever attached to the image of 1960s music. After the rhythm and blues era of the 1950s ended, the Dark Ages of music lay waiting for a sound that would revive the industry, and so the Beatles were primed and ready to create an entirely new psychedelic genre of music. Of course there was some great and interesting music coming out of Detriot, Memphis and Chicago; but for the most part the industry mellowed: the music was candied, bleached of anything that could make a saucy sound. The Beatles tinkered with chords, harmonies, and modern audio art in hopes of creating a new psychedelic sound that conveniently reflected the growing use of cannabis in the 1960s. No musician before the Beatles blended music like the four guys with the rag did. From rock to soul, classical to pop, bass and even Indian (sometimes all in one song), the Beatles' unique sound was unheard of. Bob Dylan once said in an interview: “Their arrangements were scandalous, just scandalous. You wonder why so many try to copy what they created." Many believe that this revolution in sound paved the way for bands like Nirvana, the Rolling Stones, Queen and artists like Elton John and Sting to branch out. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay What made these four guys from Liverpool such an inconceivable success? Maybe it was the blend of pure talent, a visionary producer and the years spent in Hamburg playing 7 hours a night that gave them a foothold in the beginning of a British invasion, whatever it was, there is an undeniable truth that the American people don't need to be sold; The Beatles were good. Most bands have a really great songwriter. The Beatles had three. Paul or John could easily have had enough material to create their own bands fortified with unexpected talent, writing "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." The Beatles were also the first band to use feedback in a song. During one of the Beatles' first recording sessions, John Lennon involuntarily pressed his electrified acoustic guitar against an amplifier, thus creating a virginal form of audio. The beginning of “I Feel Fine” was the first to introduce it, and the rest is about the history of rock and roll. The new audio makeup allowed for more sustained tones that were traditionally difficult to produce using natural playing techniques. The sound was totally new, full of joy and excitement and, by the standards of the time (this is an important and extremely underrated point), loud. For this reason, the popularity of electric guitars and the subsequent hard rock genre that ended up overwhelming the 1970s should be respectfully attributed to the Beatles. Paul McCartney, the bassist, often gave a song an innovative sound by not playing the root note, but the third or fifth. Most famously, he used this technique on what is probably still the most instantly recognizable single chord in rock history, the opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night." If Lennon had played the root note, G, it would have sounded like an end, not a beginning. Instead, the chord sits there generously, like a ballerina mid-rebound; over the years the focus on the guitar chord has attracted the most attention, but it's actually McCartney's D and his wacky playing techniques that make the overall impact so shocking and exhilarating. Now the battery. Poor Ringo always isbeen neglected, yet it still has its special artistry: the tall open hat. A high-hat, essentially, is the rod mounted on two cymbals attached to the sides of a drum kit with a pedal to compress the records together. In most of the early songs Ringo held his hat high. This diverted the traditional four distinct beats into one continuous jingle of sounds (creating a constant t-tsch-t-tsch-t-tsch-t-tsch noise). In “I Want to Hold Your Hand” he thinks about the bridge: “And when I touch you, I feel happy inside…” Remember how it gets softer, quieter? What makes this happen? John and George are playing a little softer, sure, but mostly Ringo has just tipped his hat high. The atmosphere of the song has totally changed: it immediately becomes more subdued and intimate. Now try to imagine the song with the high hat closed throughout the entire verse. Completely different song: much less panic, less pulsating, less everything. Although the Beatles introduced a larger music industry, their influence extended beyond just the songs. One of the greatest testaments to this strength is the hold they had on American fashion. “What do you think of when you think of the '60s? Big round glasses, funky colored bell bottoms, peace signs? John Lennon glasses and bell-bottoms are basically the Beatles' trademark, and peace is each of their middle names. I'm not saying they're the only factor, but the amount of influence they've had on fashion alone is crazy.” Flowing hippie shirts and bell-bottoms were the Beatles' fashion pioneers. As with any icon, admirers wanted to be just like the four, and since the group certainly had no shortage of fans, a new fashion industry emerged from beneath their closets. Suddenly men were growing their hair long and women were wearing miniskirts. The Beatles also brought boots into fashion. "Beatle boots" are narrow ankle boots, traditionally black and pointed at the toe. Brian Epstein, while exploring the streets of London in 1963, came across the Anello & Davide shoe company. There, Epstein located the iconic black Chelsea boots and minted four pairs for each Beatle. From there the Beatles fashion was set in stone and, in less than a year, the shoe entered most American men's wardrobes. As their music matured, so did their style. Although what we now register in our minds as the “Beatles look,” their fashion cannot simply be contained within the framework of bell-bottoms and extravagantly patterned shirts. From monochromatic black and white dresses to the St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club era of shoulder pad-filled marching band dresses. Nehru jackets, sandals, fringed sleeves, these looks are inevitable now, back then they were avant-garde, unorthodox and quite scandalous. Thousands of people were inclined to dress the way they saw their British icons, and with so much of a market, mass retail stores would start selling things that only boutiques once sold. This required more and more designers to design their own versions of things they saw the Beatles wearing. Were all these changes influenced by the Beatles? Yes, but on a larger scale he was more informed by the times. As Bob Dylan said “the times they are a changing” and the change happened, the Beatles simply played the public role of a collective conscience. Synonymous with their wardrobes, their political thinking became revolutionary in the minds of America's youth, propelling the band to a much larger role in history. In the early years of the Beatles, their main concern was the draft. The boys grew up in England in the second century. ,.