The Beatles Influence On America

When you hear Rock and Roll, you hear the catchy words, the upbeat music, and energy that comes from that form of music. That is what made it popular, and that popularity allowed that form of music to gradually change a nation. Rock and Roll was able to change society by slowly changing how people acted towards blacks. Society affected rock and roll as well because without the challenges segregation made, rock and roll would have not been developed.

The Watergate scandal is the name given to President Richard Nixon’s planned break-in of the Democratic National Headquarters and its attempted cover-up (Free Dictionary. 2014). The Watergate scandal hurt the President’s image and caused the American people to distrust the government. Although Nixon accomplished a lot of good during his presidency, it is out shadowed by the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

During the sixties, when The Beatles were first introduced to The United States; they were in a depression. Due to the wars, they did not have much to look forward to. However, that was until February 7, 1964 when The Beatles first came to The United States to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. Most people still did not know that much about The Beatles yet, they were a mystery to everyone. Therefore, everyone were in for a surprise two nights later when they performed. That night, over 40% of the United States tuned in to watch The Beatles perform (“The Beatles”): “Some say it was the night the second half of the 20th Century officially began,” (“When the

The music of the 1960s and 1970s definitely had an impact on culture and society in the United States. Protest music, specifically, brought ideas, as well as problems, to the attention of many Americans. Radio stations across the nation were a big part of the spread of protest music. Radio experienced a boom after World War II. Stations started appearing all over, which meant more people could be reached. The messages written in popularized protest songs were heard over the radio by people who otherwise may not have gotten the chance to hear the artists.

Since the founding of the United States of America, culture, religion, and race have always been interlaced. If one of these changed, the others struggled to adapt. There was never a time in America’s short history that these three matters collided more brutally or ferociously than during the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll. It is quite obvious that not one single event, action, or phenomenon caused the turmoil during this era, but rather a perfect storm of cultural and racial revolutions that collided head on with tremendous religious backlash.

February 9th, 1964: The Beatles took the world by storm by making their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show”. The popular rock group included John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They’ve changed the world with their music and became the best selling band in history. The Beatles are one of the most influential music groups impacting the world in more ways than one.

Rock music in the 1960s was egalitarian, eclectic, and real based on a number of reasons. To explain the 'real' piece of rock music in the 1960s, one would have to know that there was war going on overseas that didn't make sense to Americans as to why it was going on (the Vietnam war). There was also still severe inequality between blacks and whites causing protests to occur via the Civil Rights movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There was inequality between women and mens rights. These issues caused dissatisfaction to occur in the American people. What better way to vent dissatisfaction than through music! Also in addition to the frustrations described above, teen rebellion from the parental obligations was also in full swing. The result of this was 'free love' and experimenting with drugs. This led to creative, and mind you interesting, rock that Americans loved like "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles. Aside from the above,

Jimi Hendrix formerly stated, “Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.” A generation which was earnestly devoted to peace, protest, and revolution, the counterculture amongst the 1960’s yearned for change. Rock and roll was far beyond just a genre of music; it influenced lifestyles, protests, and attitudes, thus, kindling an awakening in the youth of American culture. The distinction between parental and youth culture was a persistent root of concern, considering that teens throughout the world found a sense of belonging in this style of music. Differing racial and social groups brewed, worrying the older generations of social

First of all, in the 1950’s Elvis Presley and his music started the era of the generation gap between teenagers and their parents, an era which is still going on today. With Elvis being very young, attractive and his new type of music and dancing, teenage girls fell head over heels for the young star. Most parents though, did not feel the same way about Presley. He was often described a vulgar and many accused him of corrupting the youth. Teenagers all of a sudden felt good being rebellious and decided they would like different things than their parents. And so begin the generation gap of teenagers and their parents. Without the generation gap, the

The Beatles and more specifically John Lennon had an immense impact on society throughout the 1960s to the 1980s. The Beatles affected society with their music by bringing about an age where experimentation with drugs, sex and hallucinogens (previously taboo) became the norm. They were also very popular amongst the new hippie counter culture as they too were anti-war and shared continuity with the ideals of the band. They served as examples and leaders not only to the hippies and other youth movements, but also to the youth of society in general. The Beatles and their music redefined the rules of society. They started new and innovative trends of experimentation with sex and started the idea of using drugs for recreation. They promoted peace and opened up capitalist society to the idea of socialism. These are all major themes which have forever altered the course of future societies and are themes that are still massive influences on our societal decisions today!

They changed the world of music repeatedly throughout their time together. They created the version of music videos we now have today, before they were short film performances of songs or original settings of songs that ended up in movies. The Beatles created the merge of the two creating the modern day version of music videos. Before The Beatles, an artist would release single songs one after the other and then after all the songs were all released a long-playing album would be released. The Beatles however were the first people to keep an entire album unheard until the release day and then expose it as a complete album. They did this with their “Sgt. Pepper” album in June 1967 and that is now why artists put out a single or two and then released their entire album a little further in the future. Before, musicians would preform their music for smaller groups of people between the sizes of 1,000 to 10,000 in things like theaters, amphitheaters, and auditoriums. The Beatles for the first time had the idea to make their show incredibly larder and preform in a stadium full of 55,000 fans. This was the first time anyone has every played a show that large and it is now why the biggest artist preform for huge numbers of people today. Their studios techniques were some evolutionary in the music industry “The Beatles either pioneered or popularized Artificial Double Tracking (ADT), back masking, tuned

Many people think of Prince and Michael Jackson as two of the world’s greatest music entertainers. They were both African American singers, songwriters and philanthropists. Everyone considered them musical icons. They have entertained music fans all around the world. Their musical styles has influenced other famous entertainers and artist such as Beyoncé, Usher, Chris Brown and others. Music fans continue to play and listen to their music.

On June 17, 1972 there were five burglars arrested inside of the Office of the Democratic National Committee, which is located in the watergate building in Washington D.C. The robbers were caught trying to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. It turns out that the robbers are connected to Nixon’s reelection campaign. They weren’t sure if Nixon was connected to the burglary, but he attempted to cover it up. For example, he raised “hush money” for the burglars, he destroyed evidence, fired uncooperative staff members. He even tried to get the FBI to stop the investigation of the crime. Some of Nixon’s aides testified before a grand jury about the president’s crimes. They also testified that Nixon had secretly taped every conversation that took place in the Oval Office. All the prosecutors needed was to get their hands on those tapes. That would prove that Nixon was guilty. The court indicted seven of Nixon’s closest aides and also issued Nixon a subpoena. Nixon said he was immune from the subpoena, claiming “executive privilege” which means he has the right to withhold information from other government branches. He eventually had to turn over the tapes and three days later he ended up resigning from the presidency.

According to some, John Lennon 's assassination was considered just as devastating as the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy (Feeney 1). John Lennon use to be a member of the very popular and impactful band, the Beatles. Most considered Lennon the intellectual and outspoken Beatle and this resulted in hate from some people (History.com 1). Days before the shooting, Chapman told his wife he had been obsessed with killing Lennon. He showed her the gun and bullets, but she did not tell the police what Chapman planned on doing. On the day of the shooting Chapman met Lennon outside of the hotel Lennon was staying at, he even shook hands with his son and got him to sign his copy of Catcher in the Rye. While meeting Lennon Chapman was too starstruck to pull the trigger and waited hours outside the hotel for Lennon to return that night. The assassination of John Lennon was unjust because he was an innocent musician who was killed by a mentally unstable man; however some believe that because of his outspoken personality he deserved the animosity he received (History.com 1).

(internal preview) Now that we have a brief intro about who "The Beatles" are lets move on to more details. I will focus on 3 aspects in order to really comprehend the legend of the Beatles…The formation of the