How Did The Beatles Influence The Counterculture Movement

On May 14th, 1970, Rolling Stone printed an article called, “One Guy Standing There, Shouting ‘I’m Leaving.’” The Beatles had split up. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had broken up one of the world’s most popular and loved bands. It had been a hard and fast decade for the British Fab Four and only six years of real time and direct influence on the tumultuous counterculture movement in The United States. Like The Beatles, America started the ‘60s off clean cut but ended the decade entirely different; transformed. The Beatles evolved with and within the 1960s and reflect a time of great social change, and their psychedelic phase coincided with the hearty years of the counterculture movement, forever placing them in the discourse of that era. John Lennon and Paul McCartney met in 1957 when they were 17 and 15, respectively. Bass player Paul was invited to join rhythm guitar player John’s band, The Quarry Men. A year later, 15 year old guitar player George Harrison joined the group. In 1960 the group changed their name from The Quarry Men to The Beatals, then to The Silver Beetles, and finally became The Beatles later that year. In 1962, Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as The Beatles’ drummer and,

Their dapple in psychedelic rock is legendary and influential to this day. Psychedelic rock is identified as a type of rock music that is directly influenced by the experience of hallucinogenic drugs, and the music reflects drug-like states through the use of intense volume fluctuation and feedback. Their dapple in psychedelic rock is largely what drew The Beatles into the studio and out of the concert circuit--that, and legend has it, they couldn’t hear themselves singing or playing when performing live due to the thunderous cheering from the audience