The Beatles: A Brief Biography

Contents

Introduction 1

Who were the Beatles? 1

Musical genre and influences 2

Lyrical content 3

Why were the Beatles so successful? 4

Conclusion 7

Bibliography 8

Introduction

During the 1950s when the world was still recuperating from post war despondency, and Britain was in the process of reversing the negative economic impact of the Second World War, there were four men laying the foundation for what would come to be known as the Beatles. The Beatles were a rock and roll band that gained massive success in the early 1960s, which materialised as “Beatlemania”. This essay gives a brief overview of who the Beatles were, what their musical genre and influences was, and a description of their lyrical subject matter. Furthermore, this essay strives to evaluate the various reasons to the enormous success of the Beatles in terms of the social, political and cultural environment, specifically attributing their success to the economic climate of the time.

Who were the Beatles?

The Beatles were an English rock band that was founded in 1960, in the city of Liverpool. The band consisted of members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The Beatles are regarded by many as the most influential rock and roll group in history, even though they experimented with multiple genres, and had achieved critical acclaim and massive commercial success in the 1960s. Their first single, which launched their career, was “Love Me Do” in 1962. By April 1964, the Beatles had twelve singles on the Billboard Hot one hundred singles chart, which lead to Beatlemania and the ‘British Invasion’ of the United States. During the Beatles tenure in the rock and roll industry, they released a total of twelve records, before t...

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