Beatles Influence

Momo (Beatles Influence in the Soviet Union)

The Beatles was an English rock music band, which was formed in 1960 in Liverpool. Its members were: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. Its members were widely regarded as the most influential act of the era of rock. Rooted in beat, 1950s rock and roll, and skiffle, the Beatles later tried a number of musical genres such as pop ballads, Indian music, hard rock, and psychedelia, while innovatively incorporating classical elements. In the early sixties, their huge popularity emerged as “Beatlemania.” However, as Beatles’ music became more sophisticated, under the leadership of McCartney and Lennon, they were seen as an embodiment of ideals propagated by the counterculture

During his visit, McCartney met with Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin explained the past animosity of the early Soviet leaders, and that they saw Beatles’ direction not befitting their accepted ideology. Nowadays, in Russia, majority of those in power grew up listening to Beatles songs. A good example is Sergei Ivanov (chief of the presidential administration), who even attended McCartney’s concert at the Red Square. The Beatles played a critical role in inspiring students to learn English so that they could be able to understand the lyrics of their songs. This led to some students going abroad in the eighties, where they found out that there was limited barriers to communication, and that young people had a single language as their fundamental code. This was the beginning of nurturing an enlightened generation to liberate the Soviet Union from the Communist old guards (Fürst

Although this gave hope that restrictions were being relaxed, in the late Fifties, countries in the Eastern Bloc started arresting rock and stilyagi fans. In the early Sixties, the Beatles sparked the desire for rock among Soviet youth, making it popular. Their influence on fashion was a major indicator of their popularity among the youth in the Soviet Union. Bitlovka (Collarless Beatles jackets) were made out of cast-offs and clumsy army boots became common in Beatle style. Apart from fashion, the Beatles aided in the expansion of music in the black market. Illegal music albums were made by duplicating copies on discarded X-ray emulsion plates. Music itself was assessed by either recording it from Western studio or smuggling copies from the West. Recording music from the West became rampant in the Sixties after president Johnson making international broadcasting a priority (Yurchak