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 Home > Learning Center > The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles are probably the most influential musical group of all time. Literally hundreds of thousands of musicians, if not more, have been directly inspired by The Beatles and their music. They burst onto the musical landscape at a time when rock and roll was still in its infancy and were the driving force behind its rapid maturity to the most popular genre of the modern era.

The Beatles early music was largely inspired by the rock and roll of the 1950’s. However, over the course of the band’s history their jaunts into other musical worlds became a staple of their signature sound. Many of the band’s top selling singles, including “Norwegian Wood” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” used instruments that were considered outside the norm for pop bands. Orchestral ensembles were commonly used, including a double string quartet on the single “Eleanor Rigby”. They were also one of the first bands to begin experimenting with electronic instruments (such as the Mellotron) and various recording techniques like tape loops and vari-speed recording.

The Beatles were also one of the first musical groups to enter the world of film. The movies “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” not only starred the band members, but also had accompanying soundtracks that were written and recorded by the band as well. They ventured into television with the TV movie “Magical Mystery Tour” and tried their hand at animation with the now classic “Yellow Submarine”, as well as a weekly televised cartoon series that was broadcast every Saturday morning for nearly four years. Their forays into the combination of audio and visual media is often cited as the first seeds of what was to become the music video and television channels like MTV and VH1.

Between 1963 and 1970, The Beatles release an astounding 13 full-length studio albums. Each album was received international acclaim, with the band appearing on the Billboard charts every single year they were together, and many times thereafter as well. What’s even more amazing is that several singles were released from each album, with each seeing extraordinary rankings on many of the industry charts. Their first album alone, “Please Please Me”, had four different top five singles.

Some of The Beatles top selling albums include “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” and their swan song, the aptly named “Let it Be”. The digital age has further increased the sales through the use of mp3 recordings and computer music downloads. Numerous compilation and “greatest hits” CD’s have been release since the band broke up in 1970. Slated for September of 2010, all 12 studio releases (those originally released in the UK) are being reissued in a digitally remastered format. This will undoubtedly create a whole new generation of Beatles fans.

The Beatles’ influence can still be heard in many of today’s top pop bands. Musicians from all genres, including jazz, reggae, classical and pop, all agree that the unique combination of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr resulted in some of the best music of all time. Beatle-mania will never die.

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