{"id":65,"date":"2016-03-18T22:10:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T02:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/?p=65"},"modified":"2016-03-18T22:10:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T02:10:22","slug":"the-beatles-being-original-by-embracing-conventionalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/uncategorized\/the-beatles-being-original-by-embracing-conventionalism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles: Being Original by Embracing Conventionalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pop Quiz: Can you guess which of these three\u00a0bands is The Beatles? \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Nothing gets me more pumped up than waking up after a solid eight hours of sleep, making a steamy cup of peppermint tea, and putting my Spotify \u201cBeatles\u201d playlist on shuffle to start the day. The Beatles are on the top of my list, but this really should not be surprising because a loving the Beatles is far from unusual. While I am convinced that I have a genuine admiration for their work, it seems like everyone else feels a similar sense of admiration, considering that in nearly every \u201c100 Best Artist\u201d or \u201cTop Musicians of All Time\u201d list there is bound to be a Beatle. Rolling Stone<\/i> called them \u201cone of the best things to happen in the twentieth century\u201d(1)<\/span>, while MTV stated that they were the \u201cmost influential act of the rock era, and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century.\u201d(2)<\/span> <\/i>Even CNN, a news source that goes beyond just reporting entertainment related news, claimed that, early on, The Beatles were set on a\u00a0 <\/span>\u201chistory making path of pop-culture dominance.\u201d(3)<\/span> Classics like \u201cYesterday\u201d and \u201cLet It Be\u201d grace the lives of nearly anyone knowledgable of pop-culture, while songs like \u201cOctopuses Garden\u201d and \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d are childhood classics.\u00a0 <\/span>There is no denying the special place The Beatles claims in the hearts of millions of people around the world. For many of these people, The Beatles are truly sentimental, a musical reminder of bonding time with mom and dad, classic college kickbacks, or, to some older fans, the craziness of the \u201860s.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, with the sense familiarity of nearly every Beatles song that comes with being a fan, is the is the inevitable need to ignore the indisputable reality of the Beatle\u2019s music being far from unique when further observed. As a Beatles fan myself, it is easy to recognize the variety of music and the so called \u201cinnovation\u201d that so many music critics accredit to the band, but this notion of individuality does not hold up. Innumerable people are quick to jump on to the \u201cBeatles are the best\u201d bandwagon, and fail to recognize the contradiction of the notion they often accept. This contradiction lies in the false idea, so commonly advocated by Beatles supporters, that the band broke the system of artists forced to fit into molds created by pop culture. In fact, this perception of them as \u201cmold-breakers\u201d can be seen as the exact opposite of the reason for their success. If one were to attribute their success and popularity for years beyond their break up to one thing, it would be the fact that they embraced the culture industry and learned to manipulate popular molds to their benefit. To build The Beatles up as \u201cthe best\u201d off of the inaccurate perception of them being extraordinarily unique signifies a lack of knowledge of their music, the music of the era, and of their relationship with the culture created by the music industry. We must ask ourselves: were they really a band to have influenced pop-culture, or was pop-culture influencing them?(4)<\/span> The answer is both. It is time to accept that the adorable bowl haircuts, the cool India-inspired garb, the aggressive guitar riffs and loving ballads were all trends that The Beatles adopted and then promoted, contributing to a cycle of sharing fads. The Beatles were an amazing band, and inspired many future artists, but their admirability lays in something beyond uniqueness. If people just opened their eyes and ears, and took away any pre-supposed biases towards the band, it would quickly become clear just how blinded we have become by admiration. But who can blame the fab four for contributing to the consumer industry\u2019s tendency to homogenize musical themes. After all, with respect to popular musicians,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201ceveryone is doing it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Their early career marked the beginning of this cycle of pop music production. The Beatles, known in their formative years as the \u201cQuarrymen\u201d, started their performing career by playing covers of songs popular at the time, a selection of artists ranging from The Del-Vikings, to Big Mama Thorton, to Buddy Holly.(5)<\/span> In fact, it was a Buddy Holly song, \u201cThat\u2019ll be the day\u201d that inspired The Quarrymen\u2019s first recording. In addition to having covered the songs of Buddy Holly, the band was also inspired partially by Holly\u2019s partner band, The Crickets, to name themselves \u201cThe Silver Beetles\u201d (which was short lived as the Beat movement inspired the men to soon change their name to \u201cThe Beatles\u201d.) Thus marks the first big movement of the band borrowing trends and themes from already popular influences. <\/span><\/p>\n

As the band gained fame they made big changes to their group dynamic, starting with their appearance. Playing in the grungy pubs in their hometown of Liverpool and then later in larger clubs in Hamburg, the boys had initially adopted the 1960\u2019s \u201cRocker\u201d look, complete with greased up hair and leather jackets that had become so popular amongst many English youth in the 1960\u2019s (left). In the wake of their movement toward up-and-coming fame, however, they decided to compromise between the \u201crocker\u201d look and the more conservative \u201cmod\u201d look,\u00a0 <\/span>and molded themselves into a more clean cut boy band (think One Direction meets \u201860s businessman), while keeping a \u201cRocker\u201d edge to their music (right).<\/span><\/p>\n

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While their look may have changed during their beginning stages of fame, their sound certainly did not. Although they began to write many of their own songs, something that is not seen so often today, their songs followed the style of what was popular at the time. Their song \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d, for example, instantly reminds me of Chubby Checker\u2019s song \u201cThe Twist\u201d(1960), as it shares a similar uplifting danceable beat as well as the message to dance \u201cThe Twist\u201d. \u201cI Will\u201d has a similar serenading melody to \u201cOnly the Lonely\u201d by Roy Orbison (1961).\u00a0 <\/span>A personal favorite of mine, \u201cPlease Mr. Postman\u201d from the album With The Beatles<\/i> (which became the number one album in the UK), did not just share themes with other songs, but was, in fact, a cover of a song original sung by The Marvelettes. <\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P5GJvW8Q-ls<\/a><\/p>\n