Beatles in the 1960’s personified a new rock style and a new era. They were pioneers as the era began with their “big-beat”. They revived the rock’n’roll music, the sources of which traced to the Black song tradition of America. They turned the empty entertaining music performed by “sugary puppets” in the whole subculture (Fawcett, 1980). They burst up a boring hateful scene. They cried out deafeningly in the strongest excitement, tearing hearing and soul, representing the youth revolt.
Now, when all this have already become a history, it seems improbable that four provincial guys could bring so deep changes — in the most different areas and for such a short period. “Having shone the decade with a bright flash, they reserved an optimistic light”, and nothing could remain after them any more as before. Before their songs, people were cut shortly at the back and from sides, after them even the directors of the banks began to wear the hair closing ears. Before them, the pop was performed with a small wooden pinnocio, after them pinnocio cut off its threads and began to dance under its own melodies. Before them, pop movies were a low-standard speculation, after them these movies could be considered as a motion picture art. They left the mark on everything they touched!
What was special in them? First, when they were playing on the stage, the audience saw and they heard how closely were connected. They really were a collective, a band. The structure was quite standard: three guitars — a lead, a rhythm and a bass — and drums. There was nothing new in it: having the same structure, the “Shadows” has been performing a hit by a hit for three years. However, “Shadows” was purely an instrument band, there was no vocal in it.
The main characteristic of the “Beatles” was their aspiration to perfection, promoting their amazing take-off on top. It seemed they simply could not do something somehow. What they undertook — either together or separately — they changed constantly and improved. The image, created by them, was the synthesis (as well as their many other innovations) of the most different elements, which gave a unique combination, merging together. The group found their feature, changing an orientation of texts, enriching the orchestrations with turning on of the most different instruments, expanding a stylistic and esthetic framework of rock music.
“Beatles” were always the legislators of musical fashion — and at the same time they were always away from the stream. Any their song was remembered at once, got inside the people, the songs were very simple, and there was something imperceptible in them, which was impossible to repeat, to simulate. Each their album was released as a whole and did not resemble the previous one. They never repeated themselves; therefore their music had no relation to the commercial. They did not limit themselves to any one style – there was their style in it. Almost each song of the “Beatles” was a discovery. They became a legend because they managed to turn the public ideas of what the pop music can be and what it has to be.
“Beatles” were a really fresh phenomenon on a routine stage. They were really deprived of the “luster” induced by show business, and they were really British! They were four locals or street guys who could be met in any corner of the world. The secret of their communication with the audience consisted in that the public recognized them from the very beginning.
“Beatles” went away but it seems Beatlemania would never disappear. Thirty years after the decay of the band of all times and peoples, the popularity of the Liverpool four members of the group is still very great. The latest collection of the group at the end of 2000 was called simply “1”, where 27 the most popular songs of the “Beatles” for all the history of the band entered, and the album completely justified its name. The record won the first place in charts of thirty countries of the world.
The total amount of sales exceeded 12 million copies. Only in Britain more than one and a half million people got an album, having made it the most popular musical gift of 2000. This has not happened since 1969 when the album “Abbey Road” was released. The release of the new collection coincided with the start of a long-awaited official site of the band in a global computer web. The year of work and three million British pounds sterling ended with a surprising result. The official site of the “Beatles” is a tribute to the musicians, their professionalism and their music, which never get out of fashion. The music of the “Beatles” can be compared to a good wine, which only has become richer over the years. Nevertheless, it can be seen by a number of visitors of the “Beatles” forum that people around the world continue to listen to the music, which became classics long ago. There is also a wish to believe that their simple and sincere lyrics will never lose its magic shine.
