2. British rock and pop music group, the most
admired and popular of the 1960s and one of
the most influential in the history of modern
music. If the great Elvis Presley dominated
the 50s as king of rock and roll, it
corresponded toThe Beatles, a group also
rocker in its roots, to exercise hegemony in
the following decade with a very
sophisticated and sophisticated amalgam of
styles that would bring pop music to all
audiences and precluded later genres.
3. Training.
From 1962, when it was established, and until its
official separation in 1970, the members ofThe
Beatles were John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. However, it is
difficult to give an exact date when the Beatles
were formed.
In the second half of the 1950s, John Lennon and
his friend Peter Shotton (who would leave soon
after) formed a group of music calledThe
Quarrymen, which in 1957 was added Paul
McCartney, followed shortly by George Harrison.
4. The Quarrymen began playing in various venues
in Liverpool, when they were joined by bassist
Stuart Sutcliffe. By then the need to incorporate
a battery was evident.
The name of the group would undergo new
variations, from Johnny and the Moon dogs to
The Silver Beatles andThe Beatles (1960), that in
the end would be the definitive one; such
denomination arose from the fashion of putting
names of animals to the musical groups (beetle
means "beetle") and of the play of words with
the style that then practiced (the beat music,
"blow").
5. The composition of the songs would almost always
be in charge of the tandem formed by John Lennon
(rhythm guitar) and Paul McCartney (bass).
In general they are due to Lennon, who must be
considered the leader and the creative soul of the
group, the most innovative songs and the artistic
and intellectual exigency; the brilliant musical talent
of McCartney was easily carried away by the
commercial thing, but equally the songs ended up
being the result of the balance between both.
In a more advanced phase, the ever-restlessGeorge
Harrison (guitar solo) contributed to the repertoire
of the group with valuable contributions; very few,
however, are due to the light-hearted drummer
Ringo Starr.
6. Beatlemania.
The Beatles toured all over the world, but their concerts
were progressively spaced, in part because of the growing
irritation of the group over that exacerbated idolatry, more
oriented to their people than to their music.
After certain incidents as they passed through the
Philippines and the southern United States and the
controversy unleashed by a phrase by Lennon ("we are
more popular than Jesus"), they gave their last concert in
San Francisco in August 1966.
With his retirement, the "Beatlemania" was fading only in
its sense of collective frenzy; they remained the reference
group of their time and having enthusiastic followers.
7. 1967 was the year of the death of the one who
had taken them to stardom, Brian Epstein, surely
the only one able to maintain united
personalities so disparate.
John Lennon would always claim that Epstein's
death meant the end of the Beatles.
Official separation would be delayed, and
preceded by clamorous clues such as the release
of John Lennon's solo albums (three albums
produced withYoko Ono, his wife since 1968) and
George Harrison.
It probably did not take place earlier because of
the interest of its components to edit the
pending joint works before starting a personal
trajectory.
