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| Photograph of The Beatles as they arrive in New York City in 1964 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Well firstly the Beatles incorporated and used all the different styles in their music, and in their songs, but not only that, they also changed what was acceptable in music and what was not acceptable.
Paul McCartney´s father was a concert pianist, and when Paul was sat at the piano composing a song, his father would come into the room and say to him “Paul, you can’t do that, it´s against the rules of music”, and Paul would say in return “well I don´t care it sounds good to me”, so he did it anyway.
A lot of what the Beatles did at the time was considered unacceptable by the musical academic´s, but it was obviously acceptable to the record-buying public. It was not unusual for the Beatles to have more than one record in the top ten in England at the time, and not only that but they often occupied number 1 and number 2 positions as well.
Paul and John were real innovators of music; they used unusual key changes together with unusual chords and complex chord changes, as well as total shifts in tempo, and sometimes two songs were mixed together, for example, “A Day In The Life” was two totally different songs, one written by Paul and the other one written by John, but it worked, it has to be heard to be believed.
In the song Hello Goodbye, the ending was achieved by playing the song backward which again works. They introduced guitar feedback although it was by total accident, as George Harrison had left his guitar leaning against his amplifier whilst recording I Feel Fine, they left it on the record as they felt it was unusual and they liked the effect it had. Also in I Feel Fine was a great guitar riff that George played throughout the song which was again unusual.
Although Paul and John overshadowed George and Ringo, this was not intentional; in fact George was a good songwriter in his own right, just think of songs like Something (in the way she moves) and Here Comes The Sun, and quite a few other songs including While My Guitar Gently Weeps, on which he had his friend Eric Clapton play lead guitar.
George Harrison was also a perfectionist; he would practice his guitar parts until his fingers bled on occasions. It was also George Harrison that inspired me and many others to learn guitar, and play it in his style of using mainly bar chords.
The Beatles also inspired many other bands and musicians around the world, even T.V. shows were inspired by the Beatles, think of the Monkeys who show ran for quite some time. The Beatles were also the first ever British artists to make it big in America, and no other British artist has topped that to this day.
Yes, the Beatles were controversial at the time, particularly when John Lennon commented that they were better known than Jesus Christ, which was wildly misinterpreted, and it led to people burning their Beatles records and memorabilia in the streets.
In my opinion, the Beatles were a landmark in music, they changed what was acceptable and what was not, and they changed the way that country guitar lessons are now being taught as well as blues guitar riffs, and they led the way forward in metal guitar music.
No other band or artist has been able to influence music, to the degree that the Beatles had, in particular, guitar music, and in the way, that guitar playing is being taught now. So hopefully you can see what I mean by the Beatles effect!
I hope that you have enjoyed this article, and indeed you may even want to comment on it, as I know that some people may feel strongly about the Beatles both, in a good way and sometimes in a not so good way; however I will welcome all comments, and also say that the things written here are only my opinion.
Keep on playing,
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