The Beatles assignment

Popular culture got a new name in the “Sixties”. It even got a new brand of music, a distinct hairstyle, a carefree lifestyle and a global phenomenon. It was called The Beatles. No Rock and Roll group had such a massive influence over the generation and the world as The Beatles. Comprising of the awesome foursome-John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals), the group is a timeless trend of what youth music and tireless popularity can be.

The Journey-Rise and Fall
John Lennon was the founder of a skiffle band in Liverpool called The Quarrymen. As luck would have it, he chanced upon meeting guitarist Paul McCartney at the Woolton Garden Fête, held at St. Peter's Church, one fine day, and he was absorbed into the group. Soon McCartney managed to bring in George Harrison, an aquaintance, to the group, inspite of the initial reluctance by Lennon about his age. Thus in 1957-58 began the journey of three of our heroes-young, confused and with passion in their hearts-a journey that would lead them (along with the later entry of Ringo Starr) to become the cynosure of millions of eyes and the delight of admiring pairs of ears. With the suggestion of the bass guitarist of The Quarrymen,Stuart Sutcliffe and Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Lennon, the band changed their names to The Beatles after a "brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar." During an interview in 2001, McCartney took credit for the peculiar spelling of the name, saying that "John had the idea of calling us the Beetles; I said, 'How about The Beatles; you know, like the beat of the drum?' At the time, everyone was stoned enough to find it hilarious. It's funny how history is made." Soon the group went and hired Pete best, who played with The Blackjacks in The Casbah Coffee club.He appropiately filled up the vacancy of a drummer in the group. From 1961 to 1962 The Beatles made 292 appearances at The Cavern club, culminating in a final appearance there on 3 August 1963.Meanwhile Sutcliffe left the group and McCartney took over the bass.A significant change occurred in the group when Peter best, due to his controversial antics and incongruous nature,got dismissed from the group and in came Ringo Starr, the drummer of one of the top Merseybeat band,Rory Storms and the Hurricane. The first recordings of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr together were made as early as 15 October 1960, in a series of demonstration records privately recorded in Hamburg while acting as the backing group for singer Lu Walters. The Beatles' first EMI session on 6 June 1962 did not yield any recordings considered worthy of release, but the September sessions a few months later produced a minor UK hit "Love Me Do", which peaked on the charts at number seventeen."Love Me Do" would reach the top of the U.S. singles chart over eighteen months later in May 1964.
The first album of the group was Please please Me.The group started with their success in UK during 1962-63 with hit singles such as “Please please me", Till There Was You" and “I want to hold your hand”. Soon the songs branched out to the United States with growing popularity of the group among American teenagers. The record “I want to hold your hands” sold one million copies in just ten days, and by 16 January 1964, Cashbox magazine had certified the record number one.They were received among much pomp and fanfare in the States with fans waiting in queues and among the crowd for hours, just to catch a glimpse of their favourite idols. Other LPs such as The Beatles vs the Four seasons, The early beatles, Hear the beatles tell all (an interview with the members),Rubber soul, RevolverBeatles for sale, Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely hearts club band, Yellow submarine and so on followed and were translated into popular albums. Hits like “My Bonnie”, “Aint she sweet”, “I saw her standing there”, “She loves you”, “I will get you” generated mass hysteria all over the Atlantic. On 6 June 1964, A Hard Day's Night, the first movie starring The Beatles, was released in the United Kingdom.In June 1965, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed the four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire, MBE. In July 1965, The Beatles's second feature film, Help!, was released. The film was accompanied by the band's fifth British studio album Help!, which also functioned as the soundtrack for the movie. On 15 August 1965, The Beatles performed the first major stadium concert in the history of rock 'n' roll at Shea Stadium in New York to a staggering crowd of 55,600.In 1968, there began some unfortunate differences among the band members with Starr temporarily leaving the band and Lennon providing more time for his girlfriend, Yoko Ono. McCartney was also alleged to be very authorative in his dealings and leaving less space for adjustments. The Beatles recorded their final album, Abbey Road, in the summer of 1969. The completion of the song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" for the album on 20 August 1969 was the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio.
The controversies
History says that almost all celebrities has had their share of controversies and their record of getting into scuffles, sometimes minor. With the contribution of papparazzi to that, the incidents are generally inflated and they register themselves in our minds in a major way.The beatles faced as much contentiousness as much they tasted success.During a prominent tour in Phillipines,The Beatles did not agree the breakfast invitation by the country’s first lady without realizing the disastrous consequences. They were viewed with utter contempt and disgrace from the countrymen. They had to face the ire of the people and the government there. Lennon’s controversial statement that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now” sparked off lashes of revolt from the conservatives and the general public alike. Towns across the United States and South Africa started to burn Beatles records in protest. The group's two-year series of Capitol compilations also took a strange twist in the United States when one of their publicity shots, used for a Yesterday and Today album and a poster promoting the UK release of "Paperback Writer", created an uproar, as it featured the band dressed in butchers' overalls, draped in meat and plastic dolls. Elvis Presley, though a friend earlier, apparently disapproved of The Beatles's anti-war activism and open use of drugs, later asking President Richard Nixon to ban all four members of the group from entering the United States. Apart from these, The Beatles had to come up to terms with much more criticisms for their drug overdoses.


Beatlemania
The rage of The Beatles spread all over the world during their career. People went into extreme frenzy over the music of the group that dominated all other forms and groups over a decade. The mop-top haircut began to be emulated by millions. The black and grey suits belonging to the mod youth cult and their tight-fitting, cuban-heeled, ankle-length boots with a pointed toe took the fans by storm. Caricatures of The Beatles were incorporated in TV shows, video games and documentaries. Bands like Badfinger, The Monkeys, Oasis were termed Beatlesque for their adherence to the musical techniques practised by The Beatles.
Indian Connection
The group spent the early part of 1968 in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh, India, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.Their prime intention behind coming to India was to discover inner peace through meditation under the effective guidance of Maharshi yogi. They wanted to transcend the constraints of Materialism and purify their souls.With their venture in India the Western press followed them all the way to the country and tried to shed light on the till now unexplored abysses of the Ashrams in India. Their time at the Maharishi's ashram was highly productive from a musical standpoint, as many of the songs that would later be recorded for The Beatles (White Album) and Abbey Road were composed there by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. Harrison showed his socio-political consciousness and earned respect for his contribution for arranging the Concert For Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971 along with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.The Beatles were also known for their use of unconventional use of instruments. They used Indian instruments like sitar in “Norwegian wood” (The Bird has Flown) and the swarmandal in “Strawberry fields forever”.
source : the internet