The (Later) Beatles

It is difficult to establish exactly why The Beatles were so successful. One opinion mentioned by Tom Zarecki is that The Beatles had three lead singers. Zarecki explains:

Besides their visual and music appeal, the Beatles also had another magic trick that no bands before or since had (gasp): THREE LEAD SINGERS! Up until that point, bands always had ONE lead singer! Those three lead singers each had a trick up their sleeves: they were each powerful and accomplished SONGWRITERS, too! These three lead singers and songwriters were John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Each of them wrote their own original material, and swapped and shared lead vocals from song to song. Plus, (get this) the two that were NOT singing lead on a song would provide backup harmonies. Further, in quite a number of early Beatles songs, John and Paul would alternate lead vocal duties within the same song.

Another reason may be their continual evolution. The Beatles’ sound continually changed. One of their most influential albums was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). This album was nominated #1 of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is a typical example of postmodern music, which incorporate a wide variety of sounds, including Rock ‘n Roll, jazz, classical, and traditional Indian music, and extensive use of synthetic instruments and electronic “studio effects.” It can be argued that the popularity of this album with its effective use “electronic music” created the foundation for much of the modern day use of synthetic sounds in pop music.

We have already listened to one song from this album – “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Listen to it again and notice the use of synthesized sounds, and “studio effects.”

Here is the title song from the album. The YouTube-video features a clip from the Yellow Submarine-movie. While listening to the song, describe the orchestration and density, and other features you find interesting.



Let’s listen now to another song from the same album, “Within You, Without You.” This mixture of Western music with Eastern music is another example of Postmodernism, which tend to blur the boundaries between opposites; for instance the boundary between East and West.



Compare the songs on this album with the songs by The Beatles that we listened to, for instance “A Hard Day’s Night.” There is clearly a big change in their style. How would you describe the difference between “A Hard Day’s Night” and, for instance, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”?