the beatles

Cameron Sheldon

Sunday Music Discovery 2/19/12

For this Sunday’s music discovery, I will be discussing the pop/rock band called The Beatles. The Beatles, consisting of John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, conquered the world of music and paved the way for future artists to make music during the 1960s. In addition, The Beatles are the best selling band in all of music history selling an estimated one billion units. They have also won seven Grammys. Unfortunately, only two of the four members of the band remain alive today. John Lennon was assassinated in 1980 and George Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001.

The Beatles were successful in the United Kingdom just like every other band trying to make it in the music world, but in 1964 they changed the world forever. They had finally arrived in United States to tour. The world went absolutely mad for them, during a period known as “Beatlemania”. In 1970, The Beatles officially broke up. For them it was a slow death because they had been dealing with conflicting personalities and egos for years. However it is amazing that in such a short amount of time The Beatles were able to accomplish so much.

Personally, I enjoy listening to The Beatles because their music is extremely different from the music being created today. It is sad to see that the majority of today’s youth has not been exposed to the Beatles’ music. For example, during Paul McCartney’s performance on the Grammy’s this year, Twitter exploded with comments like “Who is Paul McCartney?” I believe that people should give The Beatles respect for what they did for the world even if they dislike their music. Some of my favorite albums are “Abbey Road”, “Please Please Me”, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, and of course “1” which is a compilation of The Beatles’ number one hits.

Cameron Sheldon