What messages did The Beatles portray in their songs?

Answer 1

Answer

The Beatles success is tied up with with their timing, talent, attitude and placement:

The timing started with being born during WW2. This meant that when the band broke through, the baby boom generation were teenagers so they had a huge fanbase - ISTR that half the population was below 20. Their first UK, nationwide broadcast was during the 1963 winter - one of the worst in the 20th Century - which meant a record TV audience. They also became a "light" news story which the papers could use to balance against the big, "heavy" stories that were breaking at the time (the Christine Keeler scandal, the Great Train Robbery and the winter weather). The timing in America was again to provide a light contrast to the news of the assassination of Kennedy.

But, as was said at the time, all the hype in world can't sell a bad product, which leads us to talent:

Obviously, Lennon and McCartney were talented musicians and songwriters and the quickness of Lennon's mind was balanced by the disipline that McCartney brought to the band.

The attitude of the band, particularly Lennon and McCartney was to always try something new. McCartney had noted that when bands had a successful single, they tended to follow it with a similar, not quite as good single, then an even worse one. The Beatles avoided this by deliberately trying to do something different for each record. McCartney also pointed out that the different personalities of the band strengthened the whole. For example, Lennon got bored very quickly, so it meant the whole band was always moving on, Harrison was a dedicated musician, raising the standard of the whole band.

The placement started with being brought up in the trans-Atlantic port of Liverpool, they were exposed to a wide range of music and they inherited Irish wit (Lennon & McCartney are Irish names and Harrison's mother was Irish). They were also very fortunate to have George Martin as producer and to record at EMI.

They were in the right place at the right time, with the right talent and potential.

Hard slog, I'm afraid. The famous sessions at Hamburg were essential in getting their professional touch, of understanding music and even taking to the audience. They performed seven days a week and were paid a pittance for it. Of course they wouldn't have got anywhere if they hadn't been discovered by Brian Epstein at the Cavern (where a lot of Liverpool based bands played), but they needed to be talented first. As for success in America, this was due to records being released in America first then a high profile tour about a year later.

The Beatles became so popular because through the centuries, the music changes. From sometime before the year 1400 to the year 1450, it was midevil music. Then it changed to baroque, and classical, and romantic and so one. Then came World War 2, and after the war was over, Elvis came in. Then after Elvis was done, a couple of friends wanted to form a band. It just so happened that that little group of friends was The Beatles, and their music was so different than it had been before, that people absolutely loved it. And that's how The Beatles became so popular. The Beatles are known as the "kings of the British Invasion" which eventually brought other English bands to the U.S. like The Rolling Stones. They also defined an era, changing the way we think about rock n' roll.

They sold the most records, changed music styles, led the way into new musical horizons, and were the most influential group ever.

In 1959, as the Quarry Men, they started playing at the Casbah Club in Liverpool which was run by Pete Best's mother. In 1960, as the Beatles, and with Pete Best as drummer, the played at the Indra Club in Hamburg for 48 nights, then at the Kaiserkeller for a further 58 nights. On their return to Liverpool, they play at the Cavern Club, followed by a return to Hamburg at the Top Ten Club, then back to the Cavern Club which is where Brian Epstein sees the Beatles for the first time, and the rest is history. They introduced a whole new range of music. It was popular with younger people and after the war, people wanted a new style of things. After they had finished, they inspired many other people to carry on, to develop on top of their ideas. Because they had been so popular, many people wanted to use their ideas. Pop music also opened up a lot more opportunities in music as pop music has hardly any boundaries
During time, the style of music changes. When Elvis first appeared, people hated him because they thought his style was dangerous. Eventually they came to accept it, then love it. Then The Beatles came along. Their music was so different, people LOVED it. But when they started out, they weren't that popular either.

Answer 2

The Beatles mainly sang about love. They sang songs about peace, and some songs that don't even make sense. In John Lennon's song "I am the Walrus" one of the lines is "Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dogs eye." It doesn't make any sense! Most of George Harrison's songs have an Indian vibe, such as "Within You Without You." Some songs are about feelings of sadness that the Beatles had. In "Help" John Lennon is crying for help. They also got names in some songs from things or people in their life. In the song "Martha My Dear" Martha is Paul McCartney's sheep dog! John also wrote a song called "Julia" about his mom, Julia Lennon, who got hit by a car and died when John was younger. He throws something in about his wife, Yoko Ono, too. The Beatles wrote some sleep songs, like "I'm So Tired" and "I'm Only Sleeping." They wrote about lots of smaller topics too, but those are some main ones.

Answer 3

Any song they liked, from American folk and Country Music to Broadway show tunes, to girl-group songs and R&B, to the songs they heard on BBC radio growing up. (And of course, American rock-n-roll.) During rehearsals and sound-checks they were likely to cover any rival band's songs they enjoyed; the same went with the Get Back/Let It Be rehearsal sessions.

Answer 4

Most of their songs were love songs. Paul McCartney frequently wrote songs about arguments he had with his girlfriend. An example of this is a song he wrote after an argument called "I'm Looking Through You". John mostly wrote love songs as well.

Answer 5

Become one of the most popular bands ever and make some of the best and most well known songs in the history of music.

Answer 6

Some of the Beatles songs were based on things in their lives, but some of them were basically just random drug-influenced songs.

Answer 7

"When I was a Beatle, I thought we were the best f---ing group in the g------ed world." (1980)

Answer 8

As Paul has pointed out; most of the Beatles songs are very positive, love songs.

Answer 9

War, drugs, religion.....