The Beatles’ influence still reverberates across the music landscape today. Imagine what it was like as they were actually performing their amazing musical feats in the 60s. Naturally, plenty of artists reacted in real time and started to do like the Fab Four did. With that in mind, we chose five different moments in The Beatles’ career when they set examples that had an immediate impact on practically everything and everyone else in music. Needless to say, we could have made this list a lot longer.
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No More Filler
Here’s one of the cases where The Beatles changed things without really trying to do set any examples. When they made the album Please Please Me, their first full-length LP, they were following the rules. Take a few hit singles, and fill it out with lesser originals and cover songs. Only their “lesser” originals often proved more compelling than the singles of other bands. And they couldn’t help but stamp the cover songs with their ebullient personality. As a result, there’s not really anything on the record that you could easily call “filler.” All other bands would need to raise their game, even on their album cuts.
Movie-Making Moxy
The Beatles were by no means the first band or musical artist to go Hollywood. Elvis had helped build his popularity by starring in films. Artists of the pre-rock era certainly benefited from exposure in movies. But the Fab Four did it in a way that stood out from all others that came before. They made sure that their films, starting with A Hard Day’s Night (arguably the best of their movies), led with irreverence. They weren’t pretending that they knew everything about the film world, nor did it seem like they were taking any of it too seriously. Other bands soon took note, as did the TV executives who made a little show called The Monkees.
Always Innovating
There are endless examples of little touches that The Beatles added here and there to their songs. Think of the fade-up at the beginning of “Eight Days A Week”, or the feedback drone that they tacked onto “I Feel Fine”. In no way do they detract or distract from the main thrust of the song, either lyrically or musically. But they lend a little flavor to the proceedings. As a result, you never heard the complaint about The Beatles that one song sounded like the one that preceded it. Other artists took note and decided that it was a good idea to try changing things up now and again, making for a much richer music scene.
Strings Attached
To be clear, other rock artists had incorporated strings before The Beatles. But with “Yesterday”, the group made the orchestral flourishes the focal point. The only other musical element is Paul McCartney’s acoustic guitar and vocals. That brings us to another innovation here: the idea that just one member of a band could be present on a track that’s still credited to the whole group.
McCartney claimed that The Beatles were a bit self-conscious about going the beautiful music route. But they did it so well (and producer George Martin deserves big credit here also) that other rockers understood the potential of baroque pop, as it would soon be dubbed.
Accent on the Album
We’re not here to debate whether or not Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as a concept album, holds up all that well. It doesn’t really attempt to do so beyond the opening and closing bits. But the event of it all, combined with the music included, made it infinitely impactful. Remember that The Beatles had just decided to forego touring when they made that record. They took all that energy that had been spent on live shows and channeled it into the studio and Sgt. Pepper’s. Not just the music, but the packaging, the cover, and all the trappings. Sgt. Pepper’s served as the turning point when the album started to muscle out the single for ultimate importance.
Photo by Cyrus Andrews/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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