Did The Beatles really give the world a new pop sound? Oh, let it be. . .
WHEN The Beatles burst onto the US music scene with I Want to Hold Your Hand in February 1964, they were credited with launching a British pop invasion.
Within a few months they held all top five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 List — a feat that has never been repeated — and the American music press, which once derided Beatlemania, suddenly could not get enough of the Fab Four.
The Rolling Stones and The Kinks soon followed to continue the British rock onslaught.
However, a new study suggests that The Beatles may have been given too much credit for the music revolution.
Researchers at Queen Mary University and Imperial College, both in London, have been studying the evolution of popular music between 1960 and 2010, and found that the influence attributed to the band was developing long before they set foot on American soil.
“The historians all talk about how The Beatles changed everything, but it’s entirely coincidental,” said Professor Armand Leroi of Imperial College, senior author of the paper.
“They didn’t make a revolution or spark a revolution, they joined one. The trend was already emerging and they rode that wave, which accounts for their incredible success.
“They were good-looking boys with great haircuts and British accents, but as far as their music was concerned they weren’t anything new.”
The Beatles were thought to catch the mood of youth disillusionment triggered by the assassination of John F Kennedy and the Vietnam war.
Music historians have long argued that they overthrew the entrenched sound coming out of Memphis from artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. BOARD GAMES: The Beatles — Ringo, John, George and Paul — at their Hollywood Hills hideout in 1964
But the researchers probed all tracks on the US Billboard Hot 100 List between 1960 and 2010 and found that similar sounds were already present.
The Beach Boys had hits such as Surfin’ USA while the Top Notes recorded Shake It Up, Baby, which The Beatles would cover as Twist and Shout.
Even Paul McCartney remarked before they left for the US in 1964: “They’ve got their own groups. What are we going to give them that they don’t already have?”
However, Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn said the find- ings just “didn’t stack up”.
“Speak to anyone who was a young person in the US when The Beatles arrived and they will tell you how much of a revolution it was,” he said.
Researchers found distinctive chord progressions, beats, lyrics and vocals that defined genres. Blues and jazz are known for their dominant seventh chords. Their rarity in the Billboard Top 100 over the past 50 years shows how this type of music’s popularity has declined.
Loud, energetic guitar, popularised by rock and roll in the ’50s and ’60s, had a resurgence in the ’80s with bands such as Queen and Van Halen.
It is hip-hop, say the researchers, that has had the biggest influence in the past 50 years, dominating the charts since the ’90s. —
Historians say they changed everything — but it’s coincidental