The Beatles

Psychedelic drugs are some of the most powerful tools in the world for personal healing and psychological growth. Research at major medical centers over the past few years have shown remarkable results in the treatment of conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety. Psychedelic drugs provide a path of treatment that is often more effective and rapid than other methods, and with many fewer side effects than pharmaceutical options. This paper will be focusing on hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and psilocybin and entheogens such as ayahuasca and ibogaine.

The paper will focus on Imagine, one of the most famous songs written by John Lennon used to communicate to people the support for an anti-war campaign movement. The writer will discuss the song lyrics and try to show how Lennon perfectly expressed his point of view against the continuous wars that happened during 1960s and 1970s.

El objeto de estudio de este trabajo es el Arte Psicodélico, más concretamente el diseño gráfico -los carteles de conciertos y carátulas de discos- asociado a los sonidos del llamado rock ácido o rock psicodélico de los años sesenta. La psicodelia -el uso de drogas alucinógenas- surge a mediados de esa década en Estados Unidos como una de las facetas de la contracultura hippie, y se extiende luego al Reino Unido, donde se enmarca dentro del fenómeno conocido como “Swinging London”. 

El término psiquedélico fue acuñado por el cientifico Humphrey Osmond en 1957 y significa “manifestación del alma o de la mente”. Será un adjetivo que se aplique a aquellas obras inspiradas en, o relacionadas con, la experiencia producida por el uso de drogas alucinógenas, como el rock psicodélico. Era un sonido totalmente nuevo, que desafiaba la estructura básica de la canción pop y empleaba instrumentos nunca antes utilizados. Este tipo de música induce un cambio en la representación visual de la industria musical, como se demuestra estudiando las carátulas de discos y los carteles para conciertos: convertidos en materiales de creación artística, se vive un nuevo entendimiento de estos objetos, y su importancia ha ido creciendo desde entonces. Este trabajo estudia la evolución estética del diseño gráfico musical de la década de los cincuenta a la década de los sesenta, poniéndolo en relación con un contexto histórico muy especial y con el surgimiento de una música radicalmente nueva.

El desarrollo en la creación de pósters para los conciertos es comparable a la época del modernismo. El póster deja de ser funcional, casi contradiciendo su propia razón de ser: ya no solo debe aportar información sobre el grupo, el lugar y la fecha de un evento musical, sino que se presenta como un lienzo en el que distribuir dicha información con un lenguaje completamente nuevo, a veces indescifrable, inspirado en el tipo de música que se va a escuchar en el concierto. Los carteles se conforman a partir de formas suntuosas de influencia modernista con una imagineria onírica, como influjo del surrealismo. Las formas se fusionan con las nuevas tipografías y se desenvuelven por el espacio de manera orgánica, con colores vivos y contrastados. Como artistas psicodélicos americanos destacan los conocidos como “The Big Five”: Wes Wilson, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, Víctor Moscoso y Rick Griffin. En Inglaterra la producción más importante fue la de Michael English y Nigel Waymouth como colectivo “Hapshash and the Coloured Coat” y la de Martin Sharp.

La revolución del póster pronto influye en el desarrollo de las carátulas. En los años cincuenta la cubierta de un disco solía contentarse con ofrecer una fotografía del artista muy sobria y su nombre con una tipografía muy simple. En los años sesenta hay un cambio sustancial con los avances tecnológicos y el influjo de las visiones del LSD. Formalmente en estos diseños encontramos influencias de la fotografía de las vanguardias o la cartelería de la secesión vienesa. La carátula adquiere una importancia que no había tenido nunca antes y empieza a ser realizada por pintores y diseñadores con conciencia artística.

"Reggae and dub has brought about many changes in production practices internationally. The studio Innovations pioneered by Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock and Lee “Scratch” Perry, have revolutionized production techniques in reggae, dancehall and many popular international genres.  The Ruddock and Perry Production Techniques have had a significant influence on the development of genres such as hip-hop, house drum and bass, trip hop, trance and techno. Despite this major contribution to pop music production techniques, there has been insufficient recognition for these “Dub Master’s” role in pioneering studio production styles.
This paper will examine the role of Ruddock and Perry, in the development of these distinctive techniques and juxtapose them along techniques of Anglo-America,  namely Phil Spector’s  Wall of Sound, the Beach Boys’  Pet Sounds and the Beatles Sgt Pepper Lonely Heart Club band  which have been valorized as landmark signposts in the history of pop music production.  By exploring the production techniques involved in creating the 1980s pop hit Genius of Love By Tom Tom Club.  I will show how the techniques of Ruddock and Perry have been appropriated by mainstream culture and how these techniques have influenced pop music production globally. In the process making a claim for the equal recognition of the work of Perry and Osbourne placing them in the same hallowed space occupied by their Anglo-American counterparts. "

En el presente trabajo se pretende abordar los sucesos ocurridos durante la década de 1960 en lo referente a la influencia de la contracultura o cultura underground británica en Estados Unidos y viceversa. Para ello, nos centramos en el desarrollo, no solo en la estética, sino principalmente en la cultura musical de la década. Este es el motivo por el cual, debemos primero mencionar las primeras influencias durante los años cincuenta y entendiendo la evolución cultural de ambos países de forma genérica y, además, su evolución llegados incluso a la década de los setenta.

Longer, different version of the chapter 'Cutting Up A Glass Onion'. This literature review from a PhD (2010) reflects on the author's own interview research, and also considers the relationship between Music Journalism and Popular Music Studies.

Parts of this have since appeared in publications elsewhere. Posting the file because it contains additional detail/ ideas/ correspondence on various topics. Discussion of Lennon, McCartney, Duchamp & Stockhausen is unique to this, though selections from sections on 'Norwegian Wood' appear in the articles 'Where You Once Belonged' & 'The Beatles' Uses of Literacy'. Discussion on Hoggart & Melly appear in my review of Hoggart (1957/2009). The rest is fresh.

A thorough analysis of 'Revolution 9' from the Beatles' "White Album" (1968), a composition by John Lennon in the style of musique concrete. The analysis looks not only at the cohesive structure, but the intent and significance of the work given the major changes happening in Lennon's life at that time. Particular attention is paid to the use of crowd noise and sounds of mass experience given Lennon's distrust of authority and his evolving role as a social activist.

Originally published in 'Perspectives of New Music', 46/2, 2008.

Previously this site contained a long excerpt of this article. This version is now complete, uploaded 4/3/15.

The album as an art form emerged in the mid-1960s, in part because rock musicians demanded greater studio autonomy from record companies. However, an underexplored factor contributing to the emergence of the art rock album is how record companies began to market their ‘stars’ as ‘artists’ as a means to sell more records. This article focuses upon how Capitol Records capitalized upon the artistry of the Beatles and the Beach Boys to change the norms of the industry, leading to the increased marketability of the album as a coherent work of art.

While Lennon and McCartney's class affiliations are ambiguous to degrees that should remain debatable, the depth and the detail in which working-class life defines their work have been overlooked, thus misrepresenting The Beatles' cultural significance. As Collins (2012) critiques, initial New Left criticisms of The Beatles -almost exclusively in response to one composition, 'Revolution' (1968) -have recently been adapted by commentators eager to portray The Beatles as a culturally and politically conservative force. I argue that early Left-wing and recent Right-wing criticisms of The Beatles' legacy are misleading, because both overlook Lennon and McCartney's different relationships to working-class culture.

Early academic article on McCartney's songs during/after the Beatles. This focuses on themes of time and nostalgia alongside musical innovation in a selection of McCartney songs, 1963-2001. Some of my later publications on McCartney (and Lennon) are also available on my academia.edu page.

This article addresses the various appropriations of the Beatles' songs in Brazil. It proposes a thorough account, within the limits of an article, aiming to comprehend the aesthetic and political battles concerning the incorporation of the Beatles' sound into Brazilian national culture. The article analyses both the incorporation and rejection of the Beatles' sound from various national musical segments, and the importance of the anthropophagization of the electric guitar by the tropicalists (Os Tropicalistas). From this perspective, I illustrate how distinction within Brazilian musical fields has been reconstructed via two different types of incorporation of the group's sound: one pre-Sgt. Pepper and another post-Sgt. Pepper and how they influenced the uneven battle for the institutional memory of Brazilian culture.

This 2008 book chapter compares Lennon and McCartney's songs, together and apart, with particular reference to social class, religion, and nationalism. Based on a paper at the Salford University conference 'Displacement and Belonging in the Modern World' (2007).

This thesis tries to elucidate and exemplify possible intersections between experimental rock of the late 60s and early 70s and the field of electroacoustic music, focusing mostly on production/compositional techniques and aesthetic approaches. A historical overview of the context which experimental rock emerged from is attempted, exploring why and how certain production techniques were used at that period in rock music and investigating into whether the aesthetic outcome of these techniques relates to experiments in the field of electroacoustic music. Musical examples from the field of classical, jazz and rock styles (including artists like Glenn Gould, Lennie Tristano, Miles Davis, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Fred Frith (Henry Cow) and Frank Zappa) are addressed for the sake of exploring different experimental studio practices. Moreover, a part of this research deals with the creative exploration of the production techniques discussed in order to develop my personal compositional work and eventually to create a framework where a discussion about composing electroacoustic music from the perspective of rock production (and vice-versa!) could emerge.

This is one of the first papers I wrote on textural stratification.  Here I look at this idea from the broad perspective of music that includes examples drawn from the music of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Messiaen, The Beatles, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Yes.  It was presented first at the Eastman School of Music sometime in early 2001, though I delivered it elsewhere after that.

With close reference to Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy (1957), this chapter emphasises the influence of working-class culture on the songwriting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The chapter also discusses Hoggart's rarely-cited (and often cautious) comments on The Beatles' work. (This chapter was published in the edited collection Richard Hoggart: Culture and Critique, edited by Michael Bailey and Mary Eagleton (Critical, Cultural and Communications Press, Nottingham UK, 2011).

Resumo: Este artigo tem como estudo de caso a influência dos Beatles na Tropicália. Aborda o êxito que o movimento teve na sociedade brasileira e a recepção dos Beatles no país. Os fatos, os quais foram baseados para a construção do artigo, foram fundamentados através de pesquisa, acontecimentos históricos, depoimentos e recursos bibliográficos. O objetivo foi identificar os elementos da mensagem dos Beatles influenciando a Tropicália.

Sara Cohen issued a challenge to popular music scholars, asserting that the ethnography of local amateur bands could be as theoretically fruitful as studying celebrities. This article suggests a third angle and related challenge, problematizing the inclusion of testimonies by musicians who play an important role in the collaborative constellation around celebrities, but are placed decidedly in the margins of dominant narratives of popular music history. George Harrison’s sitar studies led to his creating a new hybridic musico-spiritual sound that was heard on Beatles’ albums, infusing the sixties’ psychedelic soundscape with ‘raga-rock’. According to my interviews with Shambhu Das, Ravi Shankar’s disciple appointed initially to assist Harrison with sitar fingerings, Das played a much more significant role than previous historical accounts have admitted. This raises important questions about the theoretical approach and methodological application of a polyvocal texture where contradictions and ambiguities are revealed that challenge heretofore unquestioned narratives.

Why do rock performers wear military uniforms? The motive is generally assumed to be 'transgressively subversive.' However, when looking more closely at particular performers and groups, this is found to be far from always the case in as much as motives include pride in being a veteran, nostalgia for a glorious past, attraction to uniform aesthetics, citing of previous iconic 'warriors of rock,' finding a unique visual 'hook,' reasserting national rock-cultural identity and/or waging uniformed 'warfare' between rock groups. Possible origins of 'rock military style' are discussed along with its development in the social and cultural context of the post-war era, focusing on the Anglo-American scene.

La década de 1960 fue una de las décadas que más cambios haya experimentado hasta ese entonces el mundo. La mayoría de las naciones vivía una época de auge económico, de liberación, de consolidación Estatal o creación nacional, así como de globalización acelerada, todo lo anterior en el marco de una guerra fría que había dividido al mundo en dos bandos contrarios: comunistas y capitalistas.

En este contexto, el capitalista Reino Unido sufriría las transformaciones políticas, económicas y sociales por las que pasaba el mundo entero; descolonización, reposicionamiento en política exterior y una creciente clase media fueron algunas de las características de este periodo.
Sin embargo, una nueva generación estaría por tomar asalto en la vida pública de las naciones más importantes del mundo capitalista; la generación del Baby Boom , rebeldes que se convertirían en los protagonistas de la década. Como parte de esta generación, se encontraban cuatro amigos ingleses, originarios de Liverpool; John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison y Ringo Starr, que ganarían popularidad y reconocimiento internacional a través de su música, convirtiéndose en portavoces de un discurso revolucionario que irrumpiría a finales de los 60 en boca de jóvenes en contra del statu quo y el establishment que pronto heredarían de la generación anterior. Los Beatles, como se hicieron llamar como grupo musical, eran chicos estudiantes de clase media, nada fuera de lo ordinario en Inglaterra, que producía una clase media cada vez más numerosa con más oportunidades de adquirir educación básica en escuelas públicas, al igual que otros países como producto del desarrollo económico acelerado que se vivió después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

A Contracultura foi um período efervescente na sociedade dos anos 60. No âmbito social, procurou discutir e transgredir os valores e costumes da época. Na cultura, surgem manifestações características expressadas, principalmente pela juventude, que procurava se rebelar contra o sistema vigente. Estas expressões estão presentes na moda, nos filmes, na televisão, nos livros e na música. O rock and roll, símbolo típico da contracultura, reúne
inúmeros admiradores. Na Inglaterra, ganha força e se torna ícone cultural deste país. Pelo turismo, há certa possibilidade de estar em contato com estas manifestações. A atividade turística se apropria dos produtos culturais a fim de criar seus próprios produtos. Por isso, através deste estudo, buscamos estabelecer os pontos de contato entre os movimentos contraculturais, particularmente o rock, e os produtos turísticos inspirados por esta expressão.

On the usefulness of works by Adorno, Hoggart and Anderson in studying popular music, with particular reference to Lennon and McCartney. Chapter from AHRC-funded doctoral thesis (Leeds Metropolitan University, 2010). Examiners: Professor Max Farrar and Professor Sheila Whiteley.

The article examines the reflections and influences of the Rolling Stones phenomenon within the framework of communist Czechoslovakia. Based on the exploration of characteristic historical and cultural events this article confirms the exceptional status of the Rolling Stones in Czechoslovakia as a political band par excellence.

Despite the large time gap between the two, Beatlemania and modern male pop star fandom reflect each other in their overwhelmingly female fanbases. Through these two multigenerational case studies, I will examine how young women are positioned in the greater sphere of popular music audiences, discussing their participation in fandom through concert behavior and consumption of music and merchandise. My research will compare their representation in mainstream media with their personal expressions of fandom, asking, in the line of feminist theory, whether female music fans have received more than their fair share of criticism, from the 1960s to current era.

Discussion of PhD, detailing The Beatles' various yet rarely-mentioned links with local black musicians in Liverpool c1958-62, particularly Vinnie Ismail and Lord Woodbine. This is a transcript of an interview for BBC Radio Merseyside (2009), published as an article in Soundscapes: Journal on Media Culture (2010). Some of my further research on the topic is also available on my academia.edu page.

Since 2012, Beatles fans have been commemorating the 50th anniversary of a number of key milestones in the band’s career. Perhaps the most notable was the release of the Beatles’ first single, “Love Me Do,” on 5 October 1962. To celebrate this occurrence in 2012, there was a series of events largely instigated by local Do it Yourself (DIY) initiatives in Liverpool and beyond. This renewed global, mainstream attention demonstrates how the resonance of the Beatles’ legacy still endures. It also shows how fans still want to mark their role in the Beatles story through often overlooked DIY practices, despite legal protection upheld by Apple Corps over the Beatles brand.  In order to investigate how the beginnings of Beatles heritage practice was actually born out of DIY initiatives, this chapter will first explore the origins of Beatles related tourism in Liverpool (Cohen 2007; Leonard and Strachan 2010) and what implications the resulting institutionalization of that agenda has had on the DIY heritage practice by Beatles fans. Arguably, despite the tightly controlled corporate hold on the Beatles brand, there are still small, yet significant, ways in which fans are able to insert themselves into the Beatles story. In their work on heritage and identity, Graham and Howard (2008, p. 2) argue that value is not placed on heritage itself, but rather on “artefact and activities” that have imprinted on them meanings that provide insight into culture and society. Using this idea as the impetus for this research, this chapter investigates two main case studies: New York City artist Rutherford Chang’s exhibition We Buy White Albums, and the Liverpool Mural Project’s John Lennon Mural in the Litherland area of Liverpool. Chang’s collection of White Albums is an archive of the personal histories of the often anonymous previous owners, while the Liverpool Mural Project aims to unite Northern Irish and Liverpudlian artists otherwise divided by sectarianism. While there has often been a problematic relationship between copyright protection and fandom made all the more difficult in the digital age, these examples uncover the innovative ways in which Beatles fandom perseveres 50 years on.

The reasons why this album has been declared “the greatest album of all time” are explored through their historical rationales, and these are compared with more straightforward aesthetic analyses of the album’s contents. A contrast is drawn between the canonical centrality of Sgt Pepper to rock music in general, and its importance to The Beatles canon in particular. I demonstrate that the centrality of the Sgt Pepper to rock music is an American phenomenon, where it is seen as establishing the album form as the primary unit of rock-music art. In contrast, the British critical tradition has not generally awarded special importance to Sgt Pepper. However, the US perception of the album has infiltrated the British discourse and this has resulted in the perception that The Beatles canon is an album-based form.

Besides its musical innovations, the Beatles' " Revolver " displays many points of sociological and cultural interest, including peculiar forms of self-education such as Abraham Moles' " mosaic culture ". Being the foundation stone of so-called 'pop culture' in 1966, the album marks the beginning of modernity in popular music, but it also discloses many features of post-modernism. Through "Revolver " , actually, the discourse of modernity reveals all its intrinsic contradictions. Today, when its aural and intercultural features have been fully absorbed by contemporary pop music in a fifty years time, listening to it is an experience far different from its 'innocent' auditory intimacy in 1966. Such a difference would demand an investigation of the role of nostalgia in our perception of the past.

What is Germanness in music?  In this free-to-view introduction to our edited collection 'Dreams of Germany', Thomas Irvine and I reflect on the problems inherent in answering this question.

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/GregorDreams_intro.pdf