Re: psycho

["www.willy.msk.ru" <willy@relline.ru>]

wwmr> Ага а потом еще развернуть несусветный флейм с самим собой на два
wwmr> гигабайта.

Joseph C. Morin
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Department of Music
Fine Arts Building
1000 Hilltop Circle Road
Baltimore, MD 21250
Spring 1999

BEATLES: Cursory Summary of Some of their Significant Influences and Precedents
Social/Cultural
- caused cultural (as well as musical) upheaval
- made RnR central to youth's lives
- globalize RnR to extent previously unknown
        
- appearance: most visibly, introduce fashion of long hair through "Beatle haircut"
- attitude: make it fashionable to be cute, smart, irreverent, eclectic, chic, cultured etc.
- fostered through personal appearances in which musical act now are non-threatening in earlier tradition of Elvis, JLL, LRichard; (but are threatening to youth in their seductive, influential nature)
- fostered through movies: Hard Day's Night and Help, which allowed fans an "up-close-and-personal" view of Beatles, with appeal of movies e.g. (1) bringing "beach-genre" movies to close, (2) causing creation of spin-off group "Monkees", (3) inspiring future folk-rocker Roger McGuinn to purchase Rickenbacker 12- string guitar just like one seen in movie, etc.
- overall, Beatles convey attitude: "Be yourself, don't let anybody tell you how to run your life"
- success lifts UK out of lingering post-WW2 doldrums, helps to redefine UK (ironic in that UK authority/press reject US RnR from beginning)
- help to reshape RnR into "Rock": music that is capable of introducing serious social issues into the mainstream and though that becomes more than mere commercial entertainment (as is Pop)
Musical
- renders much of existing USA RnR (esp Rockabilly, Phil. Mach., doo wop, pre-Motown girl groups, etc) out of style during initial introduction in 1964

- intense appeal of music revives bland/stultified pop market, success set up environment for British Invasion

- lay foundation for "arena rock," with their 1965 performance in Shea Stadium (NYC) entertaining 55,000 fans, demonstrating their intense appeal

- Beatles helped set in motion a maturation process for RnR, ultimately ending with their contribution for establishing "Rock" by proving that RnR could be conduit for significant message re culture/society: in process they expanded to embrace topics and musical style formerly excluded from RnR genre
        
- expansion in full bloom on Revolver '66: "Taxman"--protest about rapacious taxation by UK govt, "Eleanor Rigby"-- reflecting on emptiness of life and religious ritual, melody set to string quartet (no trad. rock insts), "Love To You"-- introduction of subcontinent Indian musical style (raga) and instruments (tabla and sitar), "Tomorrow Never Knows"-- Lennon advocation for opening one's mind to new experience, exploiting technical innovations (see technical)

- music sets new artistic and commercial standards for future RnR (the "yardstick" by which every group will be measure in '60s and into '70s)

- sets trend for bands establishing and maintaining artistic control over their music:
        
- inaugurate era of "self-contained" band (inspiring thousands to pick up guitars and imitate them)
        
- help to reestablish trend that artists compose songs for themselves: bands now expected (by fans) to create own material; redirects song-writing trend away from centralized, production-line, professional song-writing concept indicative of Brill Bldg
        
- set trend for bands to record their music themselves
        
- in all, establishing many aspects of "DIY" trend, which becomes measure of authority  

- accorded credit for creating new style of album with Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band: "concept album," in which songs can be seen to relate to one central topic or idea
        
- helps establish "album" rather than "single" as industry standard
        
- seen as pushing Beatle creativity into realm of classical music: Pepper's songs now contain stylistic diversity and artistic sophistication to be considered equivalent to Romantic "art-song" and album equivalent to Romantic "song cycle" by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, etc

- seen as early pioneers of music video with promotional film for "SFF", also sections of HDN
- said to start (but re-introduce) concept of double A-side single
Music Technology/Creative Process
- begin to create exclusively in studio (retire from touring in 12/66)
        
- first successful band to do so, set trend for future bands 

- pioneer new techniques to maintain creative/innovative musical style
        
- begin to rely on creativity of studio technicians/producer:
        
- E.g. ADT (artificial double tracking ["flanging"]) created to ease problematic vocal double-tracking process for JLennon, comes into wide-spread use on instruments in future albums
                
- E.g. Lennon's request that G Martin combine two "uncombinable" versions of "Strawberry Fields Forever"
                
- E.g. subjecting voices, instruments to unusual electronic modifications (limiters, etc) to produce sophisticated, inimitable "sound" 
        
- explore innovative, avant-garde techniques (formerly unused in RnR)
                
- E.g. musique concrete--modification of sound through unconventional techniques: tape loops used in "Tomorrow..", steam calliope 'wash' used to help create circus atmosphere in "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite"
                
- E.g. Aleatoric approach toward creating orchestral crescendos in "Day In A Life"
                
- E.g. avant-garde influence in "Revolution No. 9"

- experimentation is so pervasive that nearly every subsequent technique used in Rock can be traced to precedent in Beatles music

- first significant group to achieve "verticality" in business through Apple Corp. (i.e controlling all significant aspects of their business (from songwriting to recording to movies etc. through an in-house/self-contained entity)