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We cannot trace with certainty
all of the stylistic influences on the Beatles to American models. Music
hall repertoire, bawdy ballads, and drinking songs clearly played a role
in their musical upbringing and shaping. Moreover, they evolved their
own characteristic responses to these influences. The mix of America at
a distance and post-war British popular and folk music culture combined
in Lennon and McCartney's minds and resulted in something distinctly different
than the originals. |
They began by copying. The
Beatles were students of the music they loved. They began simply with
genres like skiffle and gradually moved to material that was either more
complicated structurally (for example, having chromatic or altered chords)
or difficult to perform convincingly. |
The Beatles spent years studying
music. Their conservatory consisted of the bars, dancehalls, and cinema
stages with hours spent studying recordings during which they did the
two things that every conservatory student does: learn repertoire and
hone technique. Like anything else human, the Beatles built on what came
before them. In the realm of culture, humanity builds on what our forebears
have provided, endlessly modifying and adapting; sometimes repeating exactly;
sometimes developing ideas that seem startlingly new. |
Although genres are nortoriously
difficult to define, we can identify four general styles that the Beatles
imitated in their performances and upon which Lennon and McCartney drew
when they composed songs. |
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