The beatles

The Beatles had a huge influence on America and the world.  The Beatles changed popular culture forever. They changed the way people listened to music and experienced music in their lives.  The Beatles made their first appearance on television in 1964. Seventy-three million viewers watched, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Star perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The Beatles became a symbol for the changes of the 1960s.
Here are a few ways that the Beatles changed the world.

1. The Beatles Raised the Bar for Teen Idol Quality
Before the Beatles came along most of the Pop scene was made up of clean-cut people who were made by their producers. The teens looked up to these superficial, too perfect pop stars and the Beatles changed that.  First of all, they had nice accents. Each of the four members brought something different to the able, so there was something for all kinds of teens. The main difference, however, between the Beatles and their competition was that the Beatles controlled their presentation. They picked out their own outfits and controlled their own music. They composed their own songs, which was something that very few teen idols were allowed to do at the time. The Beatles brought more than any teen idol had before, and the teens looked up to them because of it.

2. They Made irreverence Hip in Mainstream Culture.
 The Beatles were more self-aware than any previous pop group. They thought the "pop game" was ridiculous and decided to go their own way. They handled the press in a very unique way. They often turned the question back at the press or answer questions in ways that made no sense. They made it clear that they were going to do what they wanted, no matter what the world thought of them. The group was very honest which made people want to trust what they said. They had a "damn-the-consequences" attitude which fit the era, became a large part of the youth culture, and inspired future musical groups to express their attitude more freely.

3. They Made Long Hair Okay for Men
Before the Beatles came around men did not really have long hair. The Beatles showed up with their "mop-tops" and the country began to follow in the hairstyle. People made Beatles wigs and other groups began to grow their hair longer and longer. The Beatles also grew facial hair which gave them the look of the classic hippie. Long hair became of signifier for rejection of social norms. By the '70s even politicians were wearing the hair long. Having long hair was now a choice that men could make and was not seen nearly as rebellious as it was seen when the Beatles first showed up with it.

4. The Beatles Psychedelicized us
The Beatles began to sing songs about "turning off your mind" and songs that had a spiritual undercurrent. When the Beatles first started singing these kinds of songs LSD was legal but soon after it got outlawed. One of their albums was based off a book written by an LSD advocate, a guru and an academic and was titled The Psychedelic Experience: a Manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In their song "Tomorrow Never Knows," the Beatles used an Indian drone that was mixed with a hypnotic continual drum pattern and various reoccurring backward tapes effects to give off a sense of an illusion. Psychedelic rock would later become a big part of U.S. culture for the next several decades.

These are just a few of the ways that the Beatles influenced the world. If it weren't for the Beatles people would not experience music the same way that they do today.