Beatles: here, there and everywhere

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Music

Beatles: here, there and everywhere

They appeared in the 1960s and revolutionized music and trends [1] for a generation. Today, 40 year after the band split up [2], The Beatles are still attracting new fans and selling millions of albums all over the world

In April 1970 Paul McCartney officially announced the end of The Beatles. Months beforehand, [3] John Lennon had said, “The dream is over”.  From then on, the four musicians fromLiverpool would never play together again. Paul set out [4] on a successful solo career, as did Lennon and George Harrison. Drummer [5] Ringo Starr divided his time between music and movies. But Lennon had been wrong when he said the dream was over - it was to stay very much alive for the generations that were born after the 1970s. The number of fans of the band grew and grew in the decades that followed.  Album after album of the English band’s music continued to be re-released [6] all over the world. In the 21^st Century The Beatles have remained at the top of the charts [7] in the USA and many other countries. From 2000 to 2009 over 28 million Beatles’ CDs were sold in the USA, according to Billboard – only rapper Eminem sold more. From the 1960s up to the present day sales of Beatles’ recordings worldwide have been estimated at in excess of one billion. This puts every other musician in the shade [8]. 

The hit factory

Over the last few decades The Beatles’ sound has influenced some of the leading bands in the world, such as U2 and Oasis, as well as some of the biggest names in Brazilian music, such as Renato Russo and Raul Seixas (see page 12). According to data from Billboard magazine (considered to be the music industry’s “Bible”), 20 of The Beatles’ songs made it to Number One in the USA between 1964 and 1970 – more than any other band or solo artist. The most-played song on the radio in history worldwide remains Yesterday. Besides revolutionizing the music world, The Beatles also influenced pop culture and even trends for young people of their generation.

Primeira parte da matéria publicada na edição de número 54 da Revista Maganews, que também traz, nas partes 2 e 3, a trajetória da maior banda de todos os tempos. O começo de tudo, em 1957,  quando Lennon e McCartney se conheceram, ainda adolescentes. Em seguida, os tempos difíceis em Hamburgo e Liverpool, a sorte mudando com o apoio do empresário Brian Epstein, a chegada da “beatlemania” nos EUA em 1964, a evolução musical da banda com os discos Revolver e Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, que revolucionaram a música pop,  e a influência da sonoridade dos Fab Four na música brasileira.

Vocabulary

1 trend – tendência / comportamento

2 to split up – separar-se

3 beforehand – antes / antecipadamente

4 to set out – iniciar

5 drummer – baterista (drum = bateria)

6 re-released – relançados (release = lançar)

7 chart – quadro / lista / gráfico / ranking

8 in the shade – exp. idiom. = atrás / em posição inferior

Photo - Library of Congress - USA