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Music And Teens Today

When the Beatles touched down in New York on February 7, 1964 for their first visit to America, they brought with them a sound that hadn't been heard before. By the time they returned to England two weeks later, major changes in music, fashion, the record industry, and the image of an entire generation had been set into motion. Coming less than three months after the assassination of President Kennedy, the Beatles' visit helped rouse the country out of mourning. A breathless and condescending media concentrated on the band's hairstyles and their adoring fans, but their enduring importance lay in their music, their wit, and style, a disconnect that signaled the beginning of the generation gap. In this intriguing cultural history, Martin Goldsmith examines how and why the Beatles struck such a lasting chord. The Beatles were the most influential music group of the rock era. They affected the post-war baby boom generation of Britain, the United States and many other countries during the 1960s. Certainly they are the most popular group in rock history, with global sales exceeding 1.1 billion records. While they were originally famous for light-weight pop music (and the extreme hysterical reaction they received from young women), their later works achieved a combination of popular and critical acclaim perhaps unequaled in the 20th century. Eventually, they became more than recording artists, branching out into film and — particularly in the case of John Lennon — political activism. They achieved an iconic status with far reaching effects. "In many ways, the Beatles' arrival set off a wave of changes," says Goldsmith. (Beatles: 118)
"The Beatles Come to America" by Martin Goldsmith is a relatively short book written in the third person limited, is about the lives of the blindingly famous British pop group up to the point that it first arrived in the U.S. in 1964. There is just a little book remaining after that point and it mostly looks back on what the Beatles meant...