Beatlemania
Beatlemania initially started when Ed Sullivan experienced Beatlemania in London (Heathrowafter the Beatles returned from their successful tour in Sweden) first hand during the fall of 1963. After
returning to the US, he told his staff to make inquiries into the Beatles. Not before long, the Beatles’
manager Brian Epstein travelled to New York to arrange for the Beatles’ voyage across the Atlantic.
Epstein not only managed to convince the Ed Sullivan show to make the Beatles as headline acts in three
appearances but he also convinced Capitol Records to release the song “I want to hold your hand”when the record company previously refused to release other songs by the Beatles. That deal would be
the start of a legendary time for the Beatles and for music for the next six years.
The actual term “Beatlemania” was thought to have come from a Daily Mirror story about the
Beatles’ London Palladium concert, but a Scottish concert promoter Andi Lothian believes it came from
him. Although Lothian doesn’t exactly remember why he chose the term “mania”, there is actually a
historical context for that particular term. The term supposedly originated with Franz Liszt, the classical
musician who was famous for his piano playing. He was so popular that the term Lisztomania was
coined due to similar reactions audience members had with his music as fans of the Beatles had with
their music: they screamed, they made noise and they paid extremely close attention to him when he
performed. This leads me to wonder why people (and in particular, females) were so enthralled by a
musical group of four boys.
Firstly, I think a very important concept and distinction has to be made when one talks about
the Beatles. The Beatles, as we know, was a group of four boys from Liverpool that went on to
revolutionize Rock N’ Roll and the music scene in general. However, I feel that there is a division
between the Beatles as a group of four teen boys and the Beatles as a music group. The identity of the
Beatles in this sense makes it a little clearer as to why people loved them. I believe initially everyone
(well, the younger generation at least) enjoyed the music that the Beatles were producing. They were
taking simple chord patterns and mixing them with other chord patterns or changing things up to make
something new. When they started to get more attention, I sense that people started to like the Beatles
as a group of four teenage boys rather than as a music group per-se. With that being said, that’s not to
say that people started to dislike their music, it’s just it seemed like everyone paid more attention to the
members of the band instead of the music. As Ringo mentioned in an interview that we saw in class,
“People came to see them and not the music”. They (the fans) probably have heard the songs
thousands of times but they wanted to go scream at and see their idols.
Another piece of evidence that seemed to “draw” people to the Beatles was JFK and his death. I
believe the former President’s death played a role in the sense that it made everyone (the younger
generation at least) excited about the Beatles. I feel that the ideal of President JFK and what he stood
for resonated with the people in the same way that the Beatles did. I am of course talking about JFK’s
age (44) when he was elected as President and how he was very popular with the younger generation
because he was seen as a President who would move America forward and offer promise to the young
people of America. Even in the three or so years that he was in office, he managed to create the Peace
Corps and also give funding to NASA so that they could compete in the space race with the Soviet Union.
Furthermore, the baby boomer years essentially changed America’s social scene and economic scene as
well. When JFK was killed, everyone in America was distraught and so when four teen boys from across
the water came with their long hair and Scouse accent, it seemed inevitable that the younger generation
would fine a great attachment to a this teenage boy band.
The idea of Beatlemania according to Jonathan Gould, author of Can’t Buy Me Love, was that “it
would coalesce into one of the main tributaries of a broad confluence of pop enthusiasm, student
activism, and mass bohemianism that would flood the political, social, and cultural landscape of much of
the industrialized world during the second half of the 1960s, spinning off whorls and eddies—the
women’s movement, the gay liberation movement, the environmental movement—in its wake.” (p.8)
Gould continues to add, “…the Beatles would serve as prominent symbols, spokesmen, or, as some
would have it, avatars of this great international upheaval. Bridging nationalities, classes, and cultures,
they became the common property of a generation of young people who idealized them, and then
identified powerfully with that idealization of them.” (p.8) These two statements made by Gould
accurately describes and indicates how powerful the Beatles’ impact was on society during the 60s. This
is even truer for the many female fans who would “…show their appreciation by emitting high-pitched
shrieks in addition to clapping, shouting, and singing along with the music.” (p.157)
As mentioned previously, the 60s was a time of change and for the young women of America, it
meant a change in their behavior. While it was true that females were supposed to act in a certain way
(dignified and “pure” so to speak), the Beatles enabled the female fans to act in a more rebellious
nature—a sort of revolution of sorts. As with any revolution, there has to be some sort of common
theme that the people, or mostly females in this case, were fighting for. Other than the Beatles, I
believe that they were “fighting” for their right to be seen differently. As Linda Ihle, a 13 year old fan
who lived in Long Island, New York at the time the Beatles were in the US said, “It was very sexualized.
We weren't at the age yet when we were permitted to date. We liked boys but boys were still a bit less
mature than girls. These were young men but they seemed very attainable in some way. They were
adorable, they were different, they were irreverent and our parents didn't approve of them, which made
it even better.” (D. Lynskey) Ihle later describes what led to all the craziness and screaming amongst the
female population, “It makes you feel like part of something larger," says Ihle. "You're not by yourself.
Individually, teenagers are isolated and worried and scared all the time of whether or not they're doing
the right things and wearing the right clothes, but everybody liked the Beatles so everybody was equal. It
didn't matter what your clothes were or where your parents worked; we were all in it together." (D.
Lynskey) The solidarity that was shown by the females can be labeled borderline insanity, but during a
time such as the 60s, how can one not be excited by what the Beatles brought to the table?
Although Beatlemania was fully in effect in the UK and other parts of Europe, the US was
undoubtedly an important milestone for the Beatles in terms of success and adulation. The saying “they
were in the right place at the right time” probably couldn’t be used in a better context when describing
the Beatles. It was thanks to Ed Sullivan that they were able to come to the US (although they would’ve
arguably eventually came, albeit at a later stage) and it was thanks to him that 75 million people
watched the Beatles perform on live television for the first time in the US in February 1964. It was
(arguably) thanks to the 1960s for being the time period that it was that led many young people to
idolize the Beatles. Most of all however, it is we, the people of the world that love to listen to music,
that needs to thank the Beatles for giving the world their music and for the other things that they did:
for taking Rock N’ Roll and R&B and implementing it into their music and also for experimenting and
breaking the conventional barriers of compositional music making. Despite the fact that Beatlemania
was a significant part of how the Beatles were often remembered by the people (mostly by the females
but also by the scared males and disapproving adults), their true legacy lies in their music and the
impact that they had in the music world. Beatles, we salute you.
Bibliography:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ed-sullivan-witnesses-beatlemania-firsthand-paving-theway-for-the-british-invasion
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/29/beatlemania-screamers-fandom-teenagers-hysteria
by Dorian Lynskey
Gould, Jonathan. CAN’T BUY ME LOVE. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007