Did the Impact of the Beatles Sgt Pepper Album Help Redefine Popular Music as a Culturally Significant Art Form?
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is first and foremost the album that gave rise to 'hopes of progress in pop music" (The Times, 29 May 1967)
Did the impact of the Beatles Sgt Pepper album help redefine popular music as a culturally significant art form?
Summary of Assignment
Choose an artist from the period 1900-1970 and to examine their relationship to the cultural and social framework of their era with reference to an important or influential album.
Introduction
In this essay I will be critically analysing and evaluating ‘The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers album in relation to their associated genre, their lyrics, their musical creativity, their social and political context, their overall impact on music and popular culture and the contemporary music industry at the time. I’ve chosen this specific album as I find it a particularly interesting moment in their career, creating an album that will always be remembered. It was also released in such an important time in history; a time where a popular culture was born. I will be focusing on four songs from the album of which I find are most relevant to my chosen essay title: ‘Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds’, ‘She’s Leaving Home’, ‘within you, without you’ and ‘A Day in the Life’.
The Beatles – ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely heart club band’
“The summer of 1967 was in full bloom, hippies were flocking to San Francisco to ‘tune in, turn on and drop out’, London’s Carnaby Street was the centre of pop fashion, underground radio stations were playing music by groups with such unlikely names as The Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd. It was a wildly exciting time for the world’s youth. Leading the way, musically were The Beatles. Their latest single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields had blown everyone’s minds, and then in June of 1967 they released their greatest creation “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. The diversity and creativity of the songs drew world wide acclaim. To this day Sgt. Pepper is considered as the greatest
Did the impact of the Beatles Sgt Pepper album help redefine popular music as a culturally significant art form?
Summary of Assignment
Choose an artist from the period 1900-1970 and to examine their relationship to the cultural and social framework of their era with reference to an important or influential album.
Introduction
In this essay I will be critically analysing and evaluating ‘The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers album in relation to their associated genre, their lyrics, their musical creativity, their social and political context, their overall impact on music and popular culture and the contemporary music industry at the time. I’ve chosen this specific album as I find it a particularly interesting moment in their career, creating an album that will always be remembered. It was also released in such an important time in history; a time where a popular culture was born. I will be focusing on four songs from the album of which I find are most relevant to my chosen essay title: ‘Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds’, ‘She’s Leaving Home’, ‘within you, without you’ and ‘A Day in the Life’.
The Beatles – ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely heart club band’
“The summer of 1967 was in full bloom, hippies were flocking to San Francisco to ‘tune in, turn on and drop out’, London’s Carnaby Street was the centre of pop fashion, underground radio stations were playing music by groups with such unlikely names as The Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd. It was a wildly exciting time for the world’s youth. Leading the way, musically were The Beatles. Their latest single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields had blown everyone’s minds, and then in June of 1967 they released their greatest creation “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. The diversity and creativity of the songs drew world wide acclaim. To this day Sgt. Pepper is considered as the greatest
Bibliography: The Beatles Diary. Barry Miles. Omnibus press 2001 Macdonald I, 2005 Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the 1960’s London: Pimlico press The making of Sgt. Pepper. Belmo, 1996, CG publishing, Canada. Christopher Booker: The Neophiliacs: A Study of the Revolution in English Life In The Fifties and Sixties, Gambit Incorporated, London, 1970 Mann, William 29 May 1967