Why Is The Beatles Considered A Counterculture?

It would have been inconceivable at the turn of the 20th century to imagine the musical freedom, variety, and subcultures that we have today. What began as a counterculture movement in the 1950s and 1960s eventually gave rise to an incredible array of different types of music, rock being the most prevalent and ubiquitous among them. Other music scenes followed; punk rock, grunge, disco, R&B, and psychedelic rock to name just a few. A great question is how all of this came about – how did a very country with very conservative and spiritual musical tastes develop such a multitude of visceral and varied musical genres?
Through the 1920s onward, music began to be characterized by performers with more of a stage presence and energy in their presentation. Additionally, the creation of jazz and blues added a distinctly personal element in music that was not previously present in religious or contemporary music of the early 1900s. The end of World War II and the genesis of the baby boomer generation also played a part as genres
Naturally, neither the Beatles nor Elvis stand alone in the development of new types of music as they were simply two of many different artists of their time who worked with what had been created over years of work and creative effort. However, the Beatles and Elvis stand as the most obvious and significant for their contributions and position in the public mind as innovators on the cutting edge of music. Elvis is significant for his clean break from the unadventurous and conventional past music styles. His voice was electrifying in how it captured young people’s attention, but his stage presence was remarkable in how different it was. Usually performers would stay still and sing, but Elvis would dance and shake his hips – actions that seem trivial and downright uncontroversial today but were risque and salacious at the