American Politics & Pop Culture

First off, I would like to start by saying that this was by far my favorite class this semester. I thought the whole section of the powerpoint on JFK and the conspiracies behind his assassination was fascinating, and I hope you will show conspiracies of other major events in future powerpoints (9/11?). The other thing that really interested me was the section of the movie about The Beatles. I have a good friend who has recently taken up an obsession with The Beatles, and over the past couple of weeks has been showing me (on YouTube of course) many of their songs, interviews, and clips of them performing, among other things. What I didn't realize through watching these clips, though, was just HOW ridiculously popular they were. I imagined that all of their shows would be sold out wherever they went, and of course girls were obsessed with them, but the fact that THAT many people showed up at the airport for their U.S. arrival, and the fact that they couldn't tour anymore because they couldn't hear themselves play or sing anymore is crazy. The Beatles truly defined the 1960's through their unique sound, unique look, and unique personalities. There has not been another band either before them, or after them, which has influenced as many musical artists as The Beatles have. I have always heard about how "big" The Beatles were, but this movie really showed me how much I was off. Basically EVERY teenager in the entire U.S. had or was listening to The Beatles, there isn't any band today which is as universally listened to or as dominant as The Beatles were, and I find that fascinating. Sure Nirvana was huge in the 90's, but Nirvana didn't define a generation. I guess you could say a band like "Fall Out Boy" or 50 cent define their respective genres (in the mainstream), but they are not even CLOSE to defining an ENTIRE generation. For this fact alone The Beatles will always be, in my opinion, the biggest musical cultural phenomenon of all time.