The Beatles Are The Greatest Echo Of The World

The Beatles (Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - Talking about music, it seems difficult - if not impossible - not to talk about the revolutionary band The Beatles. This band has inspired many musicians in the world, including Indonesia. Not a few bands from various types of genres have made The Beatles their inspiration.

This group of basic rock musicians was formed in Liverpool in 1960. Initially the band consisted of five people, John Lennon as guitar and vocals, George Harrison (guitar-vocals), Paul McCartney (guitar-vocals), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass), and Pete Best (drums).

But two years later Sutcliffe and Pete Best left. Then the drummer was replaced by Ringo Starr. Paul changes positions to play bass. After that their position began to solidify, until the band was known as the fab-four.

His first single, Love Me Do, was recorded under the direction of George Martin at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, London. The single was released in October 1962 and managed to occupy the 17th position of the top 20 charts in the UK. After finishing recording their second single Please Please Me in November, they began to appear on television for the first time on the program People and Place.

His name became increasingly popular when they appeared on the legendary The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963 in New York. As many as 74 million pairs of eyes witnessed their appearance. The success was then greeted by Capitol Records, who agreed to promote The Beatles on a large scale. Since then, the youth have idolized Fab-four.

The Beatles in Blokker, Netherlands (Commons Wikimedia)

Music observer Mudya Mustamin explains why The Beatles are so influential to musicians around the world, including Indonesia. According to him, the name of The Beatles was great because they were innovative, and managed to produce a lot of hits.

"So, for the 60s and 70s they are already very ahead of their musical vision and mission," Mudya told VOI, Monday, March 9.

Mudya said the reason The Beatles were so iconic was because they did not appear with standard music. Besides that, the music they provide is also good and easy to sing. "Memorable, easy to remember," said Mudya.

However, when examined in more detail, said Mudya, "the chord progression is not common. Or the lyrics are inspiring. That's why many people like it," explained Mudya.

Many factors make a fab four so inspirational. Starting from the arrangement, song lyrics, unusual tones, and the recording process. As explained by Mudya, they are also such an explorative band.

Their musical experiments were crazy, especially when they worked on the albums "Rubber Soul", "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". "The music was also getting heavier for the pop accounts of that era. The psychedelic and progressive ones have started," said Mudya.

The Beatles Technique

Many have called "Revolver" (1966) the Beatles' magnum opus. The album was called the most innovative and experimental. The collection of numbers recorded after "Rubber Soul" (1965) was a time when The Beatles reached a new level of sophistication in songwriting.

The recording started in April 1966. One of the futuristic ideas came from John Lennon. He had the idea to make a vocal recording whose voice was like a scream echoing from the top of the hill. Quoting the BBC, he later shared the idea with producer George Martin and a talented 20-year-old technician, Geoff Emerick.

"He wanted his voice like the Dalai Lama screaming from a hilltop ... So I said, 'It's quite expensive to go to Tibet. Can we do it here?'" Said Martin.

Lennon's voice is then filtered through Leslie's device, which creates the vibrato effect usually associated with a Hammond keyboard. The echoing sound effect can be heard in the song Tomorrow Never Knows.

George Harrison incorporated elements of Eastern musical instruments into the song by playing the tambura and zither. Paul McCartney uses a tape loop that plays backwards and plays a variety of variable speeds, including an effect that produces a seagull sound. The Revolver album is often referred to as the Beatles' most exploratory album.

One technique that is widely adopted by many musicians is reverb or delay which creates an echo effect on vocals. Richard Goldstein, a music writer for The Village Voice, explains in detail the techniques used in many of The Beatles' songs. According to him, one of the most pronounced reverb techniques is in the song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

"The song is immersed in reverb, echo and distortion. The Beatles' best melodies are simple if the original progression is reinforced with sharp lyrics. Even their radical compositions are able to maintain a sense of unity in one song," Goldstein wrote.

Apart from Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, the echo effect of The Beatles' song is also felt in other songs including Paperback Writer, A Day in the Life, to Here Comes the Sun. The Beatles aren't the only band to use this kind of echo effect. Other psychedelic rock bands such as Pink Floyd also immerse a reverb effect in many of their songs.

Penetrating time and space

Innovative, explorative, creative. Arguably the most important elements in the process of creating Beatles' numbers. It's no exaggeration to call them the pioneers of the world's rock-pop music. It's no wonder that many musicians around the world from across genres are inspired by them.

"In Indonesia, there are a lot of musicians, from jazz to pop rock, I think they were influenced by The Beatles. Nothing is not. Not really rare," said music observer Mudya Mustamin.

Several bands in Indonesia that were inspired include, Naif, Sheila On 7, Koes Ploes, and The Cangcuters. Apart from those who were affected, there were also those who made special tributes to the british band. For example the G-Pluck, or the more senior, Barata.

"In my opinion, The Beatles influenced people the most, not only in pop. To rock, jazz, and blues bands, all of them took from The Beatles. For that era, it was extraordinary," explained Mudya.

Therefore, The Beatles became one of the bands capable of penetrating time and space. It's been more than half a century since the band was formed, but the fans never seem to run out.

"Because they are so innovative, they are still connected, there is still a correlation. The way people make songs still sees them," he said.