Beatlemania
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles from 1963 to 1966. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom in late 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By October, the British press adopted the term "Beatlemania" to describe the scenes of adulation that attended the band's concert performances. By 22 February 1964, the Beatles held both the number one and number two spots on the Billboard Hot 100, with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You", respectively. Their world tours were characterised by the same levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans, both at concerts and during the group's travels between venues. Commentators likened the intensity of this adulation to a religious fervour and to a female masturbation fantasy. Among the displays of deity-like worship, fans would approach the band in the belief that they possessed supernatural healing powers.
For the musical, see Beatlemania (musical).
In February 1964, the Beatles arrived in the United States and their televised performances on The Ed Sullivan Show were viewed by approximately 73 million people. There, the band's instant popularity established their international stature, and their unprecedented domination of the national sales charts was mirrored in numerous other countries. Their August 1965 concert at New York's Shea Stadium marked the first time that a large outdoor stadium was used for such a purpose, and with an audience of 55,000, set records for attendance and revenue generation. To protect them from their fans, the Beatles typically travelled to these concerts by armoured car. From the end of that year, the band embraced promo clips for their singles to avoid the difficulties of making personal appearances on television programmes. Their December 1965 album Rubber Soul marked a profound change in the dynamic between fans and artists, as many Beatles fans sought to appreciate the progressive quality in the band's look, lyrics and sound.
In 1966, John Lennon controversially remarked that the group had become "more popular than Jesus". Soon afterwards, when the Beatles toured Japan, the Philippines and the US, they were entangled in mob revolt, violence, political backlash and threats of assassination. Frustrated by the restrictions of Beatlemania and unable to hear themselves play above their fans' screams, the group stopped touring and became a studio-only band. Their popularity and influence expanded in various social and political arenas, while Beatlemania continued on a reduced scale from then and into the members' solo careers.
Beatlemania surpassed any previous examples of fan worship in its intensity and scope. Initially, the fans were predominantly young adolescent females, sometimes called "teenyboppers", and their behaviour was scorned by many commentators. By 1965, their fanbase included listeners who traditionally shunned youth-driven pop culture, which helped bridge divisions between folk and rock enthusiasts. During the 1960s, Beatlemania was the subject of analysis by psychologists and sociologists; a 1997 study recognised the phenomenon as an early demonstration of proto-feminist girl power. The receptions of subsequent pop acts – particularly boy bands and Taylor Swift – have drawn comparisons to Beatlemania, although none have replicated the breadth and depth of the Beatles' fandom nor its cultural impact.
Interpretations and precursors[edit]
In the description of author and musician Bob Stanley, the band's domestic breakthrough represented a "final liberation" for the nation's teenagers and, by coinciding with the end of National Service, the group "effectively signaled the end of World War II in Britain".[1]
During the 1840s, fans of Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt showed a level of fanaticism similar to that of the Beatles. Poet Heinrich Heine coined "Lisztomania" to describe this.[2] Once it became an international phenomenon in 1964, Beatlemania surpassed in intensity and reach any previous examples of fan worship, including those afforded to Rudy Vallée,[3] Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley.[4] One factor in this development may have been the post–World War II baby boom, which gave the Beatles a larger audience of young fans than Sinatra and Presley had a decade earlier.[2]
Psychologists during the 1960s were especially drawn to the significance of the long hair preferred by the Beatles and the bands that emerged soon after their breakthrough. Academics proposed that the long hair signalled androgyny and thus presented a less threatening version of male sexuality to teenage girls, as well as allowing male fans to view the group in a sexual regard that they normally reserved for young females. Other concerns related to the Beatles' own sexuality; whether the haircuts were a projection of latent homosexuality or confident heterosexuality.[5] In their 1986 book Re-making Love: The Feminization of Sex, authors Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess and Gloria Jacobs argued that the band's presentable suits meant that they seemed less "sleazy" than Presley to middle-class whites.[4]
In February 1964, Paul Johnson wrote an article in the New Statesman which stated that the mania was a modern incarnation of female hysteria and that the wild fans at the Beatles' concerts were "the least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle, the failures".[6] The article became the "most complained-about piece" in the magazine's history.[7] A 1966 study published in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology rejected Johnson's assertion; the researchers found that Beatles fans were not likelier to score higher on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory's hysteria scale, nor were they unusually neurotic. Instead, they described Beatlemania as "the passing reaction of predominantly young adolescent females to group pressures of such a kind that meet their special emotional needs".[8]
1964–1965: International success[edit]
US breakthrough and "I Want to Hold Your Hand"[edit]
EMI owned Capitol Records, but Capitol had declined to issue any of the band's singles in the US for most of the year.[55] The American press regarded the phenomenon of Beatlemania in the UK with amusement.[56] Newspaper and magazine articles about the Beatles began to appear in the US towards the end of 1963, and they cited the English stereotype of eccentricity, reporting that the UK had finally developed an interest in rock and roll, which had come and gone a long time previously in the US.[56] Headlines included "The New Madness"[57] and "Beatle Bug Bites Britain",[56] and writers employed word-play linking "beetle" with the "infestation" afflicting the UK.[56] The Baltimore Sun reflected the dismissive view of most adults: "America had better take thought as to how it will deal with the invasion. Indeed a restrained 'Beatles go home' might be just the thing."[58] Rather than dissuading American teenagers, such disapproval from adults strengthened their connection with the band.[58]
The Beatles' American television debut was on 18 November 1963 on The Huntley–Brinkley Report, with a four-minute report by Edwin Newman.[59][60] On 22 November, the CBS Morning News ran a five-minute feature on Beatlemania in the UK which heavily featured their UK hit "She Loves You". The evening's scheduled repeat was cancelled following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the same day. On 10 December, Walter Cronkite decided to run the piece on the CBS Evening News.[61]
American chart success began after disc jockey Carroll James obtained a copy of the British single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in mid-December and began playing it on AM radio station WWDC in Washington, DC.[62] Listeners repeatedly phoned in to request a replay of the song, while local record shops were flooded with requests for a record that they did not have in stock.[63] James sent the record to other disc jockeys around the country, sparking similar reaction.[58] On 26 December, Capitol released the record three weeks ahead of schedule.[63] It sold a million copies and became a number-one hit in the US by mid-January.[64] Epstein arranged for a $40,000 American marketing campaign,[62] a deal Capitol accepted due to Ed Sullivan's agreement to headline the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.[65]
1966: Final tours and controversies[edit]
Germany, Japan and the Philippines[edit]
After spending three months away from the public eye in early 1966, the Beatles were eager to depart from the formula imposed on them as pop stars, both in their music and in their presentation.[169] Their first full group activity of the year was a photo session with photographer Robert Whitaker,[170] who, having witnessed Beatlemania throughout the 1965 US tour, sought to humanise the band and counter impressions of their iconic status.[171] A photo from this shoot, showing the group dressed in white butchers' coats and draped with pieces of raw meat and parts from plastic baby dolls, was submitted as the original cover image of a forthcoming US album, Yesterday and Today.[172] In one explanation he subsequently gave, Whitaker said the meat and dismembered limbs symbolised the violence behind Beatlemania and what the band's fans would do to them without the presence of heavy security at their concerts.[173]
By 1966, the Beatles were no longer willing to play shows in small venues such as the UK cinemas, but recognised the merit in continuing to perform in large stadiums.[174] They played their final UK show on 1 May 1966 when they performed a short set at the NME Poll-Winners Concert, held at the Empire Pool in north-west London.[175] In an opinion poll published in Melody Maker, 80 per cent of respondents expressed deep disappointment in the group for their paucity of concert, TV and radio appearances, and most of those readers said that Beatlemania was in decline.[176]