50 Years Ago This Week: The Beatles Change the World

Milestone moments do not a year make. Often, it’s the smaller news stories that add up, gradually, to big history. With that in mind, in 2017 TIME History will revisit the entire year of 1967, week by week, as it was reported in the pages of TIME. Catch up on last week’s installment here. Week 38: Sept. 22, 1967 The release and success of the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was only one of the reasons why The Beatles found themselves on the cover of TIME this week. More importantly, the story was a recognition of the fact that the band had rather smoothly moved on from the teenybopper sound that had made them famous to “a higher artistic plateau.” Without losing the sense of fun that had so captivated audiences, The Beatles had stretched their musical limits and, in doing so, managed to speak to both eternal struggles of love and life and the very of-the-moment revolution that was the 1960s. Though they had shed a few of their fans (like younger listeners who flocked to groups like The Monkees for their dose of pop harmony) they had sustained the interest of their maturing original listeners while capturing new fans, too. It was a feat that was almost impossible not to notice, the story observed: Rich and secure enough to go on repeating themselves —or to do nothing at all—they have exercised a compulsion for growth, change and experimentation. Messengers from beyond rock ‘n’ roll, they are creating the m...
Source: TIME: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Media Source Type: news