What was the worlds reaction when The Beatles transformed?

Question

From the young fellas on the Ed Sullivan show to the hippies with long hair, and peace feaks, ect.

Answer 1

What people don't realize today, people too young to remember the Beatles, is that they changed many times.  Every album they did had a new sound.  Some were almost like a whole new group.  

When we first saw them in the US, on the Ed Sullivan show on three Sundays in February 1964, Americans thought they had an exciting new sound.  But the Beatles thought they were imitating Elvis Presley and the classic American rock sound.  In fact, in the 2nd program, Paul spoke briefly between songs, and it was a shock to hear his accent, because they sang in -American- accents!

But through the rest of the 60s they changed and morphed.  They did 3- and 4-part harmony, they experimented with orchestras and even new instruments like the mellotron.  They re-defined 'rock and roll' music.

In 1967 I was in high school.  I was on the AV crew (yeah, I was  nerd in high school) and we used to hang out in the AV room where all the record players, tape recorders and 16mm film projectors were stored.  One day a guy came in with his latest acquisition, the new Beatle album, Sergent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.  There were four or five of us there, plus our faculty advisor (Mr. McAfee) and we played the whole album through while we passed around the cover and each had a chance to study it.  None of us had ever seen or heard anything like it.  We talked about it for another half an hour. The fold-out cover of Sergent Peppers has to be the most innovative (and influential) album art in history.  (In fact I've often had the thought that CDs ruined album art.  Albums used to be 12" square, and sometimes they were pretty enough to hang on the wall!  In fact I knew people who did that.)

The 'hippy' Beatles was their -last- change.  Long and Winding Road.  By that time you would hardly recognize the clean-cut young lads in the collarless Edwardian suits on the Ed Sullivan show.  But all the groups that tried to emulate them had long since disappeared.  I believe John and Paul were both doing stuff on their own by now (I could be wrong about that).

I completely lost interest in popular music about the time The Beatles broke up.  I really think it went into a slump in the 70s.  There just didn't seem to be anything nearly as interesting to listen to on the radio and I got interested in different things.

Answer 2

They changed gradually and we changed with them, so nobody really noticed anything much. The 60s were very exciting times, lots of things in the world were changing, and the way The Beatles developed reflected that.

As youngsters we thought we could change the world. Well, as we grew up we did change the world, and look what sort of a place we've made for ourselves.

Answer 3

I think the world transformed with them and the hippie era was born.

Answer 4

Dont think there was any big world changing reaction.

Mostly cause when they changed (if you really want to call it that) they did what 90% of most music in there generation did, they played music that the kids where into, which at that moment was anti war. Due to the fact that Nam was one of the first Media covered wars, i think it was disturbing to the mass population and why Nam is seen as the start of large anit war marches.

  On a side note, the beetles where great musicians and i am not sure if anything they had done would of killed the wave they managed to get on.