The Beatles are probably know as one of the biggest bands in musical history. Especially, they are loved by there fans in there home city of Liverpool. They are comprised of John Lennon, Sir Paul Macartny, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They where first formed in 1960. There style was usually mixture of then popular soft pop Rock music but some of there record and tracks branched into other more out there genres such as what is considered there best work by many Sargent Pepper’s Lonely hearts club band. This managed to please there audiance whilest also taking on a more experimental sound. This album is often credited as the first consept album. It was because of this that the Beatles where so popular in the day yet also different enough to attract a less mainstream audiance and allow there music to stand the test of time and still feel so fresh to many today. The band originally only consisted of 3 member but when manager Brian Epsitine added Ringo Starr as drummer in 1962 there popularity began to increase. Over the years be successfully molded them into a highly successful act with legendary producer Sir George Martin helping develop there sound into something different and interesting. By late 1962, the band’s song Love me Do was released to great success in America. In the intervening years, Epsitine and Martin have come to be regarded as the 5th and 6th Beatles respectively.
The music video above is for the band’s song Strawberry Fields. The song is one of there more experimental works interesting featuring a reverse harpsichord. The video appears to fit the lone of the song with very over exposed colour grading and grain. This gives it an odd astetic that really helps the video stand out and appeal to an explorer. However bar the videos more phycoelic qualities, the video does confirm to the Beatles style at the time and to general conventions of music video such as reflecting the Lyrics and featuring the singer/singers as in reality it’s all just a big marketing ploy for the song. One thing I will be talking from this video is inspiration for one of my locations in the form of the field and the constant use of cross fades. Since my video will be mainly based around flashbacks I feel this would help convey that to the audiance.
This image is from a Beatles fan magazine called the beatle book. I highlighted the cover as a poor example of magazine design. The purple masthead is functional and eye catching, and I suppose the fonts and colour are in keeping with the Beatles general asthenic at the time, however I feel the mostly bland image lets the band down. The Beatles are such an interesting group but a grainy black and white studio shoot doesn’t really appear to stand out for me. However I suppose since it’s a fan mag, fans will buy regardless and considering the low budget as evidenced by the price it’s understandable. I may attempt to emulate something similar to this as I feel despite not being to my own personal tastes, it does accurately represent the underhanded tactics of the music industry.
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