The Beetles Analysis The Beetles have been a huge influence on the development of rock with their eccentric and creative style. Their ground breaking album (SST Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) has been one of the most influential album in setting new and eccentric building blocks for the genre of pop rock. Their style will be analyses in detail to show Just how influential, eccentric and creative the Beetles were with the songs: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and A Day in the Life both from their ground breaking album. Lucy in the sky with Diamonds
This song opens with an eccentric noise; it can be best described as an electronic harpsichord. It’s echoed and is playing an angular distinct melody. Then a bass guitar is introduced and then vocals are introduced making the texture thicker one instrument at a time. This album was full of ground breaking songs and a new style which was unbelievably simple but sounded so complicated and eccentric. The first verse has a thin texture, as it progresses further into the verse, the instruments become more vibrant and the vocals become echoes and sounds distant.
This creates topic atmosphere setting up the song for the narcotic high feeling this song creates. The melody of the vocals is monotone but it has a slight echo. This could be to do with the fact that the song is proclaimed to be about LSI as the song infamously spells LSI. It could be inferring that he is spaced out or Just out of it, tripping on LSI and everything is surreal and fairy tale like as explained in the lyrics and at the end of each phrase the vocals slide downwards, this could be to do with the LSI factor again as he might be getting another hit etc. Till sustaining the topic atmosphere. In the transition to the chorus the drums count in but he counts in at 3/4 timing and the chorus is in 4/4. This is very unusual, especially in a pop song. This contributes to how the Beetles style was so sophisticated but still each individual instrument is playing quite a simple rhythm, melody, riff etc thus together making the music sound sophisticated. This change in time signature is quite unexpected and is why it makes it eccentric.
As the song transitions into the verse, the vocals do a long and big slide down as it might be inferring that drugs are taking effect again, sending the listener into a surreal utopia and at the same time the time signature changes once again which is also much unexpected. This change in time signature is one of the reasons why the Beetles style is deceptively simple. The second verse is virtually identical to the previous verse but Just with different lyrics.
Coming into the second chorus the drums count in at 3/4 timing once again and the time signature changes as the chorus begins. In this chorus the bass guitar is much more evident and there are phrases where certain instruments are taken out for a plait second to highlight the bass guitar. It then transitions the same way as it did previously and comes into the third verse. This verse is again identical but as the verse is transitioning to the pre chorus the drums count in again excluding the pre chorus.
This is totally unexpected and this is one of the reasons why the Beetles style is so eccentric and influential. Finally in the final chorus every seems more energetic but there’s a difference because the electric organ sounding instrument starts The Beetles Musical Analysis By authenticate ACH different instrument was highlighted individually in each chorus. A Day in the Life The song opens with applause behind an acoustic guitar playing a riff. The Beetles were looking to sound live in this album and this element helped to achieve this.
As the piano enters it changes the meter, this is one of the features in the Beetles style that makes it sophisticated. You could say that these two songs were composed to ‘lose yourself which is another feature of the Beetles style as they had many contrasting songs. The first verse which is John Lemon’s part of the song; is quite Lancelot or somber. Again the vocals are echoed but aren’t monotone. Actually the melodies of the vocals evoke sadness but still there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
The verse is quite empty but when the drum fill is added it Just makes everything so much more full. Rings Star’s drumming style is so very simple but is so effective. For the remainder of the first verse a few [patterns are repeated until an orchestral build up is evident. These 20 seconds of build-up is rising action which is Just so chaotic and seems to become more chaotic every second that passes. This could have to do tit the fact with how chaotic the times were with society and what not.
As the music transitions to the second verse or commonly known as Pall’s part of the song the piano becomes more hopeful and everything brightens up. The transition is so sudden and is another factor to do with The Beetles sophisticated and eccentric style. The second verse almost is a bubbly shuffle style of music. It contrasts with the previous section of the song. The vocals are a happy Jazzy sound to them, the other instruments are all working together to change this feeling of sadness to happiness. In the song there is a huge reference between lyrics and melody.
As the vocalist says “somebody spoke and I fell into a dream,” there is a response to these lyrics of a fading out vocal slide down which is similar to the previous song. These vocal slides continue and a brass building start building, but this building up doesn’t seem chaotic but it still builds higher and thicker as time goes on. The final verse is virtually identical to the first one again, and then another build up is heard. This one seems more chaotic than the other. At the end of the build-up there’s a pause and hen it finishes on E major.
This chord releases all the tension that was left in the atmosphere when the build-up finished. Through this analysis we can see that the Beetles style is deceptively simple. Their style includes monotone vocal melodies, changes of key and time signature, contrasting sections to their other songs, orchestral build-ups and sections, topic effects and the layers of simple ideas to create complex arrangements. These features are unusual for pop music which is why the Beetles are so innovative. By Ethan Watkins
