John Lennon was a complex creative who fronted the biggest band of all time, The Beatles. He, along with The Beatles shaped and defined the pop culture and pop music, not only of their time, but even of today.
While The Beatles entered the music industry as a pop group singing love songs, aimed to appeal to young girls, it wasn't long before their immense creativity became the forefront of their music and image. Their innovative lyrics, musicality, and production means challenged pop music and its listeners, and their peers, for years to come.
The Beatles’ effect on pop culture went far beyond just popularising long, shaggy hair but they were also at the forefront of the ‘British Invasion’, arguably brought psychedelia to the mainstream, and pioneered the ‘music video’. After cultivating a following in Britain, and releasing several hit singles, The Beatles moved to America in late 1963, and it didn't take long before they were the face of pop music there. Within weeks of landing in America ‘Beatlemania’ had taken over, their first US single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was number one for seven consecutive weeks, their performance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ attracted 70 millions viewers, and their first album “Meet The Beatles” had sold 3.6 million copies by March, making it the the biggest selling album in history at the time. During the 1950s, the music industry was dominated by American acts, but The Beatles immediate and immense success in the US kickstarted ‘The British Invasion’. At first several acts, such as Billy J. Kramer and Peter and Gordon, somewhat rode the coattails of The Beatles by releasing their unreleased tracks to gain attention, but it wasn't long before many new, original acts were dominating American radio such as The Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Kinks, to name a few. (Puterbaugh 1988) Besides beginning the ‘British Invasion’ and bringing psychedelia to the mainstream with their albums ‘Revolver’ and ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, one of the biggest things they gave to pop culture was the music video. Due to to their incredibly high demand to appear on many tv shows, and the fact that when they performed their music was often drowned out by the loud scream from the audience, The Beatles decided decided to start making videos to accompany their music in order to fulfill their promotional obligations. Very few artists at that time would have to the power to do that, but The Beatles have enough creative control and popularity to pull it off. The first few music videos were short and cheaply made, but soon they began making full-length features that oils become iconic and synonymous with their music, such as ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Help’. Thanks to the success and critical reception of their music videos, it wasn't long before other artists, such as The Rolling Stones and The Who, followed their lead and began producing videos for their music, and by the 80s, having a music video to accompany and promote your music and image was an absolute standard. (McCormick 2015)
Not only did The Beatles change pop culture, but they also changed pop music and how it was produced. Unlike many of the pop stars if the time, The Beatles were smart and irreverent, and had a huge amount of control of their image, creative output, and promotion. They were one of few pop acts who wrote their own music, and the music was incredibly important to me, and unlike other artists, they weren't interested in producing a series of singles and then putting them in an album with low quality filler songs, they wanted to make cohesive albums that were consistent from start to finish and often had a concept or theme running through them. Their need to create sonically diverse and interesting music lead them to develop a number of recording and production techniques that had never been used by any other artist before. They won't experiment with sounds and equipment to create completely original and unique music to anything else found in the charts. Some of the techniques they developed were complicated such as using a Leslie spinning speaker to replicate the Doppler effect and give Lennon’s voice a distant, chanting sound, as heard in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, or recording at half speed to create a high, fast sound when played at normal speed or reversing guitar solos to create a dreamlike atmosphere, as heard in ‘In My Life’ and ‘I'm Only Sleeping’, respectively. However some of the techniques they invented were very simple, like literally cutting up audio tapes of carnival sounds, and randomly assembling them, as heard in ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr.Kite’, or placing a tea towel over a drum to create a controlled, unique sound which was featured in a huge amount of their work. (Vargo 2014) (Powell)
Despite his immense creativity and talent, there was another side behind his controlled public persona that we didn't often see. He was a hypocritical, aggressive and distant man who frequently displayed signs of insecurity and egotism, and was even accused of physically abusing both of his wives. He was also addicted to alcohol and drugs, including LSD and heroin, for much of his adult life. Despite his relentless efforts to paint himself as a symbol of peace and love, Lennon was anything but peaceful towards his family. He would frequently have fits of rage which would result in him abusing his family, either physically or emotionally. He was once seen screaming in his oldest son, Julien’s face saying, “I hate they way you f***ing laugh”. Lennon was absent for a majority of Julian's early childhood, and Julian has even stated that Paul McCartney was more of a father to him than Lennon was. Another example of Lennon’s distance from his family was his ability to just drop them out of his life; His first wife, Cynthia Powell, returned home from a holiday to find him with Yoko Ono, and within a year he was married to her, and after about three years he had left her to begin an 18 month affair with May Pang, during which he ignored all of Ono’s phone calls. The affair inevitably ended after Lennon finally made contact with Ono, and rekindled their relationship. While he is extremely egotistical, he also appears to be quite insecure, this is extremely evident in his almost desperate attempts to fit into different sub cultures, whether it’s dressing in leather jackets and sporting a pompadour to look like a ‘teddy boy’ or dressing like a psychedelic hipster with long hair and a beard, or his never ending attempts to show his love for peace or unity, his incessant need to change himself to fit into to an artistic persona shows that he's just not secure of happy with being simply himself. (Benjamin 2012)
A lot of these problematic traits and even his passion for music and thirst for fame and fortune can be traced back to his tumultuous childhood. Both of his parents were absent for most of his childhood, as his father, Alfred, was a merchant seaman, and his mother, Julia, was deems unfit to raise him after her sister, Mimi, complained to social services, and John entered her care. A now famous scene ensued after his father came to visit him when he was five and took him away to Liverpool with the intention of taking him to New Zealand, his mother followed him and the two ended up in a heated fight which ended with the parents forcing John to choose between them. He allegedly chose his father but then ran up the street to follow his mother, in tears, and he went 20 years without seeing his father again. At the age of 11, his mother began visiting him to teach him banjo and bought him his first guitar, beginning his relationship with music. It's very likely that became to dedicated to learning and developing his skills with music as a way to impress his mother and get attention from her, as she clearly had a love for it too. In school and in his daily life with his friends, we was known to be a delinquent, disruptive and a class clown. Paul McCartneys father was known to be disapproving of their friendship, which was understandable as Lennon would knowingly cause trouble wherever he went. In 1981 in an interview for Playboy Magazine, he was quoted saying “I did my best to disrupt every friend’s home… Partly out of envy that I didn't have this so-called home.” Clearly his need to belong is deep rooted as even in his later life we see him trying desperately to fit in to groups, as discussed before. In school he was constantly reminded by his teachers that due to his behaviour he would amount to nothing and would be unsuccessful in his life, this undoubted lit a fire under him to become a star with his music, to prove everyone wrong and show that he was more than just a delinquent. At the age of 17, his mother was hit by a car and passed away, the pin stayed with him for the rest of his life as we see in the fact that he began using primal therapy to help deal with the pain and after, in 1979, he released the song ‘Mother’ which explicitly says that he felt unwanted, and shows his yearning for a family and love. “Mother, you had me but I never had you / I wanted you, you didn't want me.” The distance between him and his parents may be the reason he found it so difficult to connect with his own children and why he found it so easy to through the people he loved away, as his parents had done to him. Clearly he was never able to overcome the pain and trauma he endured as a child, as the effects continued till the day he died, and he was forced to deal with the pain by turning to alcohol and drugs, and took the anger out on his wives. (O’Hagan 2009)
On the 8th of December 1980, Lennon was shot four times in the back as he walked into his New York apartment. His life was cut to a short forty years in that moment, but in those forty years, his creativity and talent allowed him to transcend his chaotic childhood, and shape music and pop culture forever. His infectious melodies, soulful lyrics, and witty charm have cemented him as one of the greatest pop acts to have ever lived, and his legacy lives on nearly four decades later, as each new generation discovers his music and
realises how much it influences what we listen to today.