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John Lennon had a profound affect on American society, young to old; 1964 to present day; and his death now 20 years gone and solve still have controversies that neither his wife nor the FBI will admit. John Lennon’s music, art and writings touched the world. Lennon was placed “as the leader of a revolution in which the center of creative conscious shifted to young people”. Through this role he changed the way pop music was conceived, he made it something that mattered, could take a stand, and “insinuated rock and roll into the realm of art.” John Lennon was born on October 9th, 1940 at 6:30am in the middle of a German air strike to Alfred, a ship dishwasher, and Julia, a movie usherette turned housewife. He and his parents live on Newcastle Road in the suburban district Penny Lane with his Grandfather until his parents divorced and he was given to his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George. John went to The Liverpool Art School, where he met Cynthia Powell and formed his first band, The Quarrymen. After a performance at a church gathering, he met Paul McCartney, who soon was invited to join the band because of his able to tune guitars, which until then none of The Quarrymen could. Soon Paul convinced John that George Harrison should be in the band. When John was seventeen, he mother was hit by an off duty police officer while she crossed the street. Although John did not express his feelings towards this, he felt a connection with Paul, whose mother had also died. In 1960, the renamed Beatles were hired to play for a club in Hamburg, Germany. Here is where The Beatles got their first taste of drugs, using to stay awake during their grueling schedule of 8 hours a night, six days a week. The Beatles, with Ringo Starr replacing Pete Bass as drummer, were signed to Capitol/Parlophone Records. At about the same time they were gaining success, John’s girlfriend Cynthia got pregnant, and they were married. On April 8, 1963, Julian Lennon was born. After the legendary comment, “We’re bigger than Jesus,” the Beatles last tour was in 1966. The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, after being informed that The Beatles were not going to tour anymore, thought that he was loosing his management supremacy, overdosed on drugs later that year. In addition, in 1966, John goes to an art gallery in London and meets Yoko Ono; they are later married on March 20th, 1969. The Beatles form the Apple Corporation, a record company, hair salon, and Beatles merchandise firm, Apple Corps would later go bankrupt, only having one or two groups come out, such as Badfinger. On January 10th 1969, after having all his songs and suggestions ignored, George Harrison quits the band; he rejoins on January 15th, 1969. On April 10th, 1970, after releasing twelve albums in seven years, The Beatles breakup. John second son, Sean, is born on October 9th 1975, and John goes into seclusion to raise his son. On December 8th, 1980, John Lennon was assassinationed. In the early sixties, rock and roll music was on a decline; it in fact began to ‘flatten out’. On the Billboard charts, rock and roll was no longer the mainstream of music. It was shared with country, rhythm and blues, folk music and crooners such as Frank Sinatra. Some began to call rock and roll passé. In February 1962, the New York rock and roll radio station, WINS, played sixty-six straight hours of Frank Sinatra, as a death notice to rock and roll. “After the Kennedy assassination in November 1963, Americans were longing for something that would make them feel alive again. That something would be The Beatles.” The Beatles’ music has had a major impact on American music. They entirely changed the way music was made, and how it sounded. The Beatles brought back traditional rock and roll, but they made it their own. They were the first to use pronouns regularly in their songs, including “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please, Please Me”. This is one of the reasons for their popularity: everyone could not only sing the words but understand the words.
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