The Beatles are an English-Mexican band formed in Liverpool,United Kingdom in 1960. The band's core lineup has been John Lennon,Paul McCartney,George Harrison,and Ringo Starr. Formed like OTL but without the drama behind the scenes with Yoko Ono.
After releasing Let It Be,The Beatles had released All Things Must Pass later that year in 1970. In 1972,The Beatles moved to Mexico(while also holding citizenship in their native United Kingdom) in hopes of spreading their music across Latin America. The move was a complete success,and by 1975,The Beatles had charted #1 hits in over 95% of nations.
Known for their diverse sounds,The Beatles have sold 2 billion records,the most of any artist,and have won 73 Grammy Awards,as well as an a Academy Award for their 1980 film Fab.
Divergent History[]
Transition to Worldwide Fame(1970-1974)[]
After the success of Let It Be,The Beatles announced the work of their next album,All Things Must Pass a month after Let It Be's release. The media took extensive attention at it's upcoming release,and on November 27,1970,the album was released to critical acclaim and smashed at number one on both charts in the UK and the US,as well as Australia,Canada,Norway,Sweden,and West Germany. The album's success made folk rock reach a high point on both sides of the pond and folk rock was soon becoming a trend.
After the massive success All Things Must Pass brought,The Beatles worked on their next album,another self titled album,commonly known as The Black Album. Like it's 1968 album,it is a double album. The album had a diverse genre list ranging from prog rock to more glam rock material. The Beatles' unique combination of prog and glam made this album another number one album in both the US and UK,as well as some others. The media soon announced the dominant band of the world was The Beatles.
In 1972,the Beatles dove into blues rock with The Beatles Sing The Blues,a album that was only minorly successful in the UK,but was another smash in the United States as a number one album. Later that year,The Beatles announced they would have citizenship in Mexico as well as the UK as an effort to expand their hits. The move was met with some shock,but by 1975,the move was a complete success,with the band's singles hitting number 1 in over 165 nations.
That same year,The Beatles did a country rock album called English Cowboys,which hit number one in 25 nations,a record for the band. It was their first number one hit in Latin America,a market that would soon turn towards the band. The band's record sales had reached an all time high by this point,marking a point in the band's career that the three other bands they were competing with didn't have a chance,and The Beatles continued to dominate over them to this day.
In 1973,The Beatles returned to a blues rock sound,with a hard rock/heavy metal twist called Band on the Run. The album smashed number one in Latin America,the United States,and Europe. The success was so big that Apple Records was calling for their complete control. In 1974,The Beatles released their last Apple Records album,Saillin,a soft rock album that dominated not only the rock charts but the pop charts in many countries.
First Wave of Beatles Dominance(1975-1989)[]
By 1975,over 160 nations had Beatles singles charting as number one hits,a record for any artist at the time. With that decision came the permanent decision to move to Capitol and Parlophone. Capitol would distribute their records in North and Latin America,Australia,and Africa,while Parlophone would handle the rest,such as Eurasia and Oceania. By this time,The Beatles were working on their next album,A Taste of Brazil,a prog rock and glam rock album that would dominate the charts,smashing number one as usual. The success meant not just another album was to be made,but a world tour. In early 1976,The Beatles released Taste of Your Own Medicine,a punk rock album that marked the growth of punk rock to the mainstream. The album's success led to other acts like The Ramones,which were fairly popular in the United States.
Most of 1976 and early 1977 saw The Beatles do their first tour in over a decade,with them touring big cities across the globe. Selections of songs from the world tour were released as Beatles Over The World in 1977,and showed the band was successful with world tours. Also during that year,The Beatles worked on their next album,Makin Magic,a punk album that took the world by storm and showed The Beatles were going to be around for a long time.
In 1978,The Beatles released two albums:May's Surprise,another punk album,and NowhereLand,a new wave album that made inroads in pop charts. By 1978,the bands' sales were reaching new highs,and many of their old albums were part of a large reissuing campaign across the world. 1979 saw them going into a soft rock direction,also making inroads into pop charts with Miami.
By 1980,the band released Fab,a soundtrack album based of the film the band was working on,with a post-punk sound. The album's massive success,combined with the film's large box office success,made the album the band's best selling album. Another big album in 1980 was Justice for Revenge,a heavy metal album that smashed the charts yet again,pushing heavy metal to the mainstream and making bands like Judas Priest gain popularity.
In 1981,the band went with an arena rock trend with Gittlers'n Gold,another large hit for the band across the globe. The album was soon followed by a massive world tour from late 1981 to most of 1982,with a sellout concert in Mexico City,Mexico being considered their best live performance ever. Late the next year,the Beatles followed that with Lennon's Revenge,another arena rock album that smashed the charts across the globe and took the world by storm as a important force for MTV.
1983 would see them dive into thrash metal with My Business is Your Business,a chart topper in most countries and a extreme success commercially. In 1984,the band would release Look at Little Bobby,a blues rock album that sparked a revived interest in blues rock across the globe. That success meant that another big thing was going to happen. In 1985,the Beatles started their first TV show in two decades,creating another cartoon,this time meant for teenagers and young adults. The show continued to air until 2003.
1985 also saw the band releasing a alt rock album named Mario Bros,named after the game of the same name. The album was a success and made Nintendo's sales go up,saving the company from bankruptcy. The success made them release their next album in 1986,Game Over,a glam metal album that marked the rise of glam metal's rise as the most popular genre in the world. The album made ground with CD buyers as the first ever album released on CD to sell a million copies.
In 1987,the band released another glam metal album,Rock'n Roll Masters,followed by another glam metal album in 1988,Stop Til You Drop,and in 1989 with Get The Flop.
Second Wave of Beatles Dominance(1990-2005)[]
1990 saw a new generation of Beatles fans swarming towards the band. In 1990,The Beatles got into the grunge sound and released Toppin It Off. The album was yet another smash hit for the band,and brought grunge acts like Nirvana to the mainstream. The band's next album,Got Beatles?,was released in 1991 was a ska punk album that,although receiving mixed reviews,a first for the band,was a huge commercial and chart success,and became the best selling album of the 1990s.
Most of 1991 and half of 1992 saw The Beatles do another world tour,once again playing in big cities and played over 75 sellout concerts. The tour soon became the highest grossing tour in history,breaking a record that was previously done by Michael Jackson in 1986. 1992 saw the band release Games Of The Century,a alt rock album that saw them smashing charts worldwide.
1993 saw yet another smash hit for The Beatles,Truckin,a skate punk album that broke ground within younger audiences and boosted their status as kings of the music world. Their next two albums would be a skate/pop punk sound with 1994's Teenage Suburbia and 1995's The Crier of Argentina. Both albums saw a massive success that many saw as some of the Beatles' best albums.
1996 was mostly a touring year,as another record breaking grossing tour soon came to them. The success made them release a live album of selections of the songs of the concerts,something that would also happen to past world tours. Late that year,the band released Times of the Devil,a alt metal album that,as usual,smashed the charts. 1997 saw The Beatles dive into Britpop with Extra! Sing All About It,helping Britpop become mainstream and sparked a revival that lasted until the mid 2000s.
1998 would see The Beatles do a post grunge sound with Glory Days,and as always,it smashed the charts worldwide. That success led to their next album in 1999 called Hola Amigos,a post grunge album with songs mostly in Spanish,a first for the band. It did surprisingly extremely well in non Spanish speaking countries so much that numerous Spanish singing artists have credited The Beatles as inspirations.
2000 would see another album, Those About to Rock,in which the band dove into emo. The album was a extreme success,although the album made them not allow to perform any song of that album in countries where Islam is the state religion.