THEY BROUGHT INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC TO A MAINSTREAM AUDIENCE.

THEY INSPIRED INTERNATIONAL “BEATLEMANIA

Fan reactions to Beatles concerts became so frenetic that they gave rise to a phenomenon dubbed ‘Beatlemania’ by the press. By 1963, and still without a full-length LP to their name, the Beatles were regularly stealing the show from the more mature acts they toured with. Before long, the hysterical shouting – particularly from their female fans – grew so loud that they drowned out the songs themselves. The constant racket frustrated the band members, who gave no more live performances after 1966


The Beatles became interested in Indian culture in the mid-1960s; Harrison learned to play the sitar, and later that decade the group studied transcendental meditation in the Himalayas. Many of the Beatles’ later albums mixed elements of Indian classical music with psychedelic rock, folk, or classical music. Harrison contributed sitar to ‘Norwegian Wood’ (Rubber Soul, 1965) and ‘Within You Without You’ (Sgt. Pepper, 1967). Yet surely the best example of this musical fusion can be heard on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ (Revolver, 1966), which was inspired by teachings of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.