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© 2016 Apple Corps Limited - All Rights Reserved. Photo: Courtesy of Apple Corps.
Influencing
Yesterday & Today
The Beatles’ legacy stretches beyond great music.
“I’ve spent my whole career in a way
trying to recapture in things that I write
the hilarity of [these] four friends.…
The Beatles were kind
of the dream
“The Beatles gave me this
idea that everybody
was welcome.
of how you might be with your friends
If you weren’t the hippest kid in
the neighborhood, it didn’t matter
because you could be a Beatles’ fan,
as you went through life.”
and I liked that.”
—Richard Curtis, writer and director
—Whoopi Goldberg, actress
“Let me explain to you the type of
feeling that you get after thirteen
performances watching The Beatles in
action and watching the crowds. It’s a
chilling feeling inside because you know
you are experiencing
a phenomenon....”
—Larry Kane, broadcast journalist
reporting on The Beatles’ 1964 U.S. tour
All quotes from The Beatles: Eight Days a Week—The Touring Years documentary.
Influencing
Yesterday & Today
SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Photo: Courtesy of Apple Corps.
About This Program
These lessons will help students explore the influence
The Beatles had on society during a period when
significant historic and cultural events took place, such as
JFK’s assassination, the civil rights movement, the rise of
the teenager, and more. The program complements the
new documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week—The
Touring Years, which explores the band’s rise to fame and
what life was like for these pop icons. Through lessons
and videos, students will discover the power of the band
as a musical and social force.
Each lesson includes supporting videos and
handouts, which can be found at scholastic.com
/thebeatles. Look for this symbol for these free
online resources, as well as a list of skills that support
learning standards for these lessons.
Read the quotes on
the poster to get
students started.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Middle and high school students. Lessons and supplemental videos
may include mature language and content. We recommend that teachers view all lessons
and multimedia before sharing them with students.
Presented by
TEACH ROCK is a free online educational resource presented by Steven Van Zandt’s
Rock and Roll Forever Foundation. Check out teachrock.org for the full
program, which includes numerous lessons, videos, and images that can be used
to teach social studies, language arts, and history through music. You will also find
additional lessons about The Beatles’ working years before success hit, the power
of The Beatles’ image, their retreat to the recording studio, and the team behind
the band. Sign up for emails from Teach Rock for lesson updates!
PARTNERS
© 2016 Apple Corps Limited - All Rights Reserved.
LESSON 1
The Beatles and
American Segregation
OVERVIEW In this lesson, students learn about
The Beatles’ active stance against segregation and
consider what the band’s example meant for an
emerging youth culture.
BACKGROUND The members of The Beatles grew
up in Liverpool in the north of England. From the time
the band formed, they were students of African-American
music, such as American Rhythm and Blues, Southern Soul,
Motown, and more. The “covers” (songs not written but
recorded by The Beatles) included on their early records
were largely songs made famous by African-American
artists. Likely because of this respect for African-American
music and their opposition to segregation, when The
Beatles toured America their contracts stated explicitly
that they would not perform for segregated audiences. For
those who saw the group as nothing more than a “teen
phenomenon,” it was a lesson in how artists can stand up
for their beliefs and help to change the world they live in.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION How did The Beatles take
a stand against segregation while touring America?
Come Together: The
Beatles refused to play to
segregated audiences.
And what did it mean for what was to come in popular
music culture and American society?
PRE-LESSON ACTIVITY Be sure students understand
the basic concepts of race relations in American life in
the early 1960s. Have students research and discuss the
following questions in class: What is segregation? What
were Jim Crow laws? What was the Civil Rights Act of
1964? When Jim Crow laws were ruled unconstitutional
and the Civil Rights Act was put into place, were changes
immediate? What was the state of race relations in 1964?
ACTIVITY
1
Ask students if they have ever heard of
Beatlemania. Write their responses on the
board. Show the clip from Eight Days a Week that captures
The Beatles on their first American tour. Ask students:
a) H
ow did the fans feel about The Beatles during
Beatlemania?
b) D
id this kind of celebrity give The Beatles a unique
social power? If so, what could they do with it?
Photo: Courtesy of Apple Corps.
2
Play the clip from Eight Days a Week in
which Paul McCartney discusses The Beatles’
feelings about segregation. Discuss:
a) What was the situation The Beatles faced in relation
to their September 1964 appearance in Florida?
b) What was The Beatles’ position on segregation?
c) What significance did The Beatles’ actions have in
relation to the civil rights movement in America?
(Note: the Civil Rights Act was passed in July 1964.)
3
Explain to students that while The Beatles are
considered among the 20th century’s most
important composers, they also played “covers,” their
own versions of other people’s songs. Give students
the handout with the chart that shows the covers
associated with African-American artists. Ask students:
a) H
ow do you think playing “black music” affected the
group’s feelings about African-Americans?
b) What do you think The Beatles’ respect for AfricanAmerican music might have meant to a young fan at
the time?
4
Play the clip of Dr. Kitty Oliver, an author and
historian, describing her experience as a
young African-American Beatles fan in the American
South. Ask students:
a) What do you think The Beatles represented to
Dr. Oliver when she was a girl?
b) H
ow do you think The Beatles’ stance against
segregation affected Dr. Oliver’s view of the pop
act’s unique power?
5
Play the clip of The Beatles on The Ed
Sullivan Show, including Whoopi Goldberg’s
recollection in which she describes The Beatles as
“colorless … everybody was welcome.” Ask students:
a) How would you describe the impact Beatlemania
had on America?
b) What have you learned about the power of pop music?
LESSON 2
The Beatles, Teen Culture, and
the Birth of the “Rock Band”
OVERVIEW In this lesson, students learn about the
effect of The Beatles on their teenage audience, particularly
in relation to the group’s image as a “rock band.”
BACKGROUND The “teenager” was a concept that
changed the character of American life in the years
following WWII. Years earlier, many people entered
the workforce at a young age, but postwar prosperity
increased teenage leisure time and spending. The
teenagers of the 1950s and 1960s experienced a new
independence. When The Beatles “arrived” in America,
particularly through their launch on television’s The Ed
Sullivan Show, young people saw something new: a pop
act that didn’t seem like a distant, almost unreal entity,
as Elvis Presley had been. Now they saw a group, a
gang that seemed more like peers. The Beatles’ image
allowed the band members’ distinct personalities to
emerge just as much as it created a sense of the group
as one. It appealed to young people, many of whom
wanted to form their own such groups. It was a moment
Check 1, 2: The Beatles
recording their first
album, Please Please Me
of empowerment for teenagers. The Beatles were
funny, smart, approachable, and capable of doing great
things, particularly as a group. Following the
Ed Sullivan performance, rock bands began to pop up
everywhere across the country.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION How did The Beatles’ image
as a “rock band” affect young people in America?
PRE-LESSON ACTIVITY Introduce the rise of the
teenager through the teenager timeline handout and the
Life article found at scholastic.com/thebeatles.
ACTIVITY
1
Ask students to define what a “teenager” is. Write
their responses on the board, discussing how they
define and identify teenagers. Review the handout from
Life magazine about the 1950s teenager. Ask students:
a) In what way does this article consider the “teenager”
a phenomenon?
b) Is a “teenager” simply an age category? (Explain that
before WWII the primary categories were “child” and
“adult,” with no significant category in between.)
Photo: Courtesy of Apple Corps.
2
Show the clip from Eight Days a Week that
captures The Beatles and their teenage fans
during the group’s first American tour. Then ask students:
a) How would you describe The Beatles’ young fans?
b) How are The Beatles like or unlike their fans?
c) Do the fans seem to have a favorite Beatle?
d) How is the group’s image different from the image of
Elvis Presley? (Image available online. Help students to
see that Elvis is alone, without an instrument, dressed
in clothes that set him apart from everyday life.)
3
Play a montage of clips from Eight Days a
Week in which various individuals describe
what The Beatles meant to young people in the
mid-1960s. Ask students:
a) What did The Beatles represent that was important to
their fans?
b) W
hy do you think young people needed The Beatles?
c) W
hy was it important that The Beatles were a group?
4
Ask students what was going on in the United
States just prior to The Beatles’ performance
on Ed Sullivan in 1964. Follow this by playing the clip
that describes the American temperament in the wake of
John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Ask students:
a) Do you think young people were looking for an image
of a small community that was separate from the
parent generation? Why or why not?
b) If the 1960s marked the beginning of a “generation
gap,” how would events such as JFK’s assassination
and race riots cause young people to pull away from
the worlds of their parents to find something new,
such as The Beatles’ “rock band” image?
5
Ask students whether there is something or
someone in their own lives or the current teenage
generation that is a model for them. Ask students:
Do teens today have a Beatles of their own? Or do you
have a Beatles of your own? If so, why do teens/you
need this model?