Revolver
From my personal observation, The Beatles have always changed their style and concepts with every album they’ve produced. “Revolver” is one the most innovative albums and one that started a new trend in sound recording, world elements and instrumentation, and sound effects. Times were changing fast in the 70’s coming from the cookie cutter teenybopper crush songs to the free bird flower child and philosophical music styles. The Beatles always managed to follow the trends but also be the leaders in trend-settings.
“Revolver”, considered to be the sister of their previous album “Rubber Soul”, was influenced by the use of LSD and protruded a lot of the psychedelic sounds you hear in the songs. In addition, The Beatles were head to head with another band that was also experimenting in the same way in non-conventional hobbies and musical dynamics: The Beach Boys. Both bands were in constant swaying, feeding that innovative musical energy back and forth and were influenced by each other.
The Beatles had many tricks in the recording of “Revolver”, one being the use of a loudspeaker as a mic placed in front of the bass sending a currant to beef up the bass guitar. Double track recording was also used by recording vocals along with a prerecorded version of the same vocals. They’re greatest instrument, however, was the use of they’re studio where they spend most of their time recording and writing.
When I was a child, I had a tape recorder that I used to create remixes of songs that I admired. I knew nothing of The Beatles. Growing up and learning about these techniques makes me feel like I belong. The whole point to most of humanity is wanting and knowing that you belong. Belonging somewhere, and to something. The Beatles definitely pushed the boundaries in sound engineering and whether it stopped there for them with “Revolver” or whether they flourished into something grander, The Beatles helped set the standards of today’s music and styles. The use of world instruments and orchestration has brought people from all around the world together. Together we share The Beatles.
Music History 