What can you learn from source A about the impact of the Beatles in the 1960's?

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Sahan wijeratne                                                                                   Mrs. Kowelaska

1. What can you learn from source A about the impact of the Beatles in the 1960’s?

Source is a description written in the 1990’s about the 1960’s by an actress named Joanna Lumley. The source her journey to her aunts flat in London, and what she observes along the way. We can learn from the source that the Beatles band was loved by Joanna and everyone in Britain we can tell this as she describes a hot summers evening in 1964 were instead of the usual rush hour “extraordinary silence and emptiness had descended on London, on England, on Britain”, and were she described the streets were empty “no one was to be seen by the flower stall and newspaper stand”. This is all due to the “fab four” (four Beatles) were appearing live on “Jukebox jury”. From the source we can learn that the Beatles had a huge impact, not only on Joanna Lumley but on Britain as the streets were empty and silent. We can see that the Beatles were huge success as she goes on to say “as the band performed the “the nation held its breath”, and proclaims the event by saying that “it was very heaven to be alive”. She describes the Beatles being “cool, hip, smart, lippy, charming and funny” this implies that the nation shared her views, Joanna Lumley also implies in the text that the “Nation was holding it’s breath” this gives across the impression that the Beatles were a very large and popular band for the entire nation to hold it’s breath.

However the source has weakness as she implies that London in the 1960’s was empty but this suggestion was incorrect as the whole of London was not empty on that hot summer’s day. Which shows the over exaggeration of the source. She refers her feeling to most of the British public but this is not the fact as she would not the feelings of the population of Britain she implies “everyone was excited, everyone is watching the Beatles” and says the Beatles are the most interesting people in the world, we can obviously say that not all of, London was not watching the Beatles for the fact that in 1960’s modelling was a very prestigious job and offered a lot of money so that she could buy a TV unlike the majority of England as it was mainly workers, and for the obvious fact that most of the British public was working. the source is a description written in the 1990’s which was thirty years after her experience therefore her memory would not be an accurate account to what actually happened that day. Written thirty years late she may have written this to make her life sound more interesting and therefore exaggerated minor factors, but which does not tell us the actual truth about the impact of the Beatles in the 1960’s the last opposing factor of the source is that Joanna Lumley most probably, like every other giddy teenager/adult fancied the Beatles, also as it is written thirty years late her memory may not have been what it was back then and had forgotten very important details about the impact of the Beatles . But this as known would not reflect on the rest of Britain as men and older women may not share the same opinion as it is only her opinion (one person’s opinion). So in conclusion from this source we can learn the impact of the Beatles over Britain, may have been big but due to source A’s over exaggerated description, we can say that this source is very bias in telling us what really did happen during the 1960’s.So therefore It is difficult to tell what kind of impact the Beatles have on Britain.

2. Does the evidence of source C support the evidence of source A and B about the effects of pop music in the 1960’s?

Source c supports source A up to an extent on the subject about pop music in the 1960’s. Source c is a recollection from Paul Mc Cartney in 1984 this source describes how the fans reacted around them during the sixties he describes how the fans reacted to pop music and the pop singers.

 I do not think that there is much relation to source c with sources A. I think this because source c is describing the reaction of fans towards the Beatles. In his account he describes that kids ran towards them, just for their autographs and for a chat, and then it goes onto describing how he relates to the fans himself I think this does not relate much to source c as in source A it is said the streets were empty, and that their was an extraordinary silence that had descended upon London, England, Britain. This is a extremely powerful statement to make that this craziness’ had a impact on Britain but in source c it is stated that “it was never as crazy as clearly as they say it was”. The source implies that the effect of pop music during the 1960’s had a large effect on Britain. I think that this does not relate to “a bunch of kids coming towards you”“Which could be stopped?” as if there was a 1960’s pop music did have a large effect on Britain then there would be much more than a “bunch of kids”. It can also be implied that Paul Mc Cartney had forgotten about the concert as it had been left over an amount of time before it was said. As Paul Mc Cartney is still gaining from the Beatles period he may not want to offend his fans by saying they were mad kids.

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Source B is a description of a concert of the rolling stones written by a fan in the 1990’s, the account implies that the tickets they had bought, got them to the front which allowed them to see a incident. It was analysed to the extent that he/she says “I doubt if the stones ever played near the audience again” as she/he remembers seeing the faces as they were covered by a “maniacal screaming mob”. As they were trying to exit the stage. This does not relate to that of source c as it is said that the kids ...

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