It Was 50 Years Ago Today When The Beatles Dismantled Music

To this day, I find the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” to be the most magical creation. Today, as we’re celebrating…

To this day, I find the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” to be the most magical creation. Today, as we’re celebrating 50 years since its release, I want to think about it, talk about it. But the first thing that comes to mind is — the Beatles had actually dismantled music by releasing this album!

Up until the release of Sgt. Pepper’s, everyone was dividing music into neat little categories. Classical music on this side, folk music on that side, ethnic music over there, pop music over here, and so on. But the Beatles were the first act to mix all music into one kaleidoscopic bag. And we now call that bag “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

OK, But How’s That A Dismantling?

While it is true that no other artist had managed to combine all those disparate genres in a single place, it is still not clear why would that be a negative thing? Before Sgt. Pepper’s, various artists have flirted with one or more different genres. A little bit of rhythm & blues mixed with a little bit of classical European music. Or, a little bit of rock & roll mixed with a little bit of Brazilian music. And so on.

The Beatles were true pioneers. They threw rock, pop, classical Indian, classical European, Medieval European etc. music on a single pile. They did it with wild abandon. But by doing that, they also reached the very limits of music. The only way for them to resolve such impasse, is to reach for the leading edge European avant-garde music. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s start from the beginning…

First they open the album in traditional marching band style. A band of musicians warming up for the concert they will play in the park. They tease their audience, and project the reassuring self-effacing imagery. Something like “I’ll try not to sing out of key”. I’ll do my best, but I’m not guaranteeing the results.

Cute. And so safe, so reassuring. But the next thing you know, the band opens the Pandora’s box right in front of our eyes. Oops! Hallucinations start flooding our perception, as we’re picturing ourselves in various unusual situations. We see Lucy floating in the sky with diamonds. Hmm, that’s kind of strange. The entire soundscape is doused in drones. It’s the Indian classical music added for a dose of extra psychedelic vibe.

The Indian drone continues on the next track. It combines the biting, driving rock & roll with airy fairy raga-like dreaminess. Next thing we hear is the atmosphere changes from Indian rock to European Baroque harpsichord. Then onto the European classical string quartet. And on and on…

The roller coaster of such wild variety continues throughout this album. Everyone reading this is already intimately familiar with the material, so we won’t dwell on it here. The punch line is that, after all this hodge-podge, they finally launch into the closing track. “A Day in the Life” is the Beatles crowning achievement. It is their closing statement. And for their closing statement, they chose to combine bluesy ballad with the avant-garde European experiment.

It is this avant-garde element of the closing track that signals the dismantling of music. After a chaotic, dramatic symphony orchestra crescendo, the crushing piano chord sounds like the ultimate ending. The dust settles, and we’re left with a creepy, mocking clownish gibberish that plays on endless loop. That’s it, folks, the end of music as we know it! Total dismantling.

Now, European avant-garde classical music is a total and irrevocable deconstruction of music. So why then the claim that it was the Beatles who dismantled and deconstructed music? The Beatles came after the grand European experiment in destroying musical standards and norms. But the main point is that the avant-garde experiment was a narrow niche, while the Beatles were mainstream. You cannot possibly go more mainstream than the Beatles. And they used their mainstream clout to push the music to its ultimate edge.

Aftermath

In the aftermath, the Beatles started flailing. Their attempts to continue in the Pepper-like psychedelic vein were lukewarm at best. The continuation of the dream-like Lucy landscape produced nonsensical “I Am the Walrus”. Another absolute dead-end.

After quickly abandoning unproductive attempts at psychedelic soundscape, the Beatles had only one option left — back to the roots. They regrouped to record the massive, epic and sprawling double album. The material recorded on there was sparse, ironic, claustrophobic and biting. Seeing how the magic of their music cannot be resuscitated, they hammered the last nail into the coffin — “Revolution 9”.

After “Revolution 9”, music was definitely dead. The only thing remaining for the leaders in the music world was to dismantle instrumental music the same way the Beatles had dismantled vocal music. That role fell on another musical genius — Miles Davis. Miles took the hint from Sgt. Pepper’s and went into a total and massive destruction of instrumental music. Much to the chagrin of fans and critics, Miles spent the ensuing 7 years mercilessly dismantling instrumental music. His final nail in the coffin was “Agharta”, a double album he recorded in 1975 in Japan. After that, Miles disappeared from the scene, and the music business started its unstoppable downward slide.

Today, we see music as a largely nostalgic phenomenon, with countless and endless reissues, remasters, and other custodial projects. Little or no vitality remains in the music business. It’s been dead for 50 years now.