The extent to which Beetle mania took the nation is insane. The reading refers to it as a "pop explosion", affecting everyone in the country. No artist since has had that kind of influence on the culture, and with so much available through the Internet it is unlikely to happen again. The Beetles affected the clothing, the music, and the attitude of their audience. They weren't just a group but a phenomenon. Still today it is hard to go a week without hearing a song by them at the mall, in a film, or on a commercial. At the time the world was running on their schedule, the Sgt. Pepper release shows that. No one could play the music ahead of anyone else, less they be basically blacklisted by the record company. The Beetles had so unified the youth of the generation that as they fragmented, so too did the youth culture. Though that would have happened anyway, the disbanding of the bad certainly sped up the process.

I was not raised on the Beetles. I was aware of them and knew some their songs but my family were never fans. For me that changed when I saw Across the Universe. The film was so surreal and insane that I instantly fell in love. My adolescent self couldn't "get" the Beetles before that, but the sequences of the movie opened me up to them. Within the movie is a wonderful examination of the youth of the time, how they struggled through the changes as the 60s gave way to the 70s. The sequence I have linked to is one of my favorites from the film. It best shows the historical and turbulent story that the movie was trying to tell. The musical number here gives a look at the draft with an infusion of drug culture and some of the sexual revolution the 60s are known for today. Julie Taymor's use of The Beetles' songs to create a coherent story was very impressive. The use of their music in the film gave it the feeling of the 60s. This movie, to me, proves that the Beetles defined the 60s in a way no other musical act can.