By 1965, their fanbase included listeners who traditionally shunned youth-driven pop culture, which helped bridge divisions between folk and rock enthusiasts. Initially, the fans were predominantly young adolescent females, sometimes called " teenyboppers", and their behaviour was scorned by many commentators, particularly conservatives.
Their popularity and influence expanded in various social and political arenas, while Beatlemania continued on a reduced scale from then and into the members' solo careers.īeatlemania surpassed any previous examples of fan worship in its intensity and scope. Frustrated by the restrictions of Beatlemania and unable to hear themselves play above their fans' screams, the group stopped touring and became a studio-only band. Soon afterwards, when the Beatles toured Japan, the Philippines and the US, they were entangled in mob revolt, violence, political backlash and threats of assassination. In 1966, John Lennon controversially remarked that the group had become " more popular than Jesus". Their December 1965 album Rubber Soul marked a profound change in the dynamic between fans and artists, as many Beatles fans sought to appreciate the progressive quality in the band's look, lyrics and sound. From the end of that year, the band embraced promo clips for their singles to avoid the difficulties of making personal appearances on television programmes. To protect them from their fans, the Beatles typically travelled to these concerts by armoured car. Their August 1965 concert at New York's Shea Stadium marked the first time that a large outdoor stadium was used for such a purpose, and with an audience of 55,000, set records for attendance and revenue generation. There, the band's instant popularity established their international stature, and their unprecedented domination of the national sales charts was mirrored in numerous other countries.
In February 1964, the Beatles arrived in the United States and their televised performances on The Ed Sullivan Show were viewed by approximately 73 million people.
Among the displays of deity-like worship, fans would approach the band in the belief that they possessed supernatural healing powers. Commentators likened the intensity of this adulation to a religious fervour and to a female masturbation fantasy. From the start of 1964, their world tours were characterised by the same levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans, both at concerts and during the group's travels. By October, the press adopted the term "Beatlemania" to describe the scenes of adulation that attended the band's concert performances. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles " Please Please Me", " From Me to You" and " She Loves You". Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s.
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