BEATLEMANIA
Beatlemania
Beatlemania describes intense fan frenzy, usually by young teenage girls, towards The Beatles. During concerts, the loud and hysterical screams drowned out the band’s music as they played on stage. The intense hysteria not only occurred at concerts but at airports as well, as the band arrived and departed each city.
The fan adulation started when The Beatles made their first ever television debut from Manchester, England in 1962. It quickly spread across the country as The Beatles became famous. It wasn’t until 1963 when the record “I Want to Hold Your Hand” hit the American airwaves did beatlemania spread across the Atlantic. Interestingly, a young teenage girl viewed a short introductory documentary on The Beatles on a news program and called her local radio station requesting that they play Beatles’ songs. The DJ concurred and played “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and that was the beginning of the group’s domination of the world never before seen with any other musical artists since.
The intense fan frenzy and devout following started to decline when The Beatles endured several controversies and then broke up in the later years. One controversy occurred when John Lennon remarked that The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now”. That remark didn’t sit well with the Southern Christian churches and soon thereafter towns across the country started to burn Beatles’ records.
The Beatles’ last tour occurred in 1966 and the band permanently broke up in 1969, thus ending one of the greatest musical collaboration ever seen.