Beatlemania

Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles from 1963 to 1966. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom in late 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By October, the British press adopted the term "Beatlemania" to describe the scenes of adulation that attended the band's concert performances. By 22 February 1964, the Beatles held both the number one and number two spots on the Billboard Hot 100, with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You", respectively. 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 between venues. 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. 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. 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. To protect themselves from their fans, the Beatles typically travelled to these concerts by armoured car. 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. 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. In 1966, John Lennon controversially remarked that the group had become "more popular than Jesus". Soon afterwards,...