McCartney Times

From the invention of music recording in the late 19th century through the early 1960s, most artists, producers and listeners conceived of a record as a musical “photograph.” The recording studio provided a means to capture a brief performance, preserving the moment of a live performance so that others could experience it later. For instance, in 1963 when The Beatles entered Abbey Road Studios with producer George Martin to begin work on their debut album Please Please Me, they quickly replicated a selection of songs culled from their nightly setlist, creating a record that closely resembled their nightclub act. Those who couldn’t see the group’s performance could now buy a recording of it. As The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr explains in Soundbreaking Episode Two, “The first album only took us 12 hours. We all knew those songs so well because that was our live show. We were just in there doing the gig.”

Source: The Beatles: Multitracking and the 1960s Counterculture | Lesson Plan | Soundbreaking | The Arts | Lesson Plan | PBS LearningMedia