The song I have chosen to write about is, “She Loves You”, sang by the Beatles.

I enjoy

this song’s authenticity with a message being told throughout the song. This song is a way to

express what a mutual friend is seeing looking at a friend’s current relationship. This song is laid

back but at the same time still very upbeat and catchy. During the live performance the audience

and the band are feeding off of each other’s energy, I feel this has a big part to do with why

concerts are so popular today. The three biggest aspects that create this song are: for one the

lyrics, next how each of the pieces of this song interact also known as the texture, with this being

what makes the song a whole. Lastly is the quality of the singer’s voice as well as the

enthusiasm that is being presented in their voices.

This song has so many pieces to it, the story is told through the perspective of someone

giving their input on how they see their friend’s relationship. Seeing this and looking in, is

sometimes easier to analyze a situation then being in it yourself. The person looking in is

begging his friend to go apologize to the woman he hurt. He is telling him that she is willing to

give him a second chance. He repeatedly sings “with a love like that, you know you should be

glad”, he does not want the guy to mess things up again. The outsider wants them to work it out,

in one-part of this song he states, “you know that can’t be bad”. This song is bringing about a

message of true love and pure intent, the guy in the relationship obviously feels bad and wants to

make things up but did not know how or when he should do it. This song is telling him to go

apologize now, before you miss your chance. The singer obviously cares about both people in

the relationship and wants them to be happy together.

All the pieces of this song interact perfectly, from the three singers to the

instrumentational background. This song uses a call and response format to guide it. “She Love

you” followed by the response of “yeah, yeah, yeah”, is a prime example that is repeated

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throughout the entirety of this song. The phrase “yeah” was looked down upon by many during

this time, however due to the need for change, band members used this phrase regardless.

Crowds enjoyed the song and how lively it was, and how different it was from popular music in

America at the time. This song draws in its audience right in the first few seconds by getting

right into the song, begging very energetic with the main chorus, and holds listeners attention

throughout all the way until the last few seconds were the song is ended with a very high note

that was not common for the time period.

The band sings most parts of this song in harmony. This song has energy behind it, it has

a positive outlook as well as a happy and fast paced feel to it. The quality fluctuates between

shouting and singing in a calmer manner. In the live version during intense portions of the song

the audience would begin shouting and this drove the band members to start shouting more so

than singing. They would tap their feet with the fast-paced rhythm, as well as shake their heads

into the microphone and dance around. This made the song livelier and more enjoyable for both

them and audience members. It allowed them and their audience to really engage in the music

and completely feel the song as well as connect to it. The three vocalists really did a good job

harmonizing with one another, this created a good quality to their voice and made the song all

the more memorable in American music history.

Many influences from Rock and Roll music in 1950 America were used to create music

during the 1960’s. Many bands including the Beatle’s used reference to many of popular groups

from the previous decade. American music companies would send music to Britain; however, it

was not popular for Britain to send America popular music. The Beatles did not become famous

right away, for a while they were not being played on a large scale. This was until the record

label company, Capitol, picked them up. They were the first group from Britain to be have

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music publicized in America, this started a time period known as the British Invasion. People

were ready for a change in music, this is part of the reason the British American Pop music

became so popular. Britain American cross over bands became very popular during this time,

and still many popular groups relate to this genre. The Beatles definitely took use of the

technological developments that were used to record music, they spent hours in the studio. They

made toning changes as well as many adjustments to change the song to just how they liked it for

the recorded version. This led to many amazing musical compositions that are still used today

by many orchestras around the world. The Beatles were a critical part of music history, and this

song “She Loves You” was famous for many reasons, the few I touched on were the meaning

behind the lyrics, the texture of the song explaining how the pieces intertwine into a whole, and

the quality and energy within their voices as they projected the song to crowds. As a matter of

fact, the audiences were so into their music that it was hard to perform live because all of the

screaming by fans which lead to The Beatles mostly recording music in the studio rather than

live performances. The Beatles have left their mark on music history and I feel this song

significantly led to that accomplishment.

In honor of the upcoming anniversary of John Lennon’s death, I am dedicating this paper to

him. He was such a very talented musician who greatly influenced popular music as we know it

today.

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 Reference

Starr, L., & Waterman, C. A. (2008). American popular music. Washington, Ohio: U.S.
Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs.

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