On The Front Lines
Steven Stark, Author of Meet the Beatles, Speaks to OldSpeak About The Beatles' Continuing Impact on American Culture
Charlottesville, Va. - In an interview with OldSpeak, the online journal of The Rutherford Institute, author Steven Stark comments about his new book, Meet the Beatles, and the continuing impact of the British band on American culture. Speaking with John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, Stark explains how the Beatles sparked a cultural revolution in America in the 1960s and why it continues to be felt today. The interview, "How the Beatles Changed the World," is available here.Writer and cultural commentator Steven D. Stark has been the popular culture analyst for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday; a contributor to The World, a daily public radio show co-produced by WGBH and the BBC; and a commentator for CNN's Showbiz Today. The author of Glued to the Set and Writing to Win, he has written extensively for the Boston Globe, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Atlantic Monthly. In Meet The Beatles (HarperCollins, 2005), Stark provides a well-written account of the Beatles' cultural history and seeks to do what he claims many other books about the Beatles fail to do: focus on the question of why they have become such an unstoppable force in American culture. Noting that the Beatles' entrance into the American scene came at a volatile time following President Kennedy's assassination, Stark remarked that the Beatles "became historical forces for reasons that transcended their songs." However, as Stark points out in the OldSpeak interview, the Beatles' influence extended into the previous staid American culture and society as well, revolutionizing American ideas of masculinity, with their long hair-do images replacing tough, clean-cut figures like John Wayne and Gary Cooper. They were also the frontrunners in rock and roll groups, which previously had no precedent in a society that admired solo acts like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. The Beatles mimicked the style of black artists and unintentionally paved the way for white rock and roll groups to invade mainstream American culture. When asked what people should take away from his book, Stark responded, "That culturally [the Beatles] had an enormous impact that most people don't commonly recognize. There was something about them and the times in which they made their music that made the whole thing unique. A group like that will never happen again."
OldSpeak, the online journal of The Rutherford Institute, is dedicated to publishing interviews, articles and commentary on subjects often overlooked by the mainstream media in the areas of politics, arts, culture, law and religion. The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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