[ News
| Homes
| Life
| Entertainment
| History
| Science
| Community
| Shop ]
| Sport
| Culture
| Cars
| Money
| Broadband
| Learning
| Health
| Dating
| Games ]
[ Text Only: Homepage ]
[ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ]
Home | What is Hello Culture? | The grid | The interviews | Find out more | Credits
The Beatles
Probably the most influential and enduring, and certainly one of the most popular, rock groups of all time, The Beatles — and Beatlemania — changed the way that pop musicians were viewed, propelling them to superstar status. Although there had been pop icons prior to The Beatles — Elvis being a case in point — they were the first group to achieve that status.
The Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — were an oddity. Middle-class art students who came to symbolise the Liverpool working classes, their reach was extraordinary, influencing not only a generation of young people but also politicians such as Harold Wilson and a serial killer — Charles Manson. John Lennon famously, and controversially, asserted that The Beatles were 'more popular than Jesus', and although he was probably wrong, he may not have been very far wrong.
Their music went through numerous contortions, from catchy pop to psychedelia and back, but they were always about more than just the music. Although both Lennon and McCartney were hugely talented songwriters, the infighting, the drugs, the women and — tragically — Lennon's assassination meant that they hold a different place in history to the average rock 'n' roll group.
Find out more …
Beatles.com
www.thebeatles.com/top.html
Official Beatles website. Wacky with interactive features plus Beatles songs.
The Beatles Anthology by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon (Cassell, 2000) £35.
Written by The Beatles themselves and their closest confidants.
Michael Jackson 1958-
American performer
The 'King of Pop' has been performing almost since he was able to walk, and is living testimony to the dangers of child stardom, wealth and enormous celebrity.
Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana to a strict, working-class, musically talented family. By the early 1970s, he was performing with four of his brothers in a group called the Jackson 5, which, in seven years, recorded 13 albums. The Jackson 5 later became the Jacksons, but after landing the role of Scarecrow in the Broadway show, The Wiz, Michael left the group.
His solo career got off to a good start with the 1979 release of Off the Wall, produced by Quincy Jones. But nothing could have prepared the world for Thriller, the 1982 album that has, to date, sold more than 46 million copies. The video for the single was groundbreaking, and helped to seal Jackson's superstar status: his dancing and his clothes became iconic.
Thriller proved to be the peak of Jackson's popularity, however. Since then, he has become an increasingly bizarre and reclusive figure, having several bouts of plastic surgery and building a pseudo-Disneyworld at his home. Rumours of child abuse have followed him persistently.
Find out more …
Michael Jackson Internet Fan Club
www.mjifc.com/
Contains all you ever wanted to know about Jacko.
Michael Jackson by Lee Pinkerton (Omnibus, 1997) £7.99.
Looks at the life and music of the most commercially successful pop icon.
The Spice Girls
The Spice Girls — Melanie B ('Scary'), Melanie C ('Sporty'), Emma Buntion ('Baby'), Geri Haliwell ('Ginger') and Victoria Beckham ('Posh') — represent a triumph of styling over substance. Five women — none of them particularly beautiful or talented — were transformed into the greatest girl band ever through brilliant marketing combined with their own ambition and undeniable star quality.
The Spice Girls invented the term 'girl power'. However, trying to cast themselves as positive role models, they, in fact, ended up accepting names that defined them with a single characteristic — such as posh or scary — or, even worse, with the colour of their hair. Two — Melanie B and Victoria — married young and did not hesitate to dump their surnames in favour of those of their husbands.
The Spice Girls are now simply famous for being famous. After producing a string of hugely successful records and starring in their own film, about themselves, the group was reduced to four after Haliwell left. Since then, their output has tailed off somewhat, with all four women seeming to concentrate on their individual careers, as well as the important business of being celebrity wives/mothers/girlfriends/divorcees/models/actresses/whatever.
Find out more …
The Spice Girls
http://c3.vmg.co.uk/spicegirls/nowspice/
The official site includes news, interviews, competitions and spice talk.
My Year with the Spice Girls by Muff Fitzgerald (Hodder & Stoughton, 1998) £9.99.
Former press officer for Virgin Records, Muff Fitzgerald lived, worked and travelled with the Spice Girls night and day for a year. This book details their rise to fame