Fifty years ago, then future New Statesman editor Paul Johnson wrote a critical essay warning against the imminent “apotheosis of inanity” heralded by the success of the Beatles. The piece was the most complained about in the first half of the Statesman’s history.
Now, the Beatles are a profitable fixture of the British “culture industry” – surpassed only by Shakespeare and Harry Potter – but Johnson’s fears of a “generation enslaved by a commercial machine” still offer insight into the relationship between class, music and the direction of society.
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