Hansen 1 Alexander Hansen Dr.

Dietel-McLaughlin WR 13300 5 October 2012 Same Ingredients, Different Outcome: A Rhetorical Analysis of The Beatles The average British chap listens to the equivalent of over thirteen years of music in their lifetime. But how many people realize how it makes them feel? Songs are rhetorical devices used by artist to make listeners feel a certain way. The music one listens to affects their mood. Each and every song evokes a different emotional response. The Beatles are no exception. Originally from England, the British population must listen to their music. The Beatles provide some distinct and useful songs for analyzing rhetoric. The Beatles released a number of extremely successful songs, leading them on tour all over the world. They are a name in music that will live as a legacy. They have become arguably, the greatest rock and roll band in history, and their music is what got them there. In his piece Identity Management in Cyberspace, John Suler state: People choose a specific communication channel to express themselves. The Beatles chose to create songs and music as a way to share their emotions and thoughts. Over the course of time, The Beatles music began to change and the feelings produced from their music morphed with it. I Saw Her Standing There was the first track on The Beatles first album Please Please Me. It was originally released in 1963. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was released four years later in 1967 on the album Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. I Saw Her Standing There and Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds are two songs that did extremely well. Using similar instruments, and the same composers, The Beatles create two completely different sounds. Each song uses the same rhetorical techniques but creates a completely different feeling. I Saw Her Standing There moves listeners to a peppy mood, while Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds creates a spacey

Hansen 2 feeling. Analyzing the two songs side by side highlights the differences in The Beatles music, while showcasing the similar techniques and origins but differing in the feelings they produce. James Herrick defines a rhetorical device as that which meets most of the five criteria in his paper An Overview of Rhetoric. First he says rhetoric must be planned regardless of the goal at which it aims, rhetorical discourse involves forethought or planning (8). Songs are written and planned according to their lyrics, melodies, and instruments, and no song is ever written and then immediately completed. Songs start with lyrics or a beat, and then progress to a full song. They are revised and changed until perfection. Crafting so many chart-topping songs, The Beatles evidently planned their songs to become what they are now. Herricks second requirement to a rhetorical device is that it must be adapted to an audience, or planned with some audience in mind (8). The Beatles targeted a specific audience with their lyrical content, and melodies. Originally the youth of England was targeted but it was soon expanded to include the youth of the United States and the whole world. Their songs werent randomly written; each song correlates to their target audience. The four members of the band wrote songs their direct fan base would enjoy. Lloyd F. Bitzer argues in his publication The Rhetorical Situation, that: Since rhetorical discourse produces change by influencing the decision and action or persons who function as mediators of change, it follows that rhetoric always requires an audience-even in those cases when a person engages himself or ideal mind as audience (7-8). The Beatles fan base is necessary in understanding their art as rhetorical. Fans all over the world were affected by their work, and many reacted in very similar ways. Next the rhetorical device must be shaped by human motives: Rhetoric often seeks other goals, such as aesthetic appreciation or of language or clarity of expression (12). Songs in general are made to be pleasant and enjoyable so they will be listened to. If a song isnt enjoyed nobody would want to listen to it. The Beatles works

Hansen 3 were obviously aesthetically pleasing shown by their extreme success and legacy. Herrick then says rhetoric must be responsive. He says: Rhetorical discourse typically is a response either to a situation or to a previous rhetorical statement (11). The Beatles music was written for and about the pop culture of the time. They were written to keep up with current events and about trends and issues of the period. Finally, according to Herrick, rhetoric must be persuasive seeking: Rhetorical discourse is usually intended to influence an audience to accept and ide, and then act in a manner consistent with that idea (12). Whether listeners realize it or not, songs make people feel a certain way. Songs can change moods from sad to happy; they can pump up for a work out or a game. Songs can help you calm down after a long, stressful day. The design and layout of a song decides the outcome of how the song affects its listeners. Songs meet the definition as rhetorical devices in all the categories easily. The Beatles songs are no exception. Their music surely is rhetorical and affects listeners as such. The place to start analyzing these two songs begins with the melodies. I Saw Her Standing There immediately starts with a fast paced, peppy tempo. The rhythm and melody promote an urge to dance or clap to the beat. The way the song uses its fast beats and happy sounds provoke a smile out of the listeners. I Saw Her Standing There has music that dances around the listener; it urges them to get up and dance to the beat. It is a classic love song from the 60s. The fast pace of the music chases negativity out of the listeners. Even without the lyrics the compilation of instruments is enough to produce a natural, healthy happiness. Listening to I Saw Her Standing There, listeners will subconsciously find their feet tapping to the beat or their head bobbing to it. The part of the song where the melody and beat change, before returning back to the standard melody, is called the bridge. Even the bridge creates an atmosphere of

Hansen 4 dancing and light hearted fun. The melody enhances the lyrical story of love. Listeners can feel a love story as the band plays their tune. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds uses a completely different melody. As the song starts the listener hears a soft, almost celestial tune. It almost makes the listener dizzy. The slower song doesnt promote a dance or clapping to the beat, or even nodding the head. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds encourages a different physical reaction; at most it promotes swaying to the music. It makes the listener feel as if the music is a slow, lazy breeze blowing peacefully about them. It sounds like the twangs of the music twirl around the listeners. An atmosphere of wonder, mystery, and confusion is thus created. However when the music changes to the chorus a new feeling is produced. The listener feels a more similar feeling as in I Saw Her Standing There, a happy sound. While I Saw Her Standing There has an excited, love happiness Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds maintains a skeptical, mellow happiness. The seamless transition from chorus to verses reinforces the twanging confusion of the verses. Even during the chorus, where the melody changes, the same undertones of the verses remain, reminding the listeners of their eerie presence. Some speculate that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was written about a drug trip on LSD. The songs first letters of the main words spell out LSD. Listening to the music, it is probable that the music responds to the feelings Ringo, the vocalist, felt during his trip. Whatever the inspiration, confusion surrounds the emotions of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. After the melodies, the instruments and the sounds they make must also be analyzed. Each instrument and the way its played can produce a different resulting feeling. In I Saw Her Standing There the guitar carries the song. The fast strumming adds to the feeling of bliss. The beat on the drums has a high energy pitter patter with the addition of the tambourine and a nice kick on the bass drum produces the atmosphere of dance club from the classic rock era. While

Hansen 5 the guitar carries the song, the song seems to ride on the bass guitar. The pluck on the deeper sounding bass allows the listener to feel the music in their body rather than just their ears. With the well-orchestrated combination of the procession, guitar, and bass guitar, listeners have no choice but to feel happy about the love song they are listening to. However the most effective instruments used are the vocals. Paul McCartney, the lead vocalist in I Saw Her Standing There, pushes his voice in a pseudo labored, deep voice that caused his female fans to swoon over him on any song, but especially his romantic love songs like I Saw Her Standing There. The correlation of the different instruments adds and reinforces the light-hearted love feeling the song produces. Almost all the instruments in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds are the same as its preceding songs. However as The Beatles as a band progressed as a band, and as they were affected by drugs and media, their sounds started to change. The guitar in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds still is the main focus of the melody. However it is played out of a special amplifier that warps the sound to create an almost cosmic confusion. The guitar stops sounding like a guitar and begins to sound like a sitar. It has a more stringy sound. It makes the song spin around and be hard to pin down. The tambourine and drums section of the music has the same confusion affect. As with I Saw Her Standing There vocals contains the most persuasive aspect. Ringo is the lead vocalist over Paul in this song. This allowed Paul to play the piano. The sounds produced form the piano almost sound like an organ and transport the listener to a feeling of being in outer space, surrounded by an eerie, but not freighting unknown. At other times the piano creates sounds as if there was a horn instrument, confusing the listener. It becomes unclear what instruments are actually being played and what instruments are just being warped into other sounds. Ringos vocals are quite different than Pauls. The vocals seem removed from the track,

Hansen 6 like an echo from a distance, again adding to the confusion that probably was LSD. The warping of the instrumental sounds transports the listeners emotions to a confusion of ecstasy. Lyrics of songs provide the more powerful way of analyzing a song. They capture exactly what the song is trying to say. With a lyrical song, the words unarguably add the most to the emotional response of its listeners. I Saw Her Standing There tells the classic and clich love at first sight story. In the first verse the girls age is used to describe her beauty: Well she was just seventeen/ You know what I mean. That line makes the listeners return to when they were that age, staring at their own love interest. The Beatles play into their listeners previous experience. The songs lyrics make listeners recall the bliss they had when they were seventeen with their first love. It tells the story of the two characters falling in love while dancing and holding hands. These images are standard images that youthful girls dream about having a guy do with them. Its a classic girl fantasy. The song makes girls feel the same way they do when they were younger, day-dreaming about their first crush. Men feel the same thing, when they remember their experiences with first love. Both genders feel the blissfulness when they hear I Saw Her Standing There because of the feelings of young love the song recalls. The Beatles artfully crafted this song, making their audiences swoon over them from the emotional response their music drew from the crowd. Love captures all sorts of happiness, and I Saw Her Standing There brings out those same feelings because of the story told in the lyrics. The lyrics in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds differ entirely from The Beatles earlier love songs. Each verse describes an extremely different world than the actual earth. With descriptions like marmalade skies, Rocking horse people, and looking glass ties the listener is immediately confused by what the song is trying to describe. These are completely unfamiliar images. Listeners have no experience to rely on; they have no way of experiencing

Hansen 7 these things before listening to the song. The descriptions used help the listeners form an idea of what is going on, but the story does not make sense. Although the lyrics contain extremely descriptive images, confusion is the only emotional response to the song. As the song progresses to the chorus, the melodies change and so to the lyrics. The lyrics repeat the same nonsense phrase: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. In fact, the entire song is filled with nonsense phrases. Listeners who try to understand the song will only be struck with confusion. The recurring image, aside from the chorus phrases, only adds to the confusion. The girl with kaleidoscope eyes appears in the first and last verses, but listeners never learn anything about her except the appearance of her eyes. That only leads to questions about what is going on and why she is here. The journey listeners take adds to the list of questions. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds leaves the listeners confused and baffled. The effects of drugs and time are seen as the band started to write more music. They moved from classic love songs to confusing trippy songs in a matter of four years. Critics could say many things about I Saw Her Standing There. They could say the meaning is deeper than just what the lyrics state. Even if it is, that does not mean the song does not put people in a good mood. It does not mean the song does not make people want to dance. The light hearted melodies, peppy instruments, and romantic lyrics lead to an optimistic feeling. The song demands a positive response and receives it. Die hard Beatles fans would argue that the analysis of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is incorrect, because only a true fan can grasp the deeper meaning The Beatles put into that song. However the way the song affects the average listener is not the same as a completely committed fan. The average listener hears nonsense and confusion, and reacts accordingly. Another person might argue about the influence of drugs, and say it is nonexistent. Well even if it is nonexistent,

Hansen 8 the song provides imagery and feelings to produce an environment that resembles all studies for hallucinations. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds promotes a state of confusion no matter how it is analyzed. Songs are rhetorical devices. They command listeners to feel or react to them in a certain way. Even though The Beatles used the same sort of instruments and the same people to compose their music, their songs prompt a completely different reaction. I Saw Her Standing There gives a happy air to the room, while Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds spins it into a state of confusion. These two songs are similar only in their composition, but their rhetorical responses are only different.

Hansen 9 Works Cited The Beatles. I Saw Her Standing There. Please Please Me. EMI Studios, 1963. CD. The Beatles. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. EMI Studios, 1967, CD. Bitzer, Lloyd F. "The Rhetorical Situation." The Rhetorical Situation 1.1 (1968): 1-14.JSTOR. Web. 24 Sept. 2011. <http://http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp>. Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Beacon, 2001. Print. Suler, John R. "Psychology of Cyberspace - Identity Management in Cyberspace."Psychology of Cyberspace - Identity Management in Cyberspace. N.p., Apr. 1996. Web. 05 Oct. 2012. <http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html>. "How Much Music Will You Listen To?" Sonicstate. Sonic State, 19 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2012/04/19/how-long/>.

Hansen 10 Figure 1: Lyrics to I Saw Her Standing There and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds I Saw Her Standing There Well, she was just seventeen, You know what I mean, And the way she looked was way beyond compare. So how could I dance with another, (Ooh) And I saw her standing there. Well she looked at me, and I, I could see, That before too long I'd fall in love with her. She wouldn't dance with another, (Ooh) And I saw her standing there. Well, my heart went "boom", When I crossed that room, And I held her hand in mine... Whoa, we danced through the night, And we held each other tight, And before too long I fell in love with her. Now I'll never dance with another, (Ooh) Since I saw her standing there. Well, my heart went "boom", When I crossed that room, And I held her hand in mine... Whoa, we danced through the night, And we held each other tight, And before too long I fell in love with her. Now I'll never dance with another, (Ooh) Since I saw her standing there. Ooh Since I saw her standing there. Yeah well, Since I saw her standing there. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes. Cellophane flowers of yellow and green, Towering over your head. Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes, And she's gone. Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Ahh... Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies, Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers, That grow so incredibly high. Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, Waiting to take you away. Climb in the back with your head in the clouds, And you're gone. Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Ahh... Picture yourself on a train in a station, With plasticine porters with looking glass ties, Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle, The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes. Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Ahh... Lyrics from: LyricFreak.com