Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English 12-16-2020 The Evolution of the Lyrics of The Beatles as a Social Function within the Popular Culture Leslie King Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Recommended Citation King, Leslie, "The Evolution of the Lyrics of The Beatles as a Social Function within the Popular Culture." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2020. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/256 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE EVOLUTION OF THE LYRICS OF THE BEATLES AS A SOCIAL FUNCTION WITHIN THE POPULAR CULTURE by LESLIE THORNTON KING Under the Direction of Ashley J. Holmes, PhD ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes the rhetorical ascendance achieved by the musical group, The Beatles, during a career that propelled them from largely musical performers/entertainers to consummate and fully-fledged artists. This thesis examines two time periods in the group’s career, and then explores the elements that affected the performer-to-artist transition, focusing exclusively on the rhetoric, not the meaning of the song lyrics. A cornerstone of the research was an analytic comparison of parts of speech. INDEX WORDS: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Songwriting, Rubber Soul, Lyrics, Artistic progression, Rhetoric THE EVOLUTION OF THE LYRICS OF THE BEATLES AS A SOCIAL FUNCTION WITHIN THE POPULAR CULTURE by LESLIE THORNTON KING A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2020 Copyright by Leslie Thornton King 2020 THE EVOLUTION OF THE LYRICS OF THE BEATLES AS A SOCIAL FUNCTION WITHIN THE POPULAR CULTURE by LESLIE THORNTON KING Committee Chair: Ashley J.