Music Almanac | November 17th

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Sarah Beltran

In the 1960s, postwar youths were taking to a new and rebellious music scene. One band in particular seemed to spur a fervor — The Beatles. Their sound and look inspired young people to turn away from their parents’ previous tastes in music and other cultural phenomena.

In fact, their effect was so extreme, that on this exact day in 1963, The Headmaster of Surrey Grammar School in Guildford, England, officially made wearing The Beatle’s signature haircut, the “mop-top,” against school rules. Headmaster John Weightman specifically said, “This ridiculous style brings out the worst in boys, physically. It makes them look like morons.”

Funny enough, their rebellion continued to be so powerful that on this day in 2000, The Beatles: Revolution, a documentary about the immense influence of those so-called “mop-tops” on artists, was aired on television for the first time.