Creativity, Competition and Team Work: The Beatles: Creativity, Competition and Team Work: The Beatles


Theory and Research: Theory and Research Basic tenet of economics – competition delivers creativity and innovation Study of Girls aged 7-11 making paper collages - Competition and extrinsic motivation are detrimental to creativity. (Amabile and Brandeis,1982) Extrinsic goals led to Children losing interest in an activity (Lepper, Green and Nisbett,1973) People are most creative when they are intrinsically motivated, ie: interested in the task itself. External rewards and competition distract from the ‘joy of doing’.


Theory and Research: Theory and Research Abra(1993) criticized research of children and students performing simplified tasks. In the real world, hard-nosed activities bring a creative work to the fruition. Talented youngsters must learn to handle intimidating experiences. Creative work involves many motivations. Studies have simplified motivations. By focusing on one-off creative events, early studies ignore the learning process that occurs over time. Herbert Simon(1988) - Prerequisite of creativity is being an expert; implies a significant process of learning.


Theory and Research: Theory and Research We should stop studying creativity as a one-off event. Research individual case histories, and processes leading to creative output (Gruber 1980,1988). But, case studies are limited by the material available on certain artists and artist’s own interpretations might be biased. The Beatles were well documented throughout their career - provides interesting insight into the creative process.


The Environment: The Environment Why the 1960’s? 1950s - Britain recovering from WWII. By 1960’s, market could support innovation in the domestic recording industry. Why Liverpool? Port of Liverpool received ships bringing US cotton. Ships also brought blues and country and western records. Biggest site for US forces was at RAF Burtonwood, north-east of Liverpool. US servicemen brought their favourite records, exposing locals to US music (Martin 1994:41). People living in Liverpool had a stronger exposure to American music than in other parts of Britain.


Early Mediocrity: Early Mediocrity Rejected by all the major companies, indicating just how mediocre the Beatles were at the time. Finally, someone suggested they try Parlophone, an EMI comedy label: ‘Good Lord’, thought Brian, ‘I've really hit the bottom now’ The label was managed by George Martin. He also was not impressed by their demo-tape. Nevertheless, he was struck by their charisma and felt there was something there.


Early Mediocrity: Early Mediocrity Early compositions showed no sign of genius. They could not fill an album with compositions. Six of the songs on their first album were covers of American songs. Their second album With the Beatles also needed six cover songs . George Martin: 'When I first met them, they really couldn't write a decent song. ‘Love me do’ was the best they could give me, yet did they blossom as songwriters in a way that was breath taking'.


Gradual Continuous Improvement: Gradual Continuous Improvement John Lennon and Paul McCartney wanted to develop their song writing. Constantly looking at what others were doing and trying to better it - their music slowly became more sophisticated. From Me to You included a change from a major to a minor key for the first time. She Loves You - lyrics progressed from being about first person relationships to third person. Yesterday - departed from rock n roll line up, using a string quartet and single acoustic guitar.


Gradual Continuous Improvement: Gradual Continuous Improvement Lyrics moved to broader emotional and philosophical issues. John, 1962 asked Please Please Me, In 1964 asked Please, Please Help Me (troughs of depression). Norwegian Wood George Harrison introduced the sitar. 'Once the break out had occurred, this process of continual experimentation and change, of musical and technical innovation, continued at top speed...'. By the album Revolver, the intricate nature of the songs was such that it was not possible to perform their latest material live.


Competition and Innovation: Competition and Innovation Process of 'continuous improvement' driven by artistic curiosity and desire to improve. An essential component was the nature of John and Paul’s relationship. John Lennon describes: 'There was a little competition between Paul and me as to who got the A side, who got the hit singles. If you notice, in the early days the majority of the singles – in the movies and everything – were mine'. George Martin says this competition was at the core of their working relationship. It… 'was that element of competition, and the competition was the essential thing that made them work so well'.


Competition and Innovation: Competition and Innovation Paul McCartney explains how this rivalry affected their creative output: 'He’d write ‘Strawberry Fields’. I’d go away and write ‘Penny Lane’. If I’d write ‘I'm Down’, he’d go away and write something similar to that... you know, to compete with each other. But it wasn't..... It was very friendly competition because we were both going to share in the rewards anyway. But, it was real, it was this (Paul with his hands indicates gradually progressive steps). It really helped step... so we were getting better and better and better all the time'.


Shared Rewards: Shared Rewards Shared rewards - if one of them wrote an excellent song, the Beatles as a group performed it. Second - composition accreditation was shared by both of the songwriters. (Lennon/McCartney) Video bite: competition/ringo/producer


External Competition: External Competition Creative rivalry came from outside the group - the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys - lively harmonies portraying fun and the beach life. George Martin defines it as a: 'curious Transatlantic slugging match, a rivalry conducted by means of song-writing and recording genius'.


External Competition: External Competition Beatles single I Want To Hold Your Hand released in USA, sold 500,000 copies in less than a week, Easily dwarfed previous sales record set by Beach Boys’ Surfing USA. Beach Boys next single Fun, Fun, Fun could not climb higher than five on charts - first four spots were Beatles songs. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys felt intimidated by this new competition... I was depressed, really low.... There was just one way to get over that depression. I had to create a new song. I had to look beyond what I had already done, beyond the horizon, and find something new and better than anything I'd done before.


Beach Boys Fight Back: Beach Boys Fight Back The Beach Boys responded with I Get Around and Help me Rhonda which both went to number 1. In most music polls, the Beach Boys were neck and neck with the Beatles as the world's most popular group.


Inspiring Competition: Inspiring Competition The next Beatles album (Rubber Soul) severely knocked Wilson: That album is just blowing my mind... They put only great stuff on the album. That's what I want to do.' He went away saying 'I'm going to make the greatest album! The greatest rock album ever made!'


Beach Boys Fight Back: Beach Boys Fight Back The result was Pet Sounds which pushed pop music in new directions.


External Competition: External Competition The Beatles were left in total admiration of Brian Wilson. George Martin describes how Pet Sounds inspired them: 'Wilson’s contrapuntal writing on Pet Sounds.... enthused them and fired up their (Beatles) own song writing. Their own harmonies started to get more complicated: the voices started to ‘answer’ one another. ‘She's leaving home’ is a two part contrapuntal piece, John's and Paul's, interweave and compliment one another (and are in turn pointed up by the strings). The Beach Boys, until Pepper at least, were more skilled at doing this kind of thing than John, Paul, George and Ringo. ‘God only knows’, track eight on the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album, really made the Beatles sit up and take notice of the opposition.'


Inspiring Competition: Inspiring Competition The Beatles analysed the album Pet Sounds in depth. Paul McCartney notes: 'To me, the single biggest influence on Sergeant Pepper was the Beach Boys record Pet Sounds and I think Brian Wilson was a great genius..... It's actually very clever just, on any level. If you approach it from a writers point of view, it's very cleverly written. The harmonic structures… from an arrangers point of view, the kind of instruments… It's the instruments he uses and the way he places them against each other. It's very cleverly done. It's a really clever album. So we were inspired by you know, and nicked a few ideas'.


Inspiring Competition: Inspiring Competition Brian Wilson had beaten the Beatles, but he didn't stop there. Good Vibrations went to number 1 around the world. Within a few weeks, the Beach Boys topped the New Musical Express reader’s poll as the most popular group in England, one place ahead of the Beatles. On hearing Pet Sounds, the Beatles asked George Martin 'could we do as well as that?' He responded 'No. We can do better'.


Inspiring Competition: Inspiring Competition The Beatles response was Sergeant Pepper, an album that redefined the possibilities of pop music and sound recording. It marked the final victory for the Beatles.


Reasons For The Beatles Win: Reasons For The Beatles Win The Beatles were a team - Two top composers assisting and raising each other’s standards. George Martin brought their images to life. classically trained, could write scores for orchestral instruments. an interest in electronic sounds. background recording comedy in which he had to create atmosphere and 'sound pictures'. Brian Wilson was the Beach Boys' sole composer, arranger and producer. No internal creative rivalry or interchange of ideas or experiences. Wilson had to fight to get his progressive ideas accepted. The rest of the group wanted songs that reflected the old Beach Boys ‘fun in the sun’ formula.


Theory: The Working Team and Creativity: Theory: The Working Team and Creativity The cohesiveness of a workgroup determines the degree individuals feel they can introduce new ideas without personal censure (Rogers, 1954) . The Beach Boys did not welcome Brian Wilson’s innovations whereas the Beatles encouraged each other to innovate. The Beatles had high quality team member exchange (TMX) identified by Sears(1989); mutual trust and respect contribute to co-operation and collaboration. 'part of the secret collaboration was that we liked each other. We liked singing at each other'. (Paul MacCartney) There appears to be no ‘holding back’. They were aware that sharing ideas helped develop and bring them to fruition.


Theory: The Working Team and Creativity: Theory: The Working Team and Creativity Teams work best when they comprise people with different expertise and creative thinking styles (Amabile, 1998). John Lennon describes his contribution to the song Michelle: I wrote the middle eight of Michelle one of Paul’s songs…. He walked in and hummed the first few bars, with the words and he says 'Where do I go from here?’ I had been listening to Nina Simone – I think it was ‘I put a spell on You’. There was line in it that went: ‘I love you, I love you, I love you. That’s what made me think of the middle eight……. My contribution to Paul’s song was to add a little bluesy edge to them. Otherwise ‘Michelle’ is a straight ballad. He provided a lightness, an optimism while I would always go for sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes. NB: The Beatles relationship was not static – it changed over time.


Three major components of creativity (Amabile: 1997) : Three major components of creativity (Amabile: 1997) Expertise - George Martin - expertise in music and technology; - The Liverpool boys - Rock n’ Roll (In time, boys gained more expertise). Creative Thinking - Take new perspectives and risks with little concern for social approval. On many occasions, on being told how something was done, they would deliberately do it differently. Naturally curious, George Martin states: 'The Beatles were always looking for new sounds, always looking to a new horizon and it was a continual and happy strain to try and provide new things for them. They were always waiting to try new instruments even when they didn’t know much about them' Intrinsic motivation - Had internal passion but extrinsic motivations also a key part including fame, ‘to be bigger than Elvis’, and position in the charts. Video: Indian Music/Beach Boys


Three organizational components (Amabile: 1997) : Three organizational components (Amabile: 1997) The Organizational motivation to innovate - EMI would accommodate new ideas while it continued to generate success. Resources - Few artists would be allowed the 6 months in a recording studio that the Beatles took for Sgt Pepper. The normal period was 3 weeks. Management Practices. Nothing in literature suggests this was a major contributor to their creativity except for level of freedom allowed. Consistent with Amabile… 'People will be more creative … if you give them freedom to decide how to climb a particular mountain. You needn’t let them choose which mountain to climb. In fact, clearly specified goals often enhance people’s creativity.'


Negative Aspects to Creative Freedom : Negative Aspects to Creative Freedom During later albums, George Martin felt there was less mental discipline. White Album songs left him overwhelmed by their number but under-whelmed by their quality. George Martin’s explanation - The large number of songs helped to complete their contract with EMI. Incentives that stress quantity not quality will result in output of high numbers but questionable quality.


Creativity as a Process: Creativity as a Process Competition in two forms - not unique in world of arts. The internal competition which shows that competition and cooperation can be extrinsically entwined. The external competition with no cooperative ties. A process of gradual continuous improvement. The competitive process intensifies the incentive to improve. It raises the benchmark of what is required to be the best or most successful. The combination of competition, complimentary skills and thinking styles resulted in successful team dynamics.


Creativity as a Process: Creativity as a Process Companies that rejected them are seen as stupid, but the Beatles were not that good. Even George Martin had no idea of what was to unfold. Their Success - a process of mutually reinforcing personalities and talents that created continual improvement (developed after they were signed). Suggests creative geniuses are not born. They are made. If another company signed them and gave them a producer with different personality and talents, that process might not have been released. If the Beatles had reformed in 1970’s, the context and processes would have changed, - their individual offerings, curiosity and motivations.


Implications and Further Research: Implications and Further Research Rewards stressing quantity lead to prolific creation Rewards stressing improvement lead to innovative creation The extent that teams buttress against (any?) negative effects of competition. Period of team building to creat a functioning team? Shared rewards can lead to free-rider behaviour and resentment, but all parties contributed, due to the nature of their relationship or their intrinsic motivation.