Abstract
This chapter in Paul McCartney and His Creative Practice: The Beatles and Beyond uses the systems model of creativity as an analytical framework to explore Paul McCartney’s development as a musician, a singer and instrumentalist. McCartney’s acquisition of the knowledge of how to play different musical styles such as jazz, pop, blues, rock and roll and much more is shown to be a complex, but nonetheless rational and highly explicable process. Also illustrated in this chapter is McCartney’s interactions with the various musical fields he encountered and the operatives who were working within them who helped shape his musical endeavours. His immersion in the cultures and traditions of various domains of musical knowledge which also contributed to his development as a musician are also examined in relation to how they contributed to his characteristic style of playing the electric bass, his role as both a lead and backing vocalist, and his later performances on drums and guitar. This development didn’t occur in a linear fashion, rather different aspects of McCartney’s musical development happened as he engaged with different musical traditions, the symbol systems that existed there, the concepts and ideas being explored within different musical situations, and the social and cultural contexts he operated in as a musician.
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Notes
- 1.
For more information see: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatles-childhood-homes#Overview.
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McIntyre, P., Thompson, P. (2021). Paul McCartney as a Performing Musician. In: Paul McCartney and His Creative Practice. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79100-1_2
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