Popular music group. Their simple but experimental rock style, ranging from lyricism and ballads to manic tempos, became widely popular and unleashed a kind of fan hysteria, especially among teenage girls. Both in song and film, their early persona was of innocent but madcap naifs with an infectious humor, joy, and ebullience. Especially after the dissolution of the group, John Lennon added political radicalism, along with a luxurious style of Bohemianism, all cut short by his shocking murder outside his apartment in New York in 1980 by a deranged man apparently seeking a name for himself. The other primary composer and lyricist of the group, Paul McCartney, continued his musical career by expressing different values and themes.