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.