Early readers of this blog might remember that I teased talking about The Beatles quite frequently. Here I'm talking about The Beatles!... no wait, it's Badfinger! Well, maybe here I'll talk about The Beatles... no wait, Cream! CREAM! Of course, the surprise is ruined if you read the title of the blog entry... but let's not waste time on the details. Now that I'm coming up on my one-year anniversary (in about three months or so), I thought I'd spare some time to talk about them
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The Beatles are awesome.
Yeah, if you were expecting a counterculture, hipster, naysaying opinion, you've come to the wrong place. I love The Beatles. I think they were fantastic artists, and Sgt. Pepper is one of my favourite albums of all time.
But... all that said, are they a little overrated?
Well, let's look at the facts: not only are The Beatles remembered for their catchy pop rock tunes and their innovative album statements, they're also remembered for being one of the most influential bands in rock's history. That's a huge order to fill. So, how influential were they, really? Let's take a look.
Rolling Stone editor Robert Greenfield has compared The Beatles to Picasso, saying that "in the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive..." which is all well and good for a Rolling Stone editor to say, but how does their influence translate into pop music today?
Well, during the early 60's, many people were getting tired of acts like Fabian and Frankie Avalon, et cetera et cetera. The Mods, a youth subculture of the time in Great Britain, were highly influential in propelling the British Invasion to its popularity. Many British Invasion bands had a following among mods (The Rolling Stones, The Kinks), and some even had rhythm and blues elements specifically tailored for mod culture (The Who). But The Beatles were the ones that combined mod culture and pop music, therefore becoming the most successful of the bunch.
And even today, they set a high standard for success. They are still the best-selling band in music history, selling between 600 million and 1 billion records worldwide. They are still the only ones to hold all top 5 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 in one week. They still have the most number-one hits on the Hot 100, with twenty. Truly, their popularity at the time suggests that they must have been influential on pop music.
And indeed they were. Taking counterculture ideals and mixing them in with catchy tunes was nothing short of a brilliant idea, and the reason for The Beatles' success and legacy. They're not my personal favourite band in the world, but it's impossible not to respect them for their smarts and their talents that send them to the top of many people's lists when considering the greatest bands of all time. Bottom Line: The Beatles are fookin' awesome. Thanks for reading.
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