the beatles

The Beatles were the most important musical act of the 20th century- end of story.

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Greatest band of all time.

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Ceo of the Walt Williams and Lisa Malosky fan club.


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I'm not really a Beatles fan, but I've gotta give the band its respect. The single most important musical group of the 20th century is definately right.

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"And I just have to smile and say 'well, I hope so' while I'm really thinking inside how I'd like to just strangle them and take their job."

 

I'm with Vengeance, their music's not my style, but to deny their importance to the history of music is absurd.

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So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking,
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

 

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Does their "importance to the history of music" equate to "they were a great band"? I mean the dude that invented the guitar was important to the history of music, but damn, was he a great musician? Hell if I know.

As for the Beatles, it's not my kind of music and to be honest, I never have understood why they were considered good. To me the greatest influences in music were from big band, Mo-town, soul, gospel, etc.

So anyway, somebody clear up why the Beatles are considered great.

... just gimme a 5 minute head start fellas, that's all I'm askin'.

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"I'll tell you this, the older I get, the less I trust people. It's true. It's damn true." -- gr8-1 going through some growing pains.

 

Hey, some people wear brown shoes with a blue suit.

Some people paint their house purple and pink.

If you don't like the Beatles, that is just your taste in music.



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The Beatles are great, but "Beatle-esque" bands are better.

rocketfish, are you a Jellyfish fan?

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"I guess that's YOUR theory"

 

Beatles & Duke Ellington, thats good shtuff sonny!

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The Beatles music creation skills were awsome. As a person in the music biz, the Beatles were just so ahead of their time.

If they had today's equipment, wow watch out.

Sgt Pepper is such a great flowing album.

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Dod, i think that soul and gospel and motown effected pop and rap today, as the beatles did to rock. Its really hard to compare influences on different genders of music.

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I do not believe in god. And it is nice to know that I am going to hell with Hitler, and McVeigh. Although I do not know why.

 

The beatles seem much more important when you place them in historical perspective.

Go get a recording of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand.' Listen to it. Realise that this is what everything sounded like on the radio at the time.

Now go get a copy of the White Album. Listen to it. Realize that the Beatles drove this change, and while they were helped along quite a bit by everyone else, they were the leaders, everyone else followed.

The sea-change in pop music between 1963-1970 is the equivelent to the advancement from the horrific repetition of Boroque music to the wonderous atonal complexities of Bartok in seven years.

Even if you don't like them, which I completely understand, your music is better because of them if you are a fan of any type of popular music.

Also, they have more total sales than any other pop act, and when you ask a major, major act from about 1960 - 1980 what the 'most important' pop records of all time are, the almost unanimous gushing adolation for "Sgt. Peppers" will let you know that they are well thought of among their peers.

[This message has been edited by Ottomaton (edited July 15, 2001).]

 

Francis8675309 and Colby, I can understand what you guys are saying, but is there something that I hear today that would make me say "hey, the Beatles initiated that" or "they were the innovators at that" or "that's a straight rip from the Beatles"? Gimme suggestions... I want to see/hear what you guys are hearing.

For example, I can hear the funk, I can hear the background vocals, etc. influences of music from the 60's and gospel music in some of today's music.

Groups like Boyz II Men and back in the 80's New Edition were just the modern-day versions of the Temptations, the Platters, the Four Tops, etc. The harmonies, the a capella, etc. handed down from God-knows when; the barbershop quartets and do-wop groups of decades ago? But I can hear all that.

James Brown's lineage includes Michael Jackson, Prince, and MC Hammer (don't laugh, it's true dammit!). Especially after the 80's and with the introduction of MTV it became cool to be not just a musician on stage, but an entertainer with dance crews and the like. This showmanship also included the likes of Jackie Wilson and Elvis. I can see and hear all that.

Another example of this is Bob Dylan. That dude couldn't sing worth crap, but I guess his songs had meaning to them and hence the cult-like following. I listen to him and picture him at the tail end of a yo-yo trying to sing as somebody's bouncing it up and down.

I don't disagree with the fact that the Beatles had an enormous influence on rock music, but was this because of their music being great or was it because they were just something radically different from everything else going on at the time?

I don't know much about music in terms of all the terminologies and stuff, I just know what I hear.

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"I'll tell you this, the older I get, the less I trust people. It's true. It's damn true." -- gr8-1 going through some growing pains.


[This message has been edited by Dr of Dunk (edited July 15, 2001).]

 

Just a few examples:

Oasis, Robbie Williams, Julian Lennon (obviously)...and about 1000 other singers/bands try to sound just like the Beatles

 

http://beatles.com/top.html

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"For there is nothing either good or bad, thinking makes it so."
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet

 

All of the musical hits the Beatles have had, and the rage they called when they came over is enough to show that they are a great band, even if I'm not a huge fan of theirs. This is a band that is still talked about and considered great TO THIS DAY! Basically they transcend an era, and that speaks volumes.

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"Instruments are like women: After a while, you want to make love to another."

- Nicolas Godin of the musical duo Air

[This message has been edited by RocksMillenium (edited July 15, 2001).]

 

See, this is one argument I could never buy. I mean come on, New Kids on the Block, N'Sync, and Backstreet Boys cause a rage, too. Of course with a younger crowd, but still they cause a rage.

The Beatles were different from anything around that day and I can understand that leading people to believe they were innovative. They were so different, they changed the music scene completely. I can agree to that. If that's the reason why they are great, then ok, I can buy it. But I'm still trying to get their music itself as being great as opposed to being innovative.

Anywho, thanks for the opinions.

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"I'll tell you this, the older I get, the less I trust people. It's true. It's damn true." -- gr8-1 going through some growing pains.

 

Orchestra stuff - the simple single guitar and string quartet on "Yesterday", the wailing cellos in "Strawberry Field", the ginding orchestra climax in "A Day in the Life". "All You Need is Love", "Hey Jude", lots of others. First pop band that routinely used orchestras. George Martin wrote the almost all the scores.

Tape Loops - tape some odd sound and loop it throughout the song - first on "Tommorow Never Knows" in 1965, then on "Revolution 9", which was recorded by Lennon and Ono 'playing' a mixing board by fading in and out a myriad of different tape loops. "Number 9, Number 9" is a loop from some examination tape in EMI's library.

And for some little things - how about first backwards vocal in "Rain", first guitar feedback in "I Feel Fine"...

And, one of the Beatles' engineers invented ADT (Artificial Double Tracking) 'cause John got sick of singing overdubs for Revolver, and which was used for years across the industry.

 

"I didn't like the Beatles and I don't like you."

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