[ricrox]

Hi, everyone. I'm a lifelong music lover and record collector. I found this site while researching a book I'm writing about music and pop culture. The idea for the book began with a simple question: why do the Beatles continue to top lists of the "Best Band Ever", and the Sgt. Peppers album rank as the "best album" on so many lists?

I hope to be able to discuss this question with members here, while also sharing my faves and learning about your faves. Just so you know, my favorite band is Polvo.

[sp4cetiger]

As a lifelong Beatles fan and music history buff, that question certainly interests me as well (though I'm not sure I have a good answer). Welcome!

[benpaco]

Hey! It'll be interesting to see your stay here, you author type are always fun (never actually met any on this time, just always befriended em on any other sites). My answer to that is somewhat simple: The Beatles are the greatest band ever because when going through the roots of music, it's almost impossible not to hit them. If you just trace back, yes, you go back past the Beatles, they didn't start anything. But nearly EVERYONE eventually links back to "influenced by the Beatles". As to Sgt Peppers, it was an early attempt at a concept album and had such a wide range of music that all worked together. The White Album and Exile on Mainstream are similar in these ways, but really Sgt Peppers came first: you compare it to other albums, where it's almost all the same genre with maybe a ballad or two thrown in, at the time that was pretty new and different. Pair that with the fact that it remains one of the world's best selling albums, and you get a list topper.
Which isn't to say that the Beatles are the best band (though they are my favorite) or that Sgt Pepper's is their best album (to me, their best is White Album and my favorite is Rubber Soul), that's just always the reasoning my brain's used.
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. . . 2016 . . . 2015 . . .

"While I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to Earth" - Frightened Rabbit

[Guest]

[Patman360]

Welcome to the site!

Also what lethal said.
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2023
2022

[ricrox]

Thanks for the replies, and thank you for welcoming me to the site.

Just so you know where "I'm coming from" musically, I will start by being upfront and saying that I don't particularly like the Beatles, although I certainly don't hate them. I recognize their place in music history and that they've had some influence on later generations (although the breadth of their actual musical influence is highly debatable. I feel that Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones and the early psychedelic bands like Pink Floyd, have had far greater influence on rock music.)

There has been a lot of music made since the Beatles were around. A lot of it has not been influenced by them. Their influence mainly lies in a particular melodic style that can be heard in all kinds of bands ranging from ELO to Cheap Trick to The Shins and beyond. But there is a big wide world of music that exists: progressive rock, jazz rock, funk, industrial, hip hop, trip hop, punk, goth, etc etc... I don't believe you can ultimately state that "everyone has been influenced by the Beatles."

One thing I hear some people say is, "Without the Beatles, music would not exist as we know it today." The more I research this, the more I have come to the conclusion that, actually, without the Beatles music would probably not be much different than it is now.

What I've discovered so far is that opinions, preferences and what people actually listen to and enjoy, is often very different from what professional critics deem as "the greatest" or most important work.

[sp4cetiger]

[meccalecca]

This should get rather interesting. I'm intrigued. I grew up on The Beatles, and can't imagine my life without them. But I would agree that the influence would have come from somewhere else. I think Elvis is a similar case. There's a great majority that give him far more credit than deserved, saying he was the start of rock & roll. He didn't write the songs, and was simply just a great performer.

i don't think anything can be simplified down to 1. American bands from the same time such as The Beach Boys, Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, Everly Brothers were all arguably just as influential as the Beatles.

The Beatles just did everything in the public eye. Maybe the way they changed music is by how much larger their fanbase was, and how important they were to an entire generation.

[sp4cetiger]

[meccalecca]