The Beatles

Tomryan: a few observations: how many times do you hear the Beatles on classic rock radio stations, virtually zero;how many times do you hear them on oldies stations, only the very early stuff;how many times would you expect to hear them on college or classical music stations absolutely zero. If they truly transcend all other musical artists of this era, then why are they not played more often. My children look back on the era and to them it is all throwaway music, boomer music they like to call it. "It's nice Mom but have you heard....." anything to irritate the crap out of me. Hey isn't that the very definition of rock and roll, anything musical that irritates the parents gotta be rockroll music. So in the end did the Beatles irritate your parents or did they embrace them, my parents thought they were cute, that ended it for me. Classic rock stations play Led Zeppelin...over..and...over...over(and my parents still hate them), does that mean Led Zeppelin transcends the Beatles at least rock and rollwise.ha ha ha

Well, how many times do you hear a Beatles influence in current pop music - constantly. A CD of their 27 (!!) #1 hits that's selling in the Britney / NSync range. They still have a huge sales appeal and are extremely influential in music being produced today - transcending all other musical artists of this era would be a strong statement, but hardly dismissable.

You're irritated by everything musical your kids like and define rock and roll as "anything musical that irritates the parents" - hmmmm, sounds like a nice objective starting point for evaluating the merits of the genre. For somebody who has such a distaste for it, I'm wondering why you spend as much time as you apparently do listening to or researching the playlists of Classic Rock radio stations - who, pray tell, still listens to FM at all regularly, much less a classic rock station? To hold up their playlists as evidence of the significance of a band's contributions is just irrelevant.

KThomas, it was a joke both about poor ol' Led Zep and about the radio stations. Still NOBODY has explained how they transcended everybody else. If my joke on radio stations is invalid then your take on selling agillion albums is also invalid because the only people that bought the album are aging boomers. My kids and their friends,who are a very perceptive lot I might add, don't give a damn one way or another. It's only oldtimers' music. As far as influence is concerned, in the 80s and 90s ,(besides TV commercials) who did they possibly influence: Madonna? Prince? M.Jackson? InSync? B.Spears? But did they influence REM? or Nirvana? U2? Since everybody likes to pontificate, tell me what specifically makes them transcend everybody else and influence others. Maybe I don't understand because I live in a different musical universe than you. Hell in some other musical universes' Hank Williams Sr is god who transcends over everything.

Shubertmaniac - Actually, I agree that selling a jillion albums has nothing to do with their influence and, to a large extent, significance. I only brought it up since your line of reasoning seemed to be centered on measures of popularity.

Who did they influence in the '80's and '90's? Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Crowded House, Fountains of Wayne, Moxy Fruvous, Oasis, Charlatans UK. These are just bands that come immediately to mind that I listen to often.

I'm not personally arguing that the Beatles transcend the ages, mainly because I'm not enough of a student of music history to say that with any authority. But their influence, success and skill are all but inarguable. Go read the entry on them on All-Music Guide (www.allmusic.com) - they quite eloquently explain how the Beatles transcended everybody else.

I have a 14 year old daughter and I'm very aware that the Beatles hold no particular interest to her or her friends. Again, though, aren't we back to talking about popularity issues as opposed to significance or skill?

I think it's quite possible that you don't understand based on being in a different musical universe than I and many others. Your example of Hank Williams Sr. is a good example - he's definitely not in my musical universe - there are clearly many to exist in and very few people can be in very many at once.

KThomas..we are both right...our musical universes are (and those that crucfied me) are just totally different. I guess I am now satisfied. Enough from me for awhile.