Are the Beatles the reason why modern music exists

Over 300,000 million albums sold worldwide, ok so there not as big universally as the Beatles. Mabey if they would have made singles, appeared on Ed Sullivan, talked to the press, made songs like Love,Love Me Do & Yellow Submarine there influence would have been bigger. The list of Bands and Musicians that were influenced by them goes on forever! I could have named another 20 bands on my hate list besides Motley Crue, Mettalica, and Ozzy that were greatly influenced by Zeppelin those were just the one's I had to listen to the most growing up. The Beatles would appear on my most overated list though I must say! I will apoligize ahead of time for offending anyone with my last comment.

While the Beatles were a very popular band, in my opinion they were not responsible for any great shift in music theory or in what you might call rock theory. They wrote a lot of good music that is still enjoyed today and without them we would be out oh so many clever allusions. But if they hadn't given us those jokes and tunes to listen to, someone else would have. If what you're suggesting is that without them the whole course of music would have changed, I don't know if I agree. While Chaos Theory does come into play, it also does with every butterfly who flaps its wings and every single one of us. And farbeit from me to credit myself with any major shift in human history.

My point is, if you want to give someone credit with why modern music exists, give it to the first dude who started banging some rocks together or hitting a tree with a stick and nodding his head to it. Or perhaps you could credit birds and other animals which provide nature's own melody and the inspiration for many early pieces of music :P But if that guy hadn't started banging those rocks or sticks together, someone else would have, maybe not to the same beat, but it would've been close enough for jazz. Same with the Beatles.

The Beatles were great and a lot of bands list them as an influence. But that's also true of the Pixies and many other bands, but nobody's praying to them for musical guidance. Let's let the Beatles religion go and let these fine men rest in peace.

Let me say up front that these thoughts are my opinion and I really don't want to get into a pi**ing contest with anybody so flamers look elsewhere.

To really understand the impact of the Beatles it helps immensely to have lived through it. There was a ton of social unrest, the Vietnam War, civil rights, cold war et.al and the Beatles timing was, IMO, greater than their music of which I am a huge fan. No apologies offered for that. The Beatles offered an alternative to troubled times and problems. Especially to us younger (at that time) folks who knew something special was going on. The Beatles were huge and commanded a lot of attention. Once the "love song" (Help!) era ended they began (with Rubber Soul) to release albums with strong social commentary and everybody paid attention; kids, parents, teachers, media, artists, politicians, etc.

Are they responsible for the existence of modern music? Of course not. However, the influences from which they drew (and most of them have been mentioned here) inspiration coupled with an unbridled enthusiasm (and heavy medication at times) broke down many barriers for other performers both literally and figuratively.

To me the litmus test of greatness is longevity. Bach, Mozart, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Bob Dylan, etc. Will the Beatles pass the test of time? Probably but it's much too early to definitively say yes.
Have they greatly influenced rock music? Absolutely. However, even without the Beatles rock music most certainly would would have evolved into something interesting. Youth must be served.

Goo Goo G'Joob

I wasn't dismissing Zeppelin indeed Zep are arguably my favourite band I've been listening to them since I was 14.
Oh and the only country they didn't release singles in was the UK.

They are massively influential but not as universally influential as The Beatles.

The Beatles simply entered into both mainstream, artistic and popular culture in a way that NO band has managed.
Their influence actually goes beyond music into an almost iconic realm-you might not like them musically but to deny that is folly.

That's not to say that the basic premise of this thread is correct; I state above where I stand on that.

good take audiofeil, great band for sure but not even close to the reason Modern Music is what it is, sure they have peices in the puzzle, but so do the artists who inspired them, it is a huge circle and alot of bands and artists have a spin on it.