The Beatles -- Overrated?

[Senusret I]

What am I missing?

Don't get me wrong, I love rock and roll -- David Bowie is one of my favorite musicians of all time, as is Lenny Kravitz.

But I feel like I'm just missing something when it comes to the Beatles....they don't sound all that great to me.



Is this a cultural thing, like Elvis?

[lovelyivy84]

Originally posted by Senusret I
What am I missing?

Don't get me wrong, I love rock and roll -- David Bowie is one of my favorite musicians of all time, as is Lenny Kravitz.

But I feel like I'm just missing something when it comes to the Beatles....they don't sound all that great to me.



Is this a cultural thing, like Elvis?

I don't know what to say to this.

I don't see how you could listen to Sgt. Pepper or The White Album or Hey Jude or With The Beatles or heck any of it and not 'get' it.

Especially if you like Lenny Kravitz. He is basically Beatles/Stones redux.

have you given it a chance?

[Senusret I]

Of course I've given it a chance, I own one of the double CD's with all the greatest hits. It's decent. But I have heard better singers.

[lovelyivy84]

Originally posted by Senusret I
Of course I've given it a chance, I own one of the double CD's with all the greatest hits. It's decent. But I have heard better singers.

The greatest hits cds are good, but it's actually probably a better idea to start with individual albums. The albums really are narratives in the best sense, they tell a full story. Listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely hearts Club band the album is a different experience from listening to Sgt Pepper, then I Wanna Hold Your Hand, then Rocky Raccoon, then Michelle, etc. The greatest hits albums are more for people who already own everything but want a mix tape of their favorites.

You should borrow an album.

I don't know how to tell you to get their music. Like with any other music if you don't then you don't. You can't really argue someone else into liking what you like.

For me, appreciating the Beatles isn't something I learned to do, it's something I've always done. We didn't listen to them in my house as a child, I heard them more when I was a teen and automatically fell in love with all of it.

For my money they are still the best band in the world 30 years after breaking up (and some of them dying).

[midwesterngirl]

Please go out tonight and buy The White Album and Revolver.The production is flawless and songwriting doesn't get much better than it does on these.Even after all these years,these are two of the best of the whole genre.There truly is nothing like them.(Also while you are there buy Dark Side of the Moon but that is another thread)

[33girl]

Definitely don't listen to the greatest hits albums - they are all the songs you've heard for so long you take them for granted. Revolver is their best album - listen to it straight through. Trust me (and midwesterngirl).

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by Senusret I



Is this a cultural thing, like Elvis?

I think so!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

My .02

I don't think that it is a cultural thing as much as it is an age thing. Picture the world specifically the US in 1964 when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. President Kennedy was just assassinated. The baby boomers were teenagers and looking for a voice. Along comes the Beatles which was perfect timing. They were young, cute, British, and rock stars. Teenagers went wild. Those teens are now in their 50s, and the Beatles defined their adolescence. I think that explains Beatlemania. Maybe someone who remembers the 1960s could comment.

In terms of music, I think that the Beatles are brilliant. Lennon & McCartney are still considered one of the best music writing pairs ever. Their talent developed throughout the 1960s to create some of the most beautiful songs ever written. Individually they were great, too. George Harrison wrote "Something" which Frank Sinatra called the greatest love song of the 20th Century. Musically, they were innovative and distinct. It might be difficult to hear that in 2004, but picture them in the context of the 1960s.

I grew up hearing, knowing, and singing Beatles songs when I was a girl after they had broken up. I "discovered" the Beatles on my own after John Lennon was assassinated in 1980. I still listen to them. I agree with midwesterngirl, 33girl, and lovelyivy. Listen to their albums, not the greatest hits. They tell a story. It really is art. I was in the car the other day, and the Beatles come on. I just thought that the music sounds very pretty.

[lovelyivy84]

Originally posted by AKA2D '91
I think so!

I think it is a cultural thing in some sense.

When I was a kid I grew up listening to my Mom's music- which was anything from Mighty Sparrow to The Supremes (my Mom was a Diana Ross FANATIC).

The Beatles were not in her collection. She liked them, she had listened to them when she was young, but it wasn't HER music. I was exposed to them mostly through the school I attended (where everyone and their parents loved them) and in the media.

So I think they are a huge part of mainstream culture, but not part of the cultural landscape for most blacks.

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by lovelyivy84
I think it is a cultural thing in some sense.

When I was a kid I grew up listening to my Mom's music- which was anything from Mighty Sparrow to The Supremes (my Mom was a Diana Ross FANATIC).

The Beatles were not in her collection. She liked them, she had listened to them when she was young, but it wasn't HER music. I was exposed to them mostly through the school I attended (where everyone and their parents loved them) and in the media.

So I think they are a huge part of mainstream culture, but not part of the cultural landscape for most blacks.

Many "rock" artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (I love their 1960s and 1970s output) aren't part of our cultural landscape if we pretty much stay within our own communities. But I got thrust out of my own community at an early age, so I was exposed to this type of music, as well as through the media. I was thrust out back in 1971 because I was a mentally gifted minor and my elementary school in a neighborhood of color in Kollyfornia didn't have MGM/GATE programs back then.