So here's the thing about the Beatles: calling them better than other artists totally misses the point. It's not that they were so amazing, really (though they have some solid albums and a number of great songs). What's interesting about the Beatles is their massive influence on music. It's important to remember that there were far fewer genres back then, and rock was barely getting started, so the Beatles defined, almost by themselves, what rock was (and what rock bands were)--and by extension, they helped shape many of the numerous genres that would end up splitting off from rock in later decades. They synthesized the rhythm and blues sound from earlier greats like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and others (and indeed borrowed lyrics from them at times--see Berry's "You Can't Catch me" and the Beatles' "Come Together," for instance), and in so doing were able to take the music industry by storm in a way that no band had ever done before, and probably no band ever will again. It helped a lot that their arrival on the scene was at a time when there were only 3 TV channels and only a few radio stations in any given place in America, such that Beatlemania flooded the entire US media landscape for an extended period of time. (I don't think this could ever happen again given how splintered the current media landscape is.)
As a result, a lot of the major things that the Beatles did don't even register today. For example, Hey Jude was incredibly long, but it was so popular that it still got a ton of airplay, at a time when songs that clocked in at 3 minutes were pushing the usual limits. No one bats an eye at a song that's 5+ minutes long these days, but that was revolutionary for the music industry at the time. Songs like Stairway to Heaven or Hotel California would never have gotten airplay later on (indeed, might not have even been made at all) if not for that shift.
Also, the Beatles were hugely influential in the rock genre in the years leading up to the summer of 1967, which was a major turning point for rock. Without their influence, you don't get the Grateful Dead, or Jefferson Airplane, or the other bands that got their starts at Ken Kesey's acid parties, and you probably don't get any of their acid-rock counterparts in Britain like Pink Floyd, either (the Beatles' influence is particularly obvious in early Floyd songs written by Syd Barrett such as "See Emily Play"). Their experimentation with acid and other drugs fueled the sound and lyrics (and success, it seems) of Sgt Pepper's, which was perhaps their single most influential album, and which landed right before the 1967 to 1969 Cambrian explosion of rock.
Oh, and their hairstyles had a lot to do with the shifting attitudes about men's hair in the 60s and 70s.
As a result, a lot of the major things that the Beatles did don’t even register today.
This is why a bunch of "groundbreaking" old movies don't blow you away if you sit down and watch them today. What they pioneered is now industry standard. But with music, you also have the numbing effect of having heard popular songs a hundred times even if you're not into them.
So here's the thing about the Beatles: calling them better than other artists totally misses the point. It's not that they were so amazing, really (though they have some solid albums and a number of great songs). What's interesting about the Beatles is their massive influence on music. It's important to remember that there were far fewer genres back then, and rock was barely getting started, so the Beatles defined, almost by themselves, what rock was (and what rock bands were)--and by extension, they helped shape many of the numerous genres that would end up splitting off from rock in later decades. They synthesized the rhythm and blues sound from earlier greats like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and others (and indeed borrowed lyrics from them at times--see Berry's "You Can't Catch me" and the Beatles' "Come Together," for instance), and in so doing were able to take the music industry by storm in a way that no band had ever done before, and probably no band ever will again. It helped a lot that their arrival on the scene was at a time when there were only 3 TV channels and only a few radio stations in any given place in America, such that Beatlemania flooded the entire US media landscape for an extended period of time. (I don't think this could ever happen again given how splintered the current media landscape is.)
As a result, a lot of the major things that the Beatles did don't even register today. For example, Hey Jude was incredibly long, but it was so popular that it still got a ton of airplay, at a time when songs that clocked in at 3 minutes were pushing the usual limits. No one bats an eye at a song that's 5+ minutes long these days, but that was revolutionary for the music industry at the time. Songs like Stairway to Heaven or Hotel California would never have gotten airplay later on (indeed, might not have even been made at all) if not for that shift.
Also, the Beatles were hugely influential in the rock genre in the years leading up to the summer of 1967, which was a major turning point for rock. Without their influence, you don't get the Grateful Dead, or Jefferson Airplane, or the other bands that got their starts at Ken Kesey's acid parties, and you probably don't get any of their acid-rock counterparts in Britain like Pink Floyd, either (the Beatles' influence is particularly obvious in early Floyd songs written by Syd Barrett such as "See Emily Play"). Their experimentation with acid and other drugs fueled the sound and lyrics (and success, it seems) of Sgt Pepper's, which was perhaps their single most influential album, and which landed right before the 1967 to 1969 Cambrian explosion of rock.
Oh, and their hairstyles had a lot to do with the shifting attitudes about men's hair in the 60s and 70s.
This is why a bunch of "groundbreaking" old movies don't blow you away if you sit down and watch them today. What they pioneered is now industry standard. But with music, you also have the numbing effect of having heard popular songs a hundred times even if you're not into them.
I think this is called the "Seinfeld Is Unfunny" effect. If you want to fall into at TV Tropes hole, here
But seinfeld actually isn't funny
This is why no one likes Citizen Kane. Everything good from it got used in other movies before the public got to see it do to Hearst's meddling.
This man dropping straight facts
they, along with les paul, basically invented modern recording practices as well
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