The Beatles

[The Quasi Juice]

Not the greatest band ever, that in my opinion is Queen. But they are certainly up there as one of the best. People who say they are overrated need to back it up, why are they so overrated? Why did the entire world fall into their trap? Sure, it might not be your cup of tea, maybe you like Death Metal or R&B but you can't say The Beatles are horribly overrated because you don't like their genre or songs. Overrated means they don't deserve the praise they got and still get. Their songs are brilliantly made, almost everybody recognises "Yesterday" or "Let it be", even though they look like really simple songs.

This calls for a Greatest Bands Ever top 5.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Overrated but still one of the very greatest.

My question to myself WOULD be though "Which group were clearly better or more important?"

From personal preference there are plenty of artists I PREFER, but what the Beatles DID for music clearly has to mark them out as great, like the Rolling Stones or Bowie.

[gunnar hendershow]

Not the greatest band ever, that in my opinion is Queen. But they are certainly up there as one of the best. People who say they are overrated need to back it up, why are they so overrated? Why did the entire world fall into their trap? Sure, it might not be your cup of tea, maybe you like Death Metal or R&B but you can't say The Beatles are horribly overrated because you don't like their genre or songs. Overrated means they don't deserve the praise they got and still get. Their songs are brilliantly made, almost everybody recognises "Yesterday" or "Let it be", even though they look like really simple songs.

This calls for a Greatest Bands Ever top 5.

Well, since you asked, here's mine.

The Beatles

The Rolling Stones

Bob Dylan

Led Zeppelin

Jimi Hendrix

Honorable mentions to Elvis Presley, David Bowie, and The Who of course.

[Herr Matzat]

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii´f got a feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin *scream*

[DMN in the House]

Good, but severly overrated. The Beatles are one of those bands which, I don't mind, but I don't really go out of my way to listen to their music. They're a very good band, just not my cup of tea, and definately not 'greatest band ever'. IMO, they aren't even the greatest British band ever, when you put them up against The Clash, Queen, or Sabbath.

If I had to make a top five, it'd probably look something like this, and this is with me trying to put personal preference out of it, which is very hard to do (IE, I love KoRn, and consider them a very good band who would make my 'top 5 favorite bands, but are clearly NOT one of the top 5 greatest bands of all time). In no particular order...

Johnny Cash

The Doors

Queen

Guns n' Roses

Metallica

[ROC]

I notice Skummy talking about how often played The Beatles are in England, and it's weird, because at least in the region of southern America I live in, you rarely hear a Beatles song, unless it is "Hey Jude" or "Come Together". Syco brought up GnR as well, to me they are the Beatles of America. Every classic rock station ever has probably broken their copies of "Sweet Child O' Mine" several times over because it seems like I always hear that song or "Paradise City" or most certainly "Welcome to the Jungle". And sadly, that reflects bad on my opinion of them. I think they are vastly overrated (not here, I mean in general opinion) and had they had the time to make more music it would probably be akin to the two Use Your Illusions, and I think the general opinion would be that they made one great album that broke them out of the 80s glam metal phase and fell off quickly.

[DMN in the House]

I listed them solely on the basis of them being what Rock n' Roll is supposed to be about to me. If you asked me 'syco, name one album that says what rock music is to you', I'd say 'Appetite for Destruction'. Are they a great musical band, outside of Slash, no, not really, but they are rock music to me.

[gunnar hendershow]

I've never been able to associate the image of guys like GnR with Rock and Roll. Hard Rock, verily. But the whole image of Rock and Roll, while rebelious, is a different kind of rebellion to me than what GnR put forward. Rock and Roll is revolutionary, it is 1967 or 1977. At least to me.

[ClaRK! Kent]

Rock'n'roll is The Kinks. Yeees. Although GnR are glam rock.

[Captain Eo]

So after playing through the story mode on The Beatles Rock Band I came to the conclusion that I really like these chaps. I'm not sure which era is my favorite but I'm awful fond of "Come Together", "Here Comes The Sun", "Drive My Car", and "I Am The Walrus."

Based on that and that I'm a new fan with very little knowledge about them, where would some of you more hardened fans recommend I start out when discovering their catalog?

Aside from a .torrent, is there a decent greatest hits collection I could buy that sums up their career pretty well? And also I've heard there's some issues with sound quality on some of the CD-Rereleases.

Elaborate?

Edited September 8, 2009 by Captain Eo

[METALMAN]

Seeing as all your favourites were later period stuff you might want to give this a shot - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967%E2%80%931970

[AnnIQ Edison]

While i have the full catalogue of Beatles music I find them to be over-rated based on the songs that were popular. They made some great songs, dont get me wrong but the gap between great songs and crap songs is huge. Disregarding influence on music, The Beatles in my opinion were a decent band who had a great marketing director for the time.

Kinda like the KISS of their time

Edited September 9, 2009 by The Inquisition

[Crybaby Bunting]

I think what makes them stand out is that they had a perfect career above everything else.

They broke up after releasing about 5 good albums in a row which makes them more favourable than a band who went out with a horrible album, or those who drag their careers out just longer than they should. Plus, they kept a lot of their experimentation until after the Beatles broke up with their own solo projects meaning that their specific styles of song weren't thrown out.

They also did something that a lot of bands today would benefit from by stopping their touring in order to write more music, meaning that they could entirely focus on just music for at least 6 years. And not just music to play to people, music that they wrote just to listen to.

They just had the best run that I have seen any other band get. They got exposure early on, a rabid fanbase, enough money to stop touring and then enough time to write music until they broke up.

Just like any other band, I like the Beatles in phases, but to suggest that they are a perfect band with absolutely no filler is slightly untrue. If many Beatlemaniacs spent the same amount of time listening to say... The Who they might think the same. I just think that to have a set idea of a favourite band means that you can never truly appreciate other bands that are doing the same, even subjectionally better.

[stokeriño]

Would someone care to explain to me why this isn't in the Music forum?

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Because once upon a time Movies, Television, and Music were all carried under the banner of Entertainment, and lazy mods only moved the first couple pages' worth of music topics to the new subform upon its creation?

[stokeriño]

Mmmmmmmm not good enough.

Moved.

[ROC]

There are some songs I don't like from the group, at least when viewed in a modern context. (I don't think I've ever been charmed by "When I'm 64," other than to cackle at McCartney's fate of making it to 64.) But there's so much that is hard NOT to view as awesome and purely intriguing as well. I mean, they're not going to be my favorite band of all time, but they are the greatest band of all time simply by impact and the fact that in less than a decade, accomplished a thousand things at once. They pervaded the idea of hype as a lead to massive financial success and then it helps that Lennon and McCartney could just fucking write. They knew people, they knew humanity with a voice that wasn't simplistic, which was ridiculously rare for the time. And to make music like they did, it's hard not to point to them as a candidate for the best band ever, simply because they never seemed to slip.

[Jayzon]

The Beatles is not my favorite band. Maybe in the Top 10, but not near the very top. But even still, I have to proclaim them the greatest band ever. Their importance as developers of modern pop music is second to none, and they actually directly influenced or helped create various different genres. In addition, they all had spectacular songwriting skills - most prominently, in my opinion, McCartney.

For example, I can only imagine what kind of reaction "Helter Skelter" has caused when it came out. That song is some fucking HEAVY rock. Proto-metal, one might say. Or look at their their contributions to the prog rock genre. Basically, their influence is felt so widely, and seeing how huge number of their songs are memorable classics, that there really isn't even any competition for the greatest band status.