Do you think that The Beatles are overrated?

[Amandistan]

I have said this before to someone and it really pissed them off (resulting in personal attacks) and that is that The Beatles are overrated. 

Now, i don't think they are a bad band. Some of the songs are but but they are not a bad band. 
Here are the usual arguments.

1. The Beatles have the best collection of songs and are the best band ever.

Well, that's a matter of opinion. I can name several bands that I believe have a far,far, far better back catalog.  NMA being one, The clash being another and Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen. Even U2 has a better back catalog.

2. The songs are all wonderfully written.

This is another thing that is subjective. There are some songs such as "I am the Walrus" that make no sense at all. Other songs have "ooh, ahh, yeah and other sounds used to make the words flow.  They do it too much.

3. They were the most  influential band in history.

 but if they had not existed, another band would have come along and took their place in musical history. It was the error, the location and what was going on in the world that mattered.



I will admit that they do have some brilliant songs but not anymore brilliant than many other artists who do not get the same attention. And I don't dislike them and love some of their songs but I do think that they are way overhyped by the media while better bands are largely ignored. 

Does anyone else agree, disagree or not even care?   
Any thoughts please comment.

[Darkness]

They were game changers. Like Elvis did in the 50's, they changed music in the 60's. It's as simple as that. I'm not a huge fan, but I have all the albums and enjoy listening to them. Not overrated for me!

[Shush]

Personally I am not really bothered either way. I like some of the later Beatles material and have a couple of albums, that's as far as my interest goes. But, I am glad if we are going to talk about the Beatles so much, that it is now happening on a dedicated thread instead of polluting threads about NMA 

[Amandistan]

Sadly, the member that speaks of them most is not active on this subforum.  Meaning they still will be brought up on most NMA topics as well.

[Pol]

Yes I'm glad that you started a separate thread Amanda
Personally i don't like them n don't have any of there material and have no interest in getting any Yes they might have had the odd decent song along the way. I don't get all the fuss and can't see why anyone under say 55 would be interested. I've always said for me that music started in 76/77 with punk and with the odd exception that holds true. Tell me to open my mind if you like well I've tried and didn't like most of what i heard.
each to their own  !

[JohnnyM]

All music is subjective. I quite like The Beatles - though I've only got one album (The White Album) and tbh I'm not a massive fan - but the general consensus, and so as close as you'll get to an objective view, from

-sales
-musicologists
-historians
-sociologists
-other musicians

is that the Beatles are the "best" (whatever that means) band ever & Lennon/McCartney are amongst the best song writers of the 20th Century. I think I said the same in the last thread - but I don't think its changed much in the intervening time.

[lotus]

Overrated - the music or the influence they had?
The Beatles opened a door here in germany
TV and broadcast and the newspapers and the record shops, they offered the same menue:
This special german version of pop-music called Schlager (he/she loves me or he/she doesn`t - grr), german artists or foreign artists with german lyrics, we had some jazz or swing, Elvis ..
And then the hype with the Beatles did the break!
Suddenly tv, broadcast, newspapers, record stores started to write about/play/sell something else 

The Beatles - boys with long hair in a suit - singing "Sie liebt Dich, Yeah Yeah Yeah!)"
Parents get used to that - they are not that dangerous ...

But with the Beatles came the dark side: Rolling Stones (never doing a german lyric version of a song),

and than it all began: a new market place, the record companies and the music industrie and related business offered a lot of new music here in germany:
blues, soul, psychodalic, hard rock, german bands trying to be a german version of  x or y, then later with their own style, this so called "Krautrock" (Can or Kraftwerk aren`t Krautrock for me, but that`s a kind of a label for people outside germany) . ...
So thanks to the Beatles, without them I don`t know if or when I had the chance to become a fan of the Stones, Eric Burdon, Hendrix, Cream and the rest or if the german "Rockpalast" had ever the chance to start 

[Ron B]

They were game changers. Like Elvis did in the 50's, they changed music in the 60's. It's as simple as that. I'm not a huge fan, but I have all the albums and enjoy listening to them. Not overrated for me!

This is spot on . The Beatles were for their time. Mid and late 60's. 

[Bunny]

They were game changers. Like Elvis did in the 50's, they changed music in the 60's. It's as simple as that. I'm not a huge fan, but I have all the albums and enjoy listening to them. Not overrated for me!

This is spot on . The Beatles were for their time. Mid and late 60's. 

I kind of agree. The fact we're having the debate would suggest that they left a legacy and something to aspire to for "pop" bands. I guess doing what they did when they did made them a huge band. I personally dont like everything they did or the written by a 6 year old lyrics in the beginning. But it changed the game.

But.....I dislike the pro 60's mob who have forced it on everyone as the best time everrrrrr. For them maybe. I enjoyed the 90's but Im buggered if Ill waffle on about it for 50 years

[Bunny]

And to add...Yellow Submarine. The Shaddapa ya face of its day lol

[Master Ray]

I'm afraid I have to go with the 'not-over-rated opinion'... 

I just can't think of another band who went from the likes of simple stuff like 'Love Me Do' to the psychedelic craziness of later albums in just EIGHT years.  This, in these days when a highly regarded artist like Adele (I'm not a fan) hasn't put out an album in four years...  and, yes, much of that craziness must be due to the influence of drugs... a lot of their later stuff is drug-addled crap... but so many great tunes inbetween that influenced so many artists, even to this day...

So yeah, I love The Beatles, but respect to all your opinions.

Although, Beatles fans, this one might grind your gears... I've always preferred McCartney's solo stuff to Lennon's...

 

[Rusco]

Love them, of course. One of the first bands I ever listened to. But at the time, I also was into Eddie Cochran, Duran Duran and Dexys Midnight Runners. I was 8 years old.

Nowadays, if I'd ever compare something with the (great) Beatles it would be something like very obscure thing to do. Like, if I'd compare them who is better, Slayer or the Beatles; Coroner or Paul Simon... Why would I do that?

[Master Ray]

Love them, of course. One of the first bands I ever listened to. But at the time, I also was into Eddie Cochran, Duran Duran and Dexys Midnight Runners. I was 8 years old.

Nowadays, if I'd ever compare something with the (great) Beatles it would be something like very obscure thing to do. Like, if I'd compare them who is better, Slayer or the Beatles; Coroner or Paul Simon... Why would I do that?

Oy, Dexy's are awesome!

 

[Rusco]

Yeah, they are! And hats off to their singer - ex-Kevin Rowland.

But to the point, I too don't think the Beatles are over rated.

[Tony S]

Hmm, The Beatles have never really done it for me. I like a few individual songs, Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields, Hey Jude, and a few others, but on the whole, I've never felt inspired enough to want to buy any of their albums. As a consequence I don't own any Beatles material at all, and I don't really feel I'm missing out on anything. There's a lot of stuff from the mid 60s onwards that I love - Hendrix, Zep, Black Sabbath, early Deep Purple, and lots more, but if I go back to early 60s, there's really only The Stones for me.