Finally, don't invest in the publishing rights to popular songs, the Beatles, the Brill Building or Johnny Cash. The value of such catalogs diminishes every year as fans die out. No, the Beatles are not forever, neither was grandfather's Rudy Vallee, but Beethoven is!
re: “It’s good to know who the influencers were. Fan club members don’t know and don’t care. That Paul is cute, and George is amazing is enough for them. Record sales numbers themselves tell about influencing listeners, and not musicians. Were the Who influenced by the Beatles? I doubt it! The Mamas and the Papas? No way! The Buggs? Certainly! History of popular music will be written by critics and musicologists, and not by fans!”
I WAS responding to the thread as a musicologist. My bachelor’s and master’s degrees were both in music history and literature, plus a master’s in church music. I also responded as a musician and a fan of rock n roll in all it’s varities.
Am I a Beatle fan - yes. I am also a Glen Miller fan, Bing Crosby fan, Frank Sinatra fan, a Who fan, a Jimi Hendrix fan, Cream, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, James Taylor, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Pachelbel, Maurice Durufle, Ravel, and hundreds of others.
In actuality, as opposed to your presumption, the Beatles did influence the Who and the Mamas and the Papas?? - (the M and P even mention the Beatles in one of their songs). The Beatles influenced a lot of rock musicians of that time period. I’m sure there were some they didn’t - but you can’t deny that they turned the pop music world (of that time period) up on its ear.
That doesn’t mean they were the best or the greatest - I NEVER said that. But it is undeniable that they had a huge impact on rock music and the music industry. So did Elvis, so did Sinatra, so did Bing Crosby, so did Wilson Picket, and hundreds of others to varying degrees - but possibly not on the world-wide scale that the Beatle’s did.
There is no denying that their early sound was just like a thousand other rock n roll bands of the 50’s and early 60’s. Their impact was through their continual musical innovations with each new album. They turned that simple rock n roll sound into something far more sophisticated compositionally, stylistically, and instrumentally. Of course they weren’t the only ones to do that, but their creativity did inspire other musicians to innovate as well.
Pete Townshend discusses the impact the Beatles had in “setting a new pattern” (listen to him yourself on the 1967 interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whx88hxOROk
You don’t have to like a particular band or artist to appreciate their impact. Will the Beatle’s music still be listened to 187 years from now (as Beethoven’s is)? Who knows? If the Beatles hadn’t happened would rock music have continued - of course!! Would it be any different than it is now had they never existed? Yes, I think so, but only within the genre of rock and pop music - not the whole of music history which you seem to think I’m saying (like Bach or Beethoven).