The Beatles .. overrated?

[notesee]

When it comes to music, rock from the 60's and early 70's is the genre, or area that I know the least about, and was hoping that someone with some expertise in this time period could give their input to whether they felt The Beatles are overrated compared to other bands that might not have gotten the recognition they deserved.

I'd like to hear some opinions on this topic, as I don't know enough about the music during this time to give a fair judgement. And if you feel that they are overrated, what bands do you feel were slept on during this time that deserve to get more respect?

[truestorytravis]

no. mods please lock.

[notesee]

Thanks for the lengthy intellectual response proving your point.

[truestorytravis]

I was just trying to get a rise out of you. I truly don't think that the Beatles are overrated. They may have overshadowed other artists at the time, but i think that this had more to do with people's reaction to things other than their music.

I'm not a music historian so I probably can't provide the kind of answer that you're looking for, but I can try to tell you why I think the Beatles' music deserves to be praised as much as it is. Let me first make an assumption about why we enjoy music: we like music that strikes us on intellectual and emotional levels; sometimes only one aspect is present, sometimes both are present, but at base it is the type of intellectual or emotional connection we have with a song that determines whether or not it is a good song or a bad song or something in between. When I listen to music I consider how the basic elements work on their own and together to produce a reaction in me--there's melody, harmony, chord progressions, phrasing, rhythm, lyrics, instrument arrangement, playing technique, vocal technique and performance, experimentation, production, the overall tonal characteristics of instruments and songs and myriad other factors that all add up to how music makes you feel on both an emotional and an intellectual level.

I think that the Beatles managed to craft songs that have the right combination of all of these factors in order to effect an emotional and intellectual connection between the song and the listener. What's really amazing is that a huge proportion of the songs in their catalog have some mixture of the previously mentioned factors that makes them worth listening to.

Consider for example "Octopus's Garden" from Abby Road: seemingly one of their more inane songs, but listen to the harmonies in the chorus and the "ahhh"s, they're actually slightly creepy and much darker than you would expect in a song of this nature, but interesting for this reason; the guitar solo is another good listen, sure it's cute, but it's also a melodic and rhythmic journey that you become invested in as you follow along, and the end is the best part, where the pick-up notes to the next verse are not played with clean guitar tone, but with a slightly distorted tone that makes a good contrast to the solo before it and an interesting transition to the next verse. Add to all of this that the song is all sunshine and smiles and you've got a lot of brain power and feelings invested.

The ability to inject interesting musical ideas into almost every song and make them not only listenable (sic?) but such that they pull your heartstrings in so many directions, is the hallmark of a great band and no one is better at it than the Beatles were. I can't tell you why these details create the kind of connections that they do, but I can tell you that they work the same way for a lot of people. Couple these factors with a fascinating musical evolution across a relatively short period of time and the fact that their impact on popular music is still being felt today both directly in the music we hear and indirectly in the minds of musicians (The Shins, Apples In Stereo, New Pornographers, Aimee Mann to make the shortest list ever of artists influenced by the Beatles) and you can begin to appreciate why people love the Beatles so much.

Some other artists from that time that I like are

The Band

The Grateful Dead

The Beach Boys (kind of)

Led Zeppelin (came into their own after the Beatles were done, though)

Neil Young

The Rolling Stones (imo their heyday was 1967~1970, the Beatles were also playing then)

Van Morrison

The Who

[sean_]

the beatles are in no way overrated. i have heard an insane amount of beatles, everything from tons of early demos to all the foreign language albums etc etc and i can safely say i dont think they have a bad song, even ringos ramblings and johns bloated peacey stuff are still amazing

i wish i could relate this to their influence instead of just my personal opinion but i really think that theyre one of the best/most important bands of all time even if they arent my favourite

[viv1984viv]

~From a bad guitarists pont of view, the beatles are if anything underated! Seriously, I listen to so many bands yet everytime I come back to the beatles Im just amazed at how good it is, just so many ideas floating around, its potent stuff, when I listen to other bands that amount of ideas and whatnot just isnt there. The beatles just ooze inventiveness in a way the stones et al dont, other bands have there great songs and albums dont get me wrong, but I cant help but feel the beatles just had 3 or 4 more aspects to everything they did in comparison. George was my favourite.

[truestorytravis]

The beatles just ooze inventiveness in a way the stones et al dont, other bands have there great songs and albums dont get me wrong, but I cant help but feel the beatles just had 3 or 4 more aspects to everything they did in comparison. George was my favourite.

yeah, that's what i'm getting at too. their songs are complex but in such a way that it's not immediately obvious, which is a big part of why you can keep going back to them and hearing new things. it's always a rewarding experience to listen to the beatles.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

the beatles deserved the attention; amazing band from start to finish

however, the kinks were even better.

as far as criminally underrated, i say "the pretty things"; one of many bands credited as creating the first concept album-----SF SORROW is a must.

[airfrogusmc]

Any artist that changes an art form and only history can show to exactly what to what degree is important. Music was never the same after the Beatles. There probably not a musician that wasn't in some way influenced by them whether it was directly or artists that influenced them. The Kinks ya great band but no Beatles no Kinks. I would put only a few artists their category. Hendrix was also HUGE as far as influence and importance to music.

Because of that NO WAY are they overrated.