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Author Topic: Beatles in a category?  (Read 956 times)

Greg

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Beatles in a category?
« on: January 20, 2021, 10:52:08 pm »

Do you consider The Beatles a rock band?  Are they the best pop band ? 


I saw the Edge from U2 give a speech about The Clash at RR HOF, and he called The Beatles a Pop band.  He said the Stones and Clash were rock, and then said U2 was Psychedelic Folk (to me U2 is a power pop 80s band).


I think he called The Beatles a Pop band because G Harrison said something negative about U2 one time.


Anyway...my take is this.


The Beatles are in a class by themselves.  They aren't a pop band.  They aren't a rock band.  They play Beatles' music. It's in a category all by itself.
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Mervap

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Re: Beatles in a category?
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2021, 03:47:37 am »

I have to agree....they were not constrained by any genre.....
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Keri

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Re: Beatles in a category?
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2021, 02:07:48 pm »

Interesting question. They made popular music, so they are pop in that way, but is Helter Skelter a pop song? Is when I'm sixty Four? Yellow Submarine is a children's song. For me genres should just be an aid to talking about music,If I say Prog rock you know I'm talking about Yes, early Genesis, ELP et al. But none of those groups set out to make prog rock and they all have very different sensibilities.

The Beatles if they are typified by anything it is the range and variaty of their music, Yesterday, Come Together, Here Comes the Sun, I want to Hold Your Hand, Ob la de ob la da, Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite.

If I think of a perfect pop group, I think of Abba. Their songs all can be described as excellent examples of pop. Try to put a label on the panoply of Beatles music and the label will break.

edit: I just remembered when Paul was talking about Yesterday he made the comment that at that stage they thought of themselves as a little R&B combo.

Labels are only useful to the extent that they help us describe things and pop music doesn't help describe the Beatles, it is the other way round The Beatles extended the bounds of popular music. But popular music in this sense is not a genre, it's not that same as "pop music"
« Last Edit: September 11, 2021, 05:05:19 pm by Keri »
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