Yesterday, John McMillian, assistant professor of history at Georgia State University, appeared on KQED’s Forum in San Francisco (listen here) to talk about his new book Beatles vs. Stones. It offers a new look at how the two British bands co-existed, often helped one another, and strategically defined themselves against each other. The Beatles were everyman’s band. Wholesome, clean-cut, witty, the Fab Four appealed to the young and the old, the rich and the poor. The Stones, trying to make a name for themselves in the wake of Beatlemania, positioned themselves as the anti-Beatles. As the journalist Tom Wolfe once wrote, “The Beatles want to hold your hand, but the Stones want to burn down your town.”
50 years later, The Beatles still have a nearly universal appeal. The Boomers and their now middle-aged children haven’t let dust gather on The Beatles’ discography. And, if you plunk the grandchildren in front of old Beatles’ videos, they’ll love what they see. Just watch above.
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The Beatles are the most over rated band in history. If Lennon hadn’t have been shot in 1980 they would have disappeared by now. Yeah they were popular. Yeah they sold loads of records. Yeah they wrote some good songs. But the deification of them is misplaced and ridiculous. Popular does not equal quality.
I really loved the results…50 years later…great!!!
One direction ?? They don’t write and they don’t play — like most other modern “boy” and “girl” bands. The Beatles are simply the biggest influence on pop-music ever closely followed by the Stones, the Kinks (if you ask actual musicians), Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and later David Bowie, Elton John and Queen.