4 ms·

The Beatles and the glory of creative risk

17 points by Amorymeltzer 4y ago

FridayoLeary 4y ago
this is one of those articles where the headline says everything you need to know. In my experience, music today is less original and creative, not just in a sense that it has failed to evolve fast enough, but also that the Beatles music is more interesting. (I'm talking about the big names of course, the singers who are capable of changing music culture and are not.)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
jemmyw 4y ago
The Beatles worked hard, then got famous and rich with their "simple" pop songs allowing them to follow up with lots of experimentation. I put simple in quotes because compared to what is commercially successful now their simple songs were not simple. The music landscape today is so radically different for better or worse. Better is everything being more accessible so learning and niche experimentation is available to all. Worse is that commercial music is so saturated that interesting things don't bubble up to mass consciousness. The Beatles couldn't exist today, but they couldn't have existed in the 70s, 80s or 90s either.
- quacked 4y ago
  The Beatles couldn't have gotten famous using their "simple pop" formula in the 70s-00s either, but if they'd been putting out the quality of songs they did I think they'd always have at least a cult following. Their songs are too good. It's also worth mentioning that also compared to what was commercially successful then, their pop songs were not simple. The melodies, harmonies, and especially chord changes were in an entire class by themselves when compared to the other happy-go-lucky boy band hits that were constantly hanging on I-IV-vi-V.
JKCalhoun 4y ago
> Perhaps it took the roiling events that would give such a manic-depressive quality to 1963 ... the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22 ... Yeah, that was it. And thank God for those four smiling, optimistic, youths — this country needed them. Inverting the "Great Man Theory" I believe the events of an era will cause to be called forth the talent and "heroes" that are needed for that particular moment. Sometimes in history it seems like the matchup is particularly brilliant, maybe uncannily so.

17 points by Amorymeltzer 4y ago

this is one of those articles where the headline says everything you need to know. In my experience, music today is less original and creative, not just in a sense that it has failed to evolve fast enough, but also that the Beatles music is more interesting. (I'm talking about the big names of course, the singers who are capable of changing music culture and are not.)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

jemmyw 4y ago

The Beatles worked hard, then got famous and rich with their "simple" pop songs allowing them to follow up with lots of experimentation. I put simple in quotes because compared to what is commercially successful now their simple songs were not simple. The music landscape today is so radically different for better or worse. Better is everything being more accessible so learning and niche experimentation is available to all. Worse is that commercial music is so saturated that interesting things don't bubble up to mass consciousness. The Beatles couldn't exist today, but they couldn't have existed in the 70s, 80s or 90s either.

quacked 4y ago
The Beatles couldn't have gotten famous using their "simple pop" formula in the 70s-00s either, but if they'd been putting out the quality of songs they did I think they'd always have at least a cult following. Their songs are too good. It's also worth mentioning that also compared to what was commercially successful then, their pop songs were not simple. The melodies, harmonies, and especially chord changes were in an entire class by themselves when compared to the other happy-go-lucky boy band hits that were constantly hanging on I-IV-vi-V.

JKCalhoun 4y ago

> Perhaps it took the roiling events that would give such a manic-depressive quality to 1963 ... the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22 ... Yeah, that was it. And thank God for those four smiling, optimistic, youths — this country needed them. Inverting the "Great Man Theory" I believe the events of an era will cause to be called forth the talent and "heroes" that are needed for that particular moment. Sometimes in history it seems like the matchup is particularly brilliant, maybe uncannily so.