Can`t stand the Beatles?! What, you don`t like any of their songs?! I actually don`t believe you!

One of the astonishing things about the Beatles and their enduring appeal is how their record sales are holding up - decades after they split up.

The US during the noughties...

From USA Today (11/12/09)


The music clearly resonates. The body of work is unsurpassed.

I can't believe this thread is at two pages and nobody has mentioned Led Zeppelin!

The Beatles might have done more for pop than any other band, but no band has done more for rock/metal music than Led Zeppelin. I challenge anyone to name a more influential band in rock than them.

The Carter Family
Bob Dylan
Louis Armstrong
Chuck Berry
Miles Davis
Kraftwerk

One person mentioned them on one of the last posts on the previous page. I also wish Black Sabbath got a lot more recognition for their influence on the entire heavy metal genre. They deserve "outstanding contribution" at the BRITs far more than Robbie Williams (I'd buy the guy a pint if I met him since he's a cool enough bloke but COME ON, his songs are ridiculously overrated).

Agree the Beatles are the most influential.

But an honorable mention must go out to what David Bowie and Stevie Wonder did in the seventies. Classic album after classic album

The MC5


or Gene Clark

The Beatles spent their career trying to make a better album than one which wasn't resurrected or released until 2004?

I always thought it was the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" that McCartney liked so much, and cited as a heavy influence on "Sgt. Pepper".

my bad pet sounds

and no i dont like any of their songs and im 44 before anyone says im too young to remember them

the Zombies were better than the Beach boys

the Beatles were overhyped though, did they really write better songs than Paul Simon or Ray Davies, don't think so?

I suppose the Zep continued where the Yardbirds were heading anyway.

Also the blueprint for the first couple of albums was set by the Jeff Beck Group's 'Truth' album from '68.

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Roxy Music. They pretty much invented the 80s in the early 70s & influenced so many bands that came after them it's ridiculous. Even Bowie ripped them off.

I'd say Sex Pistols/PiL. The poster who mentioned Lydons BBC4 interview is correct, he's a very intelligent guy, insightful and says how it is.

Throw in Ramones too. Maybe for DIY punk, NOFX (who are one of the most under-rated punk bands, despite getting their 1994 LP "Punk in Drublic" to Gold, despite never releasing a single and saying no to MTV. I could go on, but I'd bore you all to tears )

I'm biased, I know <_<

i mentioned this early on in the thread, but rubber soul influenced pet sounds, which influenced revolver, which influenced smile, which influenced sgt pepper, although smile was never completed or released. good vibration was released as a single and 2 or 3 tracks were later rerecorded and released on smiley smile etc, and decades later brian wilson rerecorded a new version of smile

if you have any decent reconstructed bootlegs of smile you would understand what the fuss was about. pet sounds is a far better album, but they were really pushing the boundaries of contemporary popular music at the time. the beach boys influenced the beatles, and back again in return, so if the beatles are the most influential, then the beach boys by default should be the second most influential, if not the most influential if they influenced the most influential band

as for some of the other bands mentioned, they may have been the most influential artist/band in a particular genre, and spread into other genres, but the beatles influence was spread so widely into other genres, soul, jazz, rock, pop, punk, classical, dance, etc. bowie, lou reed, roxy music, the pistols, joy division, led zep, etc had little influence on soul, jazz or classical music for example

i presume you were being ironic? ... just for those though who dont really get what punk did... yes, political awareness, embraced equality for women, gay people, and black people, created an environment where art and fashion blossomed, plus alternative comedy which got us away from the 'mother in law', 'queer', 'black' sexist racist comedy that littered the 70's. punk created the environment for musical experimentation and thats why era 77-83 (ish) was arguable the most creative in british music history. goth, indie, industrial, electronic, even dance via rave can all be traced back to punks 'do it yourself' attitude. id argue that punk was THE most important style that has influenced many genres and it can still be seen in todays music.


you dont have to like them to recognise their genius... i dont like bowie but ill never knock his innovation or importance on our music sceen.


yes.

much though i like the kinks...

true, the beach boys did temporarily push the boundaries, but tbh it was only really 'pet sounds' era that did that... a year or so?... id argue that the beach boys influence on british music was quite insignificant.

I would probably go with Bowie. He crossed over into many genres and laid the foundations of some. It's a tricky one though.

Yes but arguably their influence on American music has been very significant and continues to this day. The Beatles were a major influence on some of their American contemporaries but that faded quickly, although it has resurfaced from time to time.

I still think The Beatles are more important than The Beach Boys but it's not just about whose music they influenced, it's about how the quality of the songwriting and their sheer creativity has outlasted many other artists.

Kraftwerk, James Brown, Sex Pistols & Dylan, in that order.

I know it can be frustrating to be immediately frowned upon because you don't like something that almost everyone else does - you are entitled to an opinion after all. But I challenge your comment that you 'can't stand' them? Surely remarks like that should be reserved for music that is actually shit, like Cheryl Cole (Fight For This Love actually makes me feel sick). But The Beatles have pleasant voices and I think their music is non-invasive if it doesn't really do anything for you. Overplayed maybe, yes, but surely not completely dislikeable?

.... and too add, if i may, the beatles have done a wide variety of styles, surely theyve done something (no pun intended!) that appeals ...

Wow, I'm listening to them now and have just bought a 4 CD set of theirs... absolutely pant-shittingly good music.

Come now, there were dozens of bands in the early 80s puting out cutting edge punk music and using the DIY, get-in-a-van-and-tour ethos, all more significant than NOFX.

By the way if you love NOFX, you might like RKL and Adolescents, a couple of their key influences, as well as Bad Religion.

The genres you listed are awful.

I really dislike British punk in that period... Americans did it better and achieved more with it. No British punk has ever run for government like Jello Biafra did.

And didn't all those things in your first line get protested during the 60s anyway?

Zombie Heaven...superb set!

For my money 'Whenever You're Ready' is the greatest flop single of the 60s.