Gee, I Guess Music Actually Is Better Today

Um, no. Tons of people over a certain age absolutely hated the Beatles. My parents, for example.

If you watch "Mad Men," that scene with Don listing to "Tomorrow Never Knows" was a pretty good dramatization of how most people in their 30s on up felt about the Beatles.

 

I think it's quite obvious that I didn't mean everybody liked them. Of course there were plenty that didn't. Nevertheless, their appeal wasn't limited to screaming girls.

 

Forget the US market, don't forget the massive Chinese, Russian and Eastern European markets that were not open to this stuff in the past.

 

Absolutely disagree with you and agree with Nerys. Early in their career during the Beatlemania period the Beatles were dismissed by most adults as irrelevant "teenyboppers". Adults lamented the fact, like we are doing here, that the Beatles dominated the charts that used to be dominated by Sinatra, patti Page, Perry Como, etc. Steve Allen, the old talk show host, used to do segments on his show where he would recite Beatles lyrics (and other rock and rollers' of the day), for a laugh.

It was not until late in the band's career that they rose above that "teenybopper" level and began to be respected as musicians. I don't know first hand about Elvis, but I'de bet the same was true of him also.

I'de also be willing to bet that at least one of the modern bands/artists on that list will one day be thought of as "great". This is excluding Striesand, who is already great, along with Celine Dion, who I can't stand, but whose talent I respect, and perhaps the Peas' who seem to be regressing.

 

Fair enough. They obviously appealed to boys as well as girls. However, I disagree their appeal transcended different age groups. In my experience the majority of people over thirty at the time didn't care for them at all.

 

I'm sure Beiber has fans who aren't part of the screaming girl demo as well. Pop music, or a least a certain part of it is driven by the young female demographic. Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Beiber owe a certain amount of their success to appealing to that demo. A whole industry is built around that demo with posters, magazines t-shirts and other products featuring the hot teen star of the moment. The Beatles helped write the book on that sort of promotion. With all sorts of merchandise with their faces or logo plastered on it. That's why they were the Justin Beiber of their day.

 

And Transformers 3 made more money than Citizen Kane

 

Maybe Citizen Kane needed more explosions.

 

I'm not sure that the Beatles can be equated to Justin Bieber, exactly. I think the screaming girls around the Beatles were mostly older than the pre-teens surrounding Justin Bieber.

I'm not denying the existence of the 'screaming girl demographic'. I myself was the proud owner of The Partridge Family Album, back in the day. But this was at age 9 or 10...before I discovered Led Zeppelin and Grand Funk Railroad. I do not remember Beatlemania - by the time they came on my radar in the 70's, that part was long over. But on the tapes I see of Beatlemania, most of the girls look to be in their late teens/early 20's. Not in the 11 to 15 age group like Justin Bieber.

I know that to guys, the 'screaming girl demographic' is all one big pie. But to those of us who lived it, I think it's sort of in two stages.

First comes the Justin Bieber/David Cassidy/Shawn Cassidy/Donny Osmond/Leif Whats-his-name stage....for many of us girls, one of these guys or someone like him was our first crush as a pre-teen.

Then when you are a little older, if you have not moved on to rock, but are still only listening to pop, you get into the Beatles/Backstreet Boys/NSYNC/Hansen/Jonas Brothers stage.

Perhaps a small technicality to you guys...but to those of us who lived it as young girls, significant. At that point, we have at least started the transition to something resembling listenable music and have begun to outgrow the idea that the most important quality in a pop star is that he be 'cute'.

 

Agreed. Everything is subjective, and opinions only matter to the person making them.