“We’re bigger then Jesus.”
Few people have the audacity to make such a claim, but where would pop music be today if these fabled words had not been uttered by four scrappy kids from England? Such statements of confidence in rock `n’ roll hint to a long-forgotten era where the music and meaning was god. With the new rise of bubble-gum pop, led by boy bands, such as N’sync and Backstreet Boys, and the annoyingly cute Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, legitimate musicians are pushed to the side in favor of manufactured music for the masses.
An old savior is back. The group hails from Liverpool, England; they have been split up for 29 years, one of the members is dead and they are still selling albums like it was 1964. Beatlemania is sweeping the nation again. The recently released Beatles 1 is invading the States and has been topping the charts for the last seven weeks. The 27 number-one hits collection has already sold 19.8 million copies and is making young pop bands feel a little old. The industry and the world is being reminded who the fathers of pop and rock `n’ roll really are.
For those who have been living under a rock for the last 40 years, or simply haven’t been alive that long, here is a quick history. The Beatles were formed in Liverpool in 1963 and released their first single, “Please Please Me,” that year. The British band erupted into the music scene in Europe, and finally got the attention of the then-pop magnate Ed Sullivan in the States. With their show stopping performance of “She Loves You,” the mop-top quartet was catapulted into super stardom, and girls were swooning over posters of John, Paul, Ringo and George, enough to make even Justin Timberlake jealous. In 1964, the Beatles logged 29 hits and, for many weeks, five of these singles had the top five slots on the Billboard 200. In the band’s seven-year existence they recorded 13 studio albums, shot four feature films and developed their own record label Green Apple. The fame, fortune and album sales accumulated by the band were unparalleled then, and now.
The Fab Four split in 1971 left fans with a bitter taste in their mouths. The break-up happened just as the band was in their prime, and masters of their artistic domain. However, musical differences arose between front men John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Since that time, the demand for re-releases of their old material, music compilations and a possible reunion have not diminished.
Even after Lennon’s death in 1981, Beatlemania remained both strong and steady. Generation X discovered the Beatles, and a whole new fan base was created. The music was the sole promoter for the group because it was inventive, fun and catchy. The surviving members of the group, who kept releasing new greatest hits albums and compilations, also fed the demand. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery; the music industry is no different. Many new music groups entering the scene in the `80s and `90s used the Beatles’ chord play and melodies in their own singles.
The `90s saw another rebirth in our fascination with the boys from Liverpool. A three-box CD set, called the Beatles’ Anthology, and featured live studio releases and media clips from the group. The box set sold record numbers and featured a “Free as a Bird,” a song written by John Lennon but never before played, was recorded by Paul, Ringo and George accompanying.
The year 2000 has further shown the staying power of the Beatles. After painstaking collaboration between former band members, producers, musical historians, and the people that experienced the Beatle phenomenon first hand, the group has published the book, The Beatles Anthology which has been a New York Times best-seller for several months now. The book includes a myriad of facts, interviews and a host of pictures.This fall saw the re-release of A Hard Days Night, the Beatles first full-length feature film. As if that were not enough, shortly after the 20th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, Beatles 1 was released. Since its debut, the album beat out the anticipated Backstreet Boys album, Black and Blue. The album shows only a three-percent drop in sales, and buying trends indicate no sign of stopping.
A comparison search of Web pages devoted to pop bands on the search engine, Google.com, credits the Backstreet Boys and N’sync with a combined 840,000 Web sites, a number that does not come close to the Beatles 1,110,000 Web pages.
