Beatles were all over the news this afternoon. I was quite surprised....

This media (and public) is reacting the same way that they did in 1986, when The Beatles catalog was released on CD. They were the last major holdout for CD (if you don't include The DC5).

 

Yeah, and that $149 Box Set can be purchased for real (CD) on Amazon.com, starting today, for $129! Stereo & Mono versions! Coincidence??

 

It IS amazing how the Beatles and their music has held its grip on the world, 40+ years later. They were an amazingly positive force, and that's what infuses their work.

 

I had to Google Phineas and Ferb. Wake me up when they synthesise the Beatles cover of "Gitchee, Gitchee Goo". When can I order my Beatle boots from Amazon?

 

Not sure if impressive would be my most appropriate adjective but it certainly is... something.

Will be watching somewhat aghast and in full stuporous mode while the new lossy files outsell the new lossless over the next year or two.

These lossy piranha, once let into bigger lossless shark sound pools, are very quick, adept and downright ruthless with chomping away at the bits.

 

Breaking out a vinyl yellow label of Revolver mono later. iTunes still doesn't have that...

 

Unfortunately we will never know. I think John was mellowing out when he was murdered, and if he lived to see all this he would have been a proud dad.
That it what I believe he would have felt at this age he would have been.

 

You know, it makes me happy. My take is, "hey, at least the great unwashed are responding to great music, and maybe it'll create a bunch of new fans." It gives me hope that even them dag-nabbed infernal kids out there can get exposed to what good music really is.

 

It sadly affirms what we already know.....the best music is behind us. While there may be glimpses of greatness in the future, the biggest announcements from the industry are re-releases. The Beatles are in my top 3 favorite bands of all time and I root for them to carry on thru the generations (and I'm under 40), but I also remember not long ago when a current groups latest release was the biggest news -- Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, MJ, etc.. Music use to be exciting and current, The Beatles re-releases were a footnote. Now, it's the other way around. It looks like the parents are winning, our music is better....it's becoming a fact, not nostalgic reflection.

 

I don't use itunes so I'm not sure if these video ads are a factor in what people are buying but they feature 5 songs, including Here Comes the Sun and Let It Be

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/201...pples-announcement-the-beatles-are-at-itunes/

 

I disagree, but I don't want to get tweaked by our host again, so I'll say no more.

 

It would be awesome if I were wrong.....I would love for a group to come out of nowhere and take the industry somewhere, a new movement, more exciting. Lady Gaga? Not quite, I think Madonna from Space. The Black Eyed Peas? Taylor Swift? Katy Perry? Anyone? No one seems to rise to the next level anymore. Green Day might be iconic, someday. They need to get those albums out faster. Dominate. Change the direction. The Beatles (50 years old) are the most exciting thing coming to iTunes? Great for me.....but sad for the state of music.

 

Certainly helped along by Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

jeff

 

I think this post really addresses the core of what's going on in music today...

There's more music than ever, available to the masses, but to assume that the music you like, or many of our age group (let's say 40-60) think is "good music", i.e. The Beatles, is the issue.

As much as I like the Beatles, they just aren't the end of the world in music as many on this forum believe. I'm sure a lot of people in the 14-25 year old category could care less about the Beatles, or many other bands that the boomers worship.

Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of cool music to go around, even if it doesn't include the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, Zeppelin, etc.

 

After the Beatles broke up in 1970, many of us figured, "well, a new group will pop up any moment, and then it'll be their turn to blow us away and amaze us with a whole new musical direction, change pop culture, and make the world like it was 1964 all over again."

I'm still waiting.

 

This is true. You can say the same about whomever is appearing on any of the late night talk shows. They're primarily there to Plug Plug Plug their latest project, and tell a few jokes and amusing anecdotes in between as camouflage.

 

I know Steve and others are probably (rightly) tired of hearing me go on about her, but Taylor Swift set iTunes and Billboard Hot 100 records a couple of weeks ago when her new album came out. She also became the 16th person in the SoundScan era to sell a million albums in one week, and set a new Soundscan-era record for higest percentage of total album sales in a week - something like 18% of all albums sold in the United States that week were hers. Having seen her in concert, I can only compare the experience to what I have seen on films of Beatlemania.

I don't want to turn this thread into a debate about her artistic merit vs. that of the Beatles, but, like the Beatles in their early days, she is a phenomenon to a largely teenage, largely female audience. To many adults, though, she is off the radar, just as the Beatles were off the radar to my father back in the 60s - he just had other interests. I think we tend to forget that the initial reaction to the Beatles from many adults was that "this is teen trash," just as many adults today react to a lot of current music the same way.

The Beatles aren't the most exciting thing to hit iTunes this year; getting their box set as high as they did is an amazing achievement, but they didn't get an individual album to #1 on iTunes, and they didn't get an individual song higher than somewhere around the mid-20s. As I type this, the Glee cast has the 3 of the top 11 individual songs on iTunes, while "Here Comes the Sun" is the highest-charting individual Beatles track, at #24. Glee has been another iTunes phenomenon this year; again, I understand that a lot of older fans who remember Beatlemania fondly don't have much use for Glee, for many reasons, but it is a phenomenon with kids today. In fairness, there was an episode of Glee tonight, which promoted the songs the kids are buying right now, just like the Ed Sullivan appearances promoted the Beatles in 1964. And when you ask yourself how many times the Beatles can possibly resell the same songs over and over again, today's achievement on iTunes is pretty remarkable. But they're not blowing up the iTunes charts the way that Taylor Swift and Glee have this year. Again, in fairness to the Beatles, if this deal had been done five years ago, I would bet that the Beatles would have hit #1 on both the iTunes singles and album charts, and had multiple entries in the top ten of each. This deal coming so soon on the heels of the 09/09/09 CDs doubtless impacted sales.

 

Well, for me, that happened in the 80s with the Smiths and R.E.M. Can't speak for anyone else in that regard.

 

Aren't the songs in Glee all (bad) covers of hits from long ago?

 

They are all covers. Tonight they mashed up a hit from long ago ("Singin' in the Rain") with a hit from today ("Umbrella"). I'm not here to defend the artistic merit of Glee in this thread, just to note that it is a phenomenon that is getting kids today interested in a broad range of music (including the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" a few weeks ago). When Glee did a tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show a few weeks ago, not only did the Glee cast soundtrack hit the iTunes top ten, it dragged the original soundtrack into the iTunes top ten. Last week the Glee cast hit #1 on iTunes with a version of a contemporary Katy Perry song.

 

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Beatles now have three albums in the top ten, and Abbey Road is up to #6. Abbey Road may not hit #1, but they already have multiple albums in the top ten.

 

You're right. If they can sustain that all week, that is amazing. If you added up the sales of all of their albums, they would be number one by a long shot. But some of the hottest new albums of the year have hit #1 on iTunes within hours of release. It's an apples to oranges comparison in many ways. When you log onto iTunes right now from an iPhone, the "new releases" section is only Beatles albums, which is never the case during an ordinary Tuesday, when new albums from many different artists are always featured. The iTunes store is funneling people towards Beatles albums right now in a way that doesn't happen for ordinary new releases on the store.

 

It's true, the Starland Vocal Band is long gone.

 

Okay, that's just SILLY.

I like AC/DC as much as the next guy, but every time there has been an Itunes announcement for the past ten years, the first speculation about what the announcement will be was NOT, "Is AC/DC finally coming to Itunes?"

There is a contingent out there that truly resents The Beatles and the limitless reverence for them. It's THE BEATLES. They need to get over it.