To find it weird that there are still articles about the Beatles in the mainstream press

[CruCru]

I know that the Beatles were terrific and people really liked them. But they split up 55 years ago! There’s a thing in the Sunday Times (in the app it is the fourth story down but it’s possible it’s elsewhere in the hard copy) about John Lennon and Paul McCartney meeting (I think it was an extract from a book). It’s weird. This is a band that finished years before I was born (and I am properly middle aged).

Wait until you find out some people are still listening to Mozart...

I'm 67 and The Beatles were 'before my time', so the people for whom they were new and exciting must be seventy-five upwards. I have no interest in them but they were a phenomenon at the time, very popular and definitely a 'big business', so that might explain the continued interest.

But are there endless new stories and documentaries about Mozart? I would probably enjoy a documentary about Mozart, it would make a change from the Beatles.

Isn’t it something like the 60th Anniversary of their first album release this week?

So in that context, no, not weird that they’d have an article around this time about arguably the biggest band in the world.

They were incredibly influential. Their impact cannot be understated.

I think it’s coming up to the 62nd anniversary of the release of their first album (I googled it because I am a pedant). 62 is not a major anniversary.

Yes, there was a new one on tv just a few months ago.

The Beatles changed musical history. They were era-defining. They've had untold influence on art and culture for decades. And one of them was literally murdered.

So yeah, the interest will continue as long as there are still people around to discover their music.

Super, was it on the BBC? If so I will check out iPlayer.

Spoiler alert - younger generations are interested in and enjoy listening to The Beatles. My DS14 is one (although to be fair he wouldn't be reading The Times!).

But, I do have some sympathy for your viewpoint OP, because when John Lennon was shot, my mother (who had seen them live more than once as a 60s teen) was absolutely devastated.

I was 9 years old at the time, and clearly remember standing in the kitchen with her, trying to 'comfort' her by telling her (with all the wisdom of my 9 years on this earth) that, never mind, in a few months everyone would have forgotten who he was. She went ballistic 😂

Mozart: Rise of a Genius BBC

There you go, OP

What about Greensleeves?

The original H!!!

I'm 63 and consider The Beatles were very much of my time. I remember the BBC News the night it was announced they were splitting up. First item on the news and there was no shortage of newsworthy stuff going on in the world at the time. Huge cultural phenomenon.

The ST piece is a serialization of a new book but they chose it for the front cover of the ST magazine which I agree is an odd choice. Beatles stuff is of no interest to me at all (80s baby) so I didn’t bother to read it.

In fairness there are still a ton of docs being made and books being written about Mozart. There’s actually going to be a new Sky drama about him starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bethany I think.

Sure, but he's not often the subject of front page articles.

Someone like Mozart was the bad boy of his day so its those sorts of people and phenomenons that continue to hld interest decades and centuries on. The Beatles were a huge cultural shift and quite shocking to some.

I get you, OP.
I know a couple who met in an internet chat room for Beatles fans around 17 years ago. They were then 20 and 22 and they’re still big Beatles fans. I find it a little puzzling.

I say this as I am very excited to see a Led Zeppelin documentary in the theater. I was born in 1970 so I wasn’t born when they formed in 1968. Go figure! 🤷🏻‍♀️

DS(16) played in a music completion this morning. His guitar ensemble played Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, arranged for classical guitar. The "ripples" of the Beatles are this very much felt.

I was reading a fascinating article about a silent movie star a few months ago. Jean Harlow to be precise. She died in 1937 which was 88 years ago and 20 years before I was born. There are still hundreds of articles about Marilyn Monroe who died in 1962. Likewise Jimmy Dean and Elvis Presley and Audrey Hepburn and Glen Miller. Why? Because they are legends. People who were born long after their deaths still discuss them and listen to their music or watch their films. Their influence on popular culture will not diminish and is still with us today.

It’s PR for a new book.

I don't think it's odd, considering that they are probably the most famous and well known band in the world,plus they were so influential for many other bands. I absolutely love The Beatles, even though at 61,I'm too young 😂 to remember them when they were around!

But half of the Beatles are still alive and doing...and the heyday of all of them is well within living memory of anyone born before say 1965 ish and believe it or not there are quite a few of us them. But don't worry we'll be dead before you know it.

But seriously they are one of the biggest phenomena in social history in about two hundred years. We forget them...just as we forget say rationing and women's emancipation... at our peril.

My feeling is that you can't really dictate on questions of musical taste. People like what they like, for reasons that one might never understand.

However, when I come across someone who doesn't recognise that the Beatles were the most inventive, most musically diverse, most influential and most important musical phenomenon of the last hundred years, I pretty much dismiss their views on not just music but everything else too. I don't argue. I don't protest. I merely despair, and having despaired, I move on.

My kids are musicians, and many musical kids hang out at our house - young people in their late teens and early twenties. I do not need to flog the Beatles to them. I'm delighted to say they show up already closely familiar with all the records, from 1962 onwards. About a dozen gathered here to watch all eight hours of Get Back when it was released. They're deeply invested in the Beatles.

So something's going on that's not like the fading away of any other pop group. Something in that music transcends the usual life expectancy of popularity. So the documentaries are not going to stop when the children of the sixties drop off the twig. This is intrinsic to western culture now.

My son is 21 and loves the Beatles! And Elvis and loads of bands from 60/79/80s. They shaped music (and I think are vastly superior to much of the music released today). I loved the three part documentary about Abbey Road that was released last year (maybe the year before). My son and I watched it together.

It’s called history.