The Beatles: the Greatest Band of All Time?
The Beatles:
The Greatest Band of All Time?
By: Erin Bozone
Ask anyone. Read any music magazine. Go to any store. The Beatles are everywhere because of the legendary contributions they made to musical history and pop culture. They are frequently referred to as the greatest band of all time. But were they really? In this paper, I will compare and contrast two conflicting opinions on The Beatles: Howard Goodall’s documentary “20th Century Greats: The Beatles” and Piero Scaruffi’s written criticism on the band. I began reading Scaruffi’s web-based criticism, and despite being fore-warned of his unpleasant disposition, found its cynical and loathsome attitude to be unpleasant to read. Throughout the entire piece of writing, Scaruffi never ceased his constant verbal attack on The Fab Four, mercilessly calling them mediocre and generally uncreative musicians. He numerously accuses them of shameless imitation of other groups. He makes it very clear that he only believes The Beatles achieved their colossal fame due to extreme luck and just being at the right place at the right time. They arrived just as the white middle class were beginning to feel untrustworthy of the African-American-influenced Rock and Roll. They emerged out of nowhere with a polished and tamer version, stripped of it’s black roots that was more appealing and erased the idea it was a bad influence on the youth of the time. Scaruffi doesn’t believe The Beatles to be as world-shatteringly revolutionary as every single other person on the face of planet Earth does, bluntly stating that “Their music was just easy to sell to the masses... and they were photogenic”. Scaruffi credits their immense success not to musical ability, but to the fact that they were sellable, appealed to a broad audience, and had an infinitely accomplished producer. Scaruffi knows that George Martin was acutely influential on The Beatles musical choices and
The Greatest Band of All Time?
By: Erin Bozone
Ask anyone. Read any music magazine. Go to any store. The Beatles are everywhere because of the legendary contributions they made to musical history and pop culture. They are frequently referred to as the greatest band of all time. But were they really? In this paper, I will compare and contrast two conflicting opinions on The Beatles: Howard Goodall’s documentary “20th Century Greats: The Beatles” and Piero Scaruffi’s written criticism on the band. I began reading Scaruffi’s web-based criticism, and despite being fore-warned of his unpleasant disposition, found its cynical and loathsome attitude to be unpleasant to read. Throughout the entire piece of writing, Scaruffi never ceased his constant verbal attack on The Fab Four, mercilessly calling them mediocre and generally uncreative musicians. He numerously accuses them of shameless imitation of other groups. He makes it very clear that he only believes The Beatles achieved their colossal fame due to extreme luck and just being at the right place at the right time. They arrived just as the white middle class were beginning to feel untrustworthy of the African-American-influenced Rock and Roll. They emerged out of nowhere with a polished and tamer version, stripped of it’s black roots that was more appealing and erased the idea it was a bad influence on the youth of the time. Scaruffi doesn’t believe The Beatles to be as world-shatteringly revolutionary as every single other person on the face of planet Earth does, bluntly stating that “Their music was just easy to sell to the masses... and they were photogenic”. Scaruffi credits their immense success not to musical ability, but to the fact that they were sellable, appealed to a broad audience, and had an infinitely accomplished producer. Scaruffi knows that George Martin was acutely influential on The Beatles musical choices and
Cited: Goodall, Howard, dir. "The Beatles." Howard Goodall 's 20th Century Greats. Channel 4: 2004. Television. Scaruffi, Piero. "The Beatles." www.Scaruffi.com. N.p., 1999. Web. 29 Nov 2011. .