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9.24am
26 January 2017
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Hi everyone. I’m sorry if this is a thread that has been made before, but I just watched the trailer for a new film called Yesterday , in which a young musician discovers he’s the only one who can remember the Fab Four, and I was wondering how different the music industry would be if they had never existed.
Here are some of my thoughts:
The decline of rock n roll music: By 1963, the first wave of rock n roll stars had pretty much all faded from their former glory. Elvis was a production line of bad movies, Buddy Holly had died, Little Richard had renounced his music in favour of spirituality, etc etc.. Without the Beatles to pump new life into the movement both commercially and musically, I think it would have died off and been replaced by other sounds, potentially the flourishing Motown and folk movements at the time, which could have become the dominant popular genre.
DIY acts: The Beatles are commonly credited as one of the first successful acts to write their own songs, and famously refused to record the song ‘How Do You Do It ‘ in favour of their own material. By becoming the biggest band in the world, they essentially set the precedent for artists writing, playing and singing their own material that continues to this day, and their success resulted in other artists feeling obligated to do the same or risk ridicule for being phoneys, like the Monkees. If they never existed, then maybe songwriting wouldn’t have caught on with young musicians, who would have focused on performance rather than songwriting.
Popularising the band format: as well as writing their own songs, The Beatles popularised the lineup of electric guitar/ electric bass/ drums which remains the backbone of most bands to this day. This led directly to other labels signing bands in a similar lineup, like the Rolling Stones, Kinks and Who in order to rival EMI’s money making machine that was the Beatles. So these bands would likely never have come to prominence without the commercial support of major labels.
Singles vs Albums: With Rubber Soul , The Beatles inspired Brian Wilson to create Pet Sounds, which was groundbreaking in its unified form and directly inspired Sgt Pepper which many consider one of the first concept albums. This soon led to albums overtaking singles in sales and being considered the definitive creative statement that an artist could make. If this development hadn’t happened, then maybe artists would just continue to churn out albums more in the Please Please Me model.
A few musical developments I could think of: Dylan not going electric and The Byrds not adopting the Rickenbackers would mean folk rock didn’t happen as a genre. Their experiments with both Western and Hindustani classical instrumentation as well as tape loops could have done the same for psychedelic rock. Prog rock and all the excess of the 70s that led to the punk movement could also be considered a result of the psychedelic rock movement, so by extension we wouldn’t have had that whole movement, or post punk, or new wave.
And, of course we wouldn’t have this wonderful forum and community .
Hope this provides some food for thought. I’d love to hear all of your ideas, since this has really got me thinking.
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2.16pm
Moderators
27 November 2016
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It’s kind of hard to imagine, because a lot of the really successful bands were influenced by the Beatles. I guess music wouldn’t have developed in the way it did so I guess music today might sound very different? We might be 10 years behind or in front of where we are now, I don’t know.
My brain hurts after writing that small paragraph. Can’t imagine writing that huge post QM!
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6.07pm
26 January 2017
Offline The Hole Got Fixed said
It’s kind of hard to imagine, because a lot of the really successful bands were influenced by the Beatles. I guess music wouldn’t have developed in the way it did so I guess music today might sound very different? We might be 10 years behind or in front of where we are now, I don’t know.My brain hurts after writing that small paragraph. Can’t imagine writing that huge post QM!
It’s pretty mind boggling to think about. I think we’d probably be a long way behind, since all the brilliant creative minds of the 60s and 70s might not have been given the chance of a commercial platform by record labels.
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The Hole Got Fixed, BeatlebugI've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
6.21pm
Moderators
27 November 2016
Offline That’s a good point – if ‘guitar bands were on the way out’ when the Beatles auditioned for Decca, they were a chance the EMI took. The precedent set by them paved the way for all guitar bands – also crooners would probably be much more common too.
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12.44pm
26 January 2017
Offline Exactly, and if you think about how many guitar bands we’ve had since them. The Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and so on… and that’s just the late 60s and early 70s…
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The Hole Got Fixed, SgtPeppersBulldog, Von Bontee, BeatlebugI've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
11.34am
25 December 2017
Offline Girl Groups and Surf Rock would’ve lasted a lot longer. Rock probably would sound more like Poco
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8.24am
4 August 2015
Offline I like what everybody said above.
Bands like the Rolling Stones were starting out around the same time as the Beatles. But without the Beatles around writing their own songs, the Stones may have not felt the pressure to write their own material. They may not have evolved beyond a blues cover band and would have faded away after a while. A similar fate may also occur with other British bands we know and love. Would Ray Davies have evolved the way he did?
There might have never been a full scale British Invasion in the USA too. With no British band creating the same furor the Beatles did, Ed Sullivan would not be as inspired to bring any British bands across the pond. The average American would not have heard of most of these bands since they pretty much stayed in England. There might be an exception or two as a one hit wonder, though.
Without a British Invasion, the music of the prior generation in America would remain popular a bit longer. We’d have more soft hits from the Frank Sinatra types. Surf music would still be popular for a while. Maybe Brian Wilson would still have the desire to expand the Beach Boy sound. But without the Beatles as an influence, would it have been the same? Would we still have a Pet Sounds or something totally different?
I don’t think Motown would have been affected much. They were cranking out hits before the Beatles and would still do so throughout the 60s.
Even without the Beatles, the political and social climate would still take place. I believe there would still be musical reactions to these issues. But how would they sound? And would there still be hippies as we know them? Perhaps to some degree. We might see beatniks a bit longer although they may may evolve into something with a different style of dress and different name.
It would probably take a few more years, but eventually somebody somewhere would notice how stale the music scene was getting. Perhaps a new genre we can’t imagine would become popular. But I doubt any specific artist or band would be as big as the Beatles. They were the “perfect storm” for the times.
That is my theory which belongs to me and is mine.
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8.30am
26 January 2017
Offline It’s interesting to imagine who or what would have fulfilled the role of the Beatles. Would it have been a group, or another huge solo artist like Elvis? I was thinking maybe Michael Jackson, who had his first hits as a child in the late 60s/70s, but even he took a huge amount of inspiration from The Beatles.
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GetbackintheussrI've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
9.13am
7 November 2022
Offline Huh. I would have expected more buzz & commentary here about that movie referenced in the OP, “Yesterday “, about a guy who does cover versions of the Beatles, then gets hit by a bus and wakes up to find himself in an alternate universe where the Beatles never existed, and so when he plays Beatles songs, everyone is astounded and thinks he’s a great songwriter.
Now today I find, you have changed your mind
11.34am
7 November 2010
Offline There is another thread on the film
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10.05pm
7 November 2022
Offline Thanks. 5 pages of comments and not many actual reviews by people who actually saw it. My favorite comment was —
I believe this is a film? Like ‘Toy Story’
I think in films they use cameras and lighting…….Everything is actually just made up. They are supposed to be entertaining. But they only ever work as entertainment if people can suspend their disbelief. If you’re so refined that you can’t do that then they don’t entertain and don’t work. None of them, ever! Be a waste of your time. Same for plays, they’re made up……And books ……Sometimes films are based on books……Like for example……. Lord of The Rings…..It’s a book and a film trilogy that’s done very well. There are a lot of fans of it here I believe. It’s about fairies and elves, wizards and stuff.
Now today I find, you have changed your mind
9.51am
14 June 2016
Offline A world without The Beatles would mean less of everything across the board. I don’t want to think about it.
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