The difference is that "Beatlemania" was a worldwide obsession for over a decade, and their effect on pop culture is massive. Jane's Addiction is a pop culture footnote, even if Lollapalooza survives another five years.panicparty wrote:The Beatles: A pretty big deal back in the day, but nowadays people are listening to their music and a lot of them are wondering what the big deal is? How are / were people so passionate about music which is maybe great in places, but pretty weak a lot of the rest of the time?
Well, maybe it's not actually that much about the music itself? Maybe it's about that band, at that moment in time and the cultural impact they had? Maybe it could have been any one of a number of bands doing what they were doing at the time, but they were the four guys who found themselves in right place, at the right time and what they did, with what (maybe somewhat limited) talent they had, just struck a chord with the kids at the right moment.
Listening to the music on its own, without the context in which it arose, is maybe ultimately futile? You'll never "get" the Beatles unless you lived through that period in history, and experienced what the Beatles brought against a backdrop of what was available on the radio and in the record stores before they brought it?
Maybe some or all of the above also applies to Jane's Addiction? (oops, sorry to bring things back 'on topic')?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatle ... ar_culture
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/musi ... mbers.html
Popularity doesn't imply musical talent, of course. But these claims about not being able to "get" something unless you lived through it are probably overstated. Lots of people, including myself, "got" Jane's Addiction a decade after they broke up the first time... Lots of people get Elvis or the Beatles or Schumann or Mozart or whoever. The fact that some people are ignorant and literally don't know the history of these people AND they also happen not to think they're great doesn't matter. As KV likes to say: taste is taste. But this isn't about taste, it's about objective things, like novelty, ingenuity, impact, etc. And the facts just don't support denying those things to the Beatles.