I just tuned in to Last FM Radio, and discovered that The Beatles are apparently the most popular - 223,611,661 plays, 2,005,883 listeners. Some other artists had more listeners (eg Coldplay 2,754,651 listeners) but nevertheless The Beatles topped the chart due to the number of plays. It's 50 years since this group started, and around 40? since they split up, so are most of the the listeners on Last FM in their 40s, 50s and 60s? I wouldn't have thought that was the case, so does that mean a lot of young people are listening to The Beatles? And if so, why?

I'm sixteen and loved the Beatles from being little, however, our summer show at dancing was centred on their music and I can honestly say I am thoroughly sick of hearing the Beatles...so I sympthasise with the "if so, why?" question-they are a tad repetitive *waits to be attacked*

I have to agree with you on that one! I've always liked the Beatles. They have written some good songs and their style of music was pretty new when it came out but.....given the choice I'd rather listen to the Rolling Stones!!

I don't really like them Some of their songs I wouldn't mind hearing, but I probably wouldn't choose to listen to them

I think if you listened to them between the years of 1963 and 1970 (as did I) you would appreciate they were no more repetitive than any other band of their time. Indeed, over that 7 year period their style changed enormously (consider going from Please Please Me via Sgt Pepper to the White Album and onwards). I'm not going to knock the Stones (I listened to them too and occasionally still do), but in terms of sheer inventiveness they don't come close to the Beatles. Indeed even when I became besotted by what we called prog rock in those days, although I spent most of my time listening to the likes of Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, I always found room for the Fab Four. I consider their last albums Abbey Road and Let it Be to be masterpieces.

They were on a level of their own then and although there are a lot of superb modern bands now, speaking as an old f**t none of them have yet come close.

Early Beatles were "just another" skiffle band, albeit the tightest (i.e. best rehearsed) around. If they has split after only 4 albums I suspect that a) we would hardly have heard of them (tour of America notwithstanding) and b) we would not have had prog rock, punk or any of the other major music trends that followed. Late Beatles, when they started to do the unexpected, were innovative eventually to the point of being revolutionary in a way that is almost impossible to appreciate in retrospect. That the music they produced was not only revolutionary but also (mostly) of the very highest quality in terms of song-writing, playing and production (do not confuse simplicity with low quality) is another reason why they remain one of the most popular bands with almost all age-groups.

To use a footballing phrase: Form is temporary, class is permanent.

Here, here.

Oh thank goodness, at least I'm not the only one! I particularly hate Here Comes The Sun and For The Benefit Of Mr Kite...bad, bad memories I do love Something, however

Ah you see. It's the association that puts you off them, not the songs themselves. How could you hate Mr Kyte?

You may be redeemable.

I don't like every single Beatles tune they did - no one can please everyone all the time - but the amount of fantastic songs they wrote is just extraordinary - think of Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, Michelle, That Girl, She's Leaving Home, Ask Me Why, Day in the Life, Blackbird just to name some of the most melodic...

There was no one like them and in my book no one pop band has ever been able to come near them - they were in class of their own entirely.

But perhaps it's also to do with when you heard them - for me they came along in my formative years. I was 13 when She Loves You came out, and 15-16 when they went psychedelic, which was exactly when I 'went psychedelic' - it was what was happening at the time, and for my generation the Beatles felt like fellow-travellers as well as instigators. The day Sergeant Pepper came out was a day never to forget - I can still see the friend I bumped into on the High St that day, clutching the first copy I saw - and the next thing to do was rush to the record shop and buy it myself. As we all bought the White Album on the day it came out, and as for the day Abbey Road came out! I can remember a group of us in a house in Welwyn Garden City sitting in a circle on the floor of someone's room, listening to the album all the way through on the day it came out as if it was some kind of sacrement or something! And when the same track came round again at the end, making it into a sort of whole, we felt history had just been made...

Amazing times.

Our teenage sons ripped all my old CDs and have the Beatles on their PC so I hear them blaring away quite often. Then one of them 'discovered' Madness and suddenly I heard songs I hadn't listened to in over 20 years!

Steve

How many of you here are really hoping that the National Trust save Abbey Road studios for the nation?...