Help! I'm a Beatles hater (BBC article)

[T_i_B]

Not a viewpoint I share I must admit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8246313.stm

In an article for the Glasgow paper The Herald some years ago, author and music critic David Keenan set out to find musicians who shared his dislike of The Beatles - and could find no-one.

"It is a canon that you cannot question," he says. "Most people actually think you are just doing it for effect, putting on a front, playing the devil's advocate."

Nor are the band any more sacred to Keenan, who says: "There is something so incredibly prissy about their music."

"The Beatles are the absolute curse of modern indie music," Keenan says. "Anyone who says they are influenced by The Beatles, alarm bells start to go off; it means they are going to be completely ordinary. It's about writing this perfectly-crafted music, the classic song - in inverted commas. It's not about being adventurous."

[deucemagnet]

1. Thank you for this!

I am a Beatles hater. It's a stance even less popular than my atheism. It seems a bit silly, but it is heartening to know that other people share my negative opinion of the Beatles.

[Orsino]

2. "...it means they are going to be completely ordinary."

This strikes me as very similar to the old joke about Shakespeare's work being just a bunch of cliches.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the Beatles pioneered. Rather than simply deriding those who were influenced as "ordinary," we should credit the Beatles' influence as widespread and pervasive.

[gmoney]

6. I like that Shakespeare line...

Seems you can get an excellent book or movie title by just picking any short phrase randomly from Shakespeare.

[Captain Hilts]

3. What the hell, Frankie Vallie and the 4 Seasons need fans too. nt

[MilesColtrane]

4. Ah yes, the music critic.

The one who makes a living by assessing the failures of better men than himself...

[edbermac]

5. Mr Keenan, to quote Frank Zappa

Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read.