Broken Hearted Toy tells us that yesterday was Global Beatles Day. Who knew?! But, really, in my head, everyday is a Beatles day. No, I don't play their music every day, I don't always think of them either, but everything I do listen to, or think about, in my little Pop Universe, has been influenced by them.
As Chuck Klosterman famously said, they are the greatest band, they wrote all the best songs, they were supremely commercial and supremely artistic, and even though you could buy a Beatles' wig, and a Beatles lunchbox, for some reason, they didn't seem like "sellouts," just an amazingly popular and creative band. How was that possible?
They were the lovable Mop Tops and then morphed into an artsy Pop band. Everything they did was interesting, and exciting, and the world was listening. For a certain generation, the Beatles story is the Pop Culture Origin Story. "Once upon a time, four wee lads from Liverpool conquered the world..."
Every band after them, whether they knew it or not, felt the influence of this band. Even if you hated the Beatles, you were touched by them. And it's amazing, and maybe not so amazing, that this band and it's music still seems alive and even relevant today.