If that’s the reason, where does the idolization come from? Even as human individuals, the Beatles members are worshipped to the point they can save a dying business by talking about it. It’s suggestive of the fact there’s some unspoken gimmick at play.
My take is that people value music both for the music itself, and for the social identity that comes from how we relate to it. The Beatles benefited from Beatlemania back in the day, which was the same as the Swifties phenomenon today: a social-identity group of fans. There might have been better bands in the early '60s, but the music of the Beatles was really quite good, and still holds its own today. Tons of great music has come along since then, so the Beatles catalogue no longer stands out, but they still benefit from the social-identity hype of Beatlemania, and are still revered because they were (lucky enough to get to be) pop-music pioneers.
If that’s the reason, where does the idolization come from? Even as human individuals, the Beatles members are worshipped to the point they can save a dying business by talking about it. It’s suggestive of the fact there’s some unspoken gimmick at play.
My take is that people value music both for the music itself, and for the social identity that comes from how we relate to it. The Beatles benefited from Beatlemania back in the day, which was the same as the Swifties phenomenon today: a social-identity group of fans. There might have been better bands in the early '60s, but the music of the Beatles was really quite good, and still holds its own today. Tons of great music has come along since then, so the Beatles catalogue no longer stands out, but they still benefit from the social-identity hype of Beatlemania, and are still revered because they were (lucky enough to get to be) pop-music pioneers.