The "Greatest" Band ever?

**cobainage1994** · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 2020 Location: Whitewater , WI

As shown in the "Favorite" band ever thread, Scorehero has a wide variety of favorite bands. However, sometimes people still cite a band as the "greatest" though they may not be their favorite. For example, I have a friend who is a huge Franz Ferdinand fan, she says they are her favorite band, but she still cites The Beatles as the greatest band ever.

I have two reasons for making this topic.

First of all, having been a part of this community for quite awhile now, I know that most of Scorehero knows what they are talking about when it comes to music. So I am curious what the majority has to say is the "Greatest" band ever. I ask that you give as much detail and reasoning as possible when you give your answer. If you think Dream Theater deserves the crown of the greatest band ever, more power to you, but give reasons.

Second of all, I am giving a speech in my speech class as to why I think The Beatles should deserve the crown as the greatest band ever. So I am using this topic as well to collect data and opinions on what makes the Beatles the potential candidate for the greatest band ever. (As I am sure I am not the only one who will say the Beatles)

So on that note, as stated, I think The Beatles deserve this crown.

I am short on time with this post, so I will edit in more details later. But to give a quick synopsis as to why The Beatles deserve this crown.

Popularity: It is an undisputed fact that The Beatles were, and quite possibly still are, 40 years later, the most popular band in the world. They have the highest amount of record sales, the demand for them in the 60s was crazy, everyone one of their records sold incredibly well. Long story short, The Beatles were really Fucking popular/Beatlesmania.

Influence: The Beatles have pretty much influenced every artist is someway post 1964. They helped influence Sabbath, who pretty much influenced every other metal band. (This is debatable I understand) They influenced Led Zeppelin, who influenced many many more hard rock bands, and or course they influenced directly practically every other pop rock band known to existence. And If you ask your grand children who the pop rock band of the time is, The Beatles influenced them.

Genre Domination: The Beatles took a stab at, and dominated practically every genre in the pop and rock category. They had their highly successful pop love songs such as I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Love Me Do, She Loves You...the list goes on. They took their stab at your generic rock songs with songs such as Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Hard Rock (IMO) with Happiness is a Warm Gun, and even metal (Again, IMO) with Helter Skelter. They Dominated, and made famous the psychedelic genre of music with songs such as Tomorrow never knows, Within You Without You, Blue Jay Way, Strawberry Field Forever. This is just to name a few genres, but they did many more.

Firsts: The Beatles were the firsts to do A LOT of things. Very minuscule things that are notable, but haven't done too much with music, such as the first use of a harpsichord in a rock song (in my life), of the first use of a Sitar in a song (Norwegian Wood) They also Were the first to do many other important things though, such as the use of harmonies in rock songs, the use of tape loops, and the concept album (sgt peppers)

That was not as short as planned, so I need to head to class now! I look forward to hearing your guys responses.

**ganondorf901** · Joined: 28 Jul 2008 Posts: 846 Location: VA all the way

My post was going to be a "no such thing" post, but I am pretty sure The Beatles are without a doubt the most influential thing to music ever. Every genre of music has been effected in one way or another by thier music. Not often directly, but by influencing thier influencers and so forth. Give the name of a band and they will in some way be influenced by the Beatles or a genre that had its foundation set in stone by sometimes just one song.

Edit: Actually, give me a second and I'll make a list showing just that.
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**Boomsars** · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 1273 Location: Arkansas

I think the OP was heading in the right direction but ended up veering off there towards the end.

I'd say the Beatles were the greatest because, like the OP said, they were successful in every genre they attempted. They covered several major genres of music and not only was the music popular, but it was good (which is a huge difference).
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**Eastwinn** · Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 7:58 pm Post subject:

If you want to look at which people had the most influence on music, we need to look far, far back.

Almost every bit of music you've ever listened to is based on either the Major scale or the Minor scale. It's the foundation of modern Western 12-tone music. The invention of the Major and Minor scale are what mark the beginning of the Classical Era. This kind of music is called tonal.

Before tonal music, everything in Western Europe was modal, which meant it was based off of 1 of the 6 church modes around at the time (technically 7). Those were called Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, and Aeolian. The 7th, Locrian, isn't functional on it's own but has it's influence even in modern death metal. Ionian contains the same notes as the Major scale, and Aeolian contains the same as the Minor scale (technically referred to as the natural Minor scale in this case). There are key differences between Ionian/Aeolian and the rest of the modes that caused them to grow into the Major and Minor scale and totally overshadow the others.

If you've studied Greek history before then you've probably heard of the Phrygians (pronounced fridge-ee-ans), the Dorians (pronounced Door-ee-ans), the Ionians (Eye-o-knee-ans), and the Aeolians (A-o-lee-ans). The rest of the mode names are, as you expect, named after the other Greek tribes who invented them. The Greeks had even more modes, but Western Europe never really adopted them.

So why do I mention all of this? Well if we wanna say who had the most influence on modern Western 12-tone music, we have to give that hand to the Ionians and the Aeolians of Ancient Greece. Without them, we might still be listening to the other modes, or even dropped the idea of 12 tones altogether.

Edit: The other option is the Catholic Church. If there is request then I'll write about them later tonight. If the above peeked your interest then so will this.
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**GIRLintheFIRE** · Joined: 26 Dec 2009 Posts: 139

Eastwinn, you're looking passed the "band" concept, but I like where your head is at.

The term "Greatest" has more behind it than being good. You don't have to be the best to be the greatest. What greatest really has to do with is legacy.
Legacy's main deal is influence. If you're the most influential of something, you ARE the greatest. Sometimes the greatest is also the best, but that doesn't mean that it is always the case.

In this case, The Beatles is WITHOUT A DOUBT the greatest band ever. Even if the catholic church was a band when music was being developed, I don't think they'd be as directly influential as The Beatles were.
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**Klaww** · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 1296

Its really hard to say, but I'd say either The Beatles or Nirvana.
The Beatles because...well...they're the beatles...with all that legacy and popularity.

Nirvana because they took a generally unpopular genre and gave it full attention. Also Cobains lyrics are very meaningful to many's hearts, etc.

Also, i dont know exact numbers, but, aside from micheal jackson, Cobain and Lennon probably had the most people at their funerals, meaning they have a ton of fans following them.

Just my 2 cents.
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**Southparkhero** · Joined: 23 Aug 2008 Posts: 3251 Location: Some place in NJ.

**Eastwinn** · Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:44 am Post subject:

**OpenYourEyes** · Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 7:11 am Post subject:

The Beatles are pretty easy to argue being the greatest, but to all saying that they are, I ask a question: who influenced the Beatles? I mean, what their influences were never around? The Beatles wouldn't be as great.
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**GIRLintheFIRE** · Joined: 26 Dec 2009 Posts: 139

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**Abomstar** · Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 994 Location: Utica, NY

"Greatest", most popular, most influential, most groundbreaking, most talented. It's pretty much a clean sweep for 311.

**GIRLintheFIRE** · Joined: 26 Dec 2009 Posts: 139