The Beatles weren't really groundbreaking in any genre. They weren't the first in bubblegum pop, they weren't the first in folk rock, they weren't the first in psychedelic rock. What exactly did they do to earn them the reputation of a huge influence?

The innovation that they brought to many genres. They practically invented the concept album with SPLHCB. The White Album is a collection of genres that they attempted from surf rock (Back In The U.S.S.R.) to proto-metal (Helter Skelter) to dance hall (Honey Pie) to experimental (Revolution 9). Its not about who started it, its about who changed it.

Robert Johnson...bing him, or if you prefer google him

Well who knows who invented genres not that it matters because it's very arguable the Beatles were at the start of folk rock and psychedelic rock. The Byrds got the idea of both folk with rock and the 12 string jangle pop sound from the Beatles. It was already noticed by other folkies also.

BARRY McGUIRE

What were the key motivations behind your switch from the commercial folk you were doing with the New Christy Minstrels to folk-rock?

"But times changed, and I changed, and I didn't feel that way anymore. The Beatles were happening. I think that was probably the main thing. The Beatles just changed the whole world of music".

As for psychedelic rock if you listen to take 2 of "Norwegian Wood" you could hear clearly they were heading into psychedelic rock. As it is you can argue that songs like "Eight Miles High", "Shapes of Things" are rock songs with eastern influences. "Tomorrow Never Knows" was intentionally meant to sound psychedelic and it was also extremely progressive for it's time.

Maybe the most influential thing they did for rock music was broadened the scope of songwriting and the increase use of studio resources.

In the book Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles and it has an interesting quote from Pete Townshend of the Who. Pete says the Beatles brought songwriting into rock and roll. What he meant was the Beatles brought a complete arsenal of recourses into their songwriting and this broadened what a pop song can do.

Also having over 10,000 cover versions of their songs sort of blows away most self-contained rock bands. Oh by the way also they clearly influenced progressive rock, basically invented power pop and "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one of the most influential electronic songs. Basically every self-contained rock band owes something to the Beatles as it was really them that made the solo/frontman/artist/magager not as important as it was in the 50's.

I chose The Beatles. In their short tenure they had Bubblegum pop, rock, folk, psychedelia, and even attempted some other generes in various songs.

So often when im listening to other music not even related to rock do i hear The Beatles.

All i have heard from Badfinger sounds like a bad attempt at Beatles 2.0.

I've heard the Beatles in Nirvana (about a girl), Chemical Brothers (Private Psychedelic Reel), MGMT(Weekend Wars), Oasis (Don't look Back), Klaxons (Golden Skans), The Verve (Bittersweet Symphony).

Those are just a few examples and there influence is far reaching to other bands on this list and heavily throughout the 70's and 80's

Uhm, Frank Zappa.

uhm, how?

prolific - absolutely, i just don't see where his influence is.


and to the person who posted before you. how can you say Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve sounds like the Beatles when they had to pay ALL the royalties from that song to the Rolling Stones because it was a clear ripoff of one of their songs?

The way he interjected humor into his work and exercised (arguably) more genres than any other composer, the fact that he was a huge figure in fighting censorship, and if Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band can be considered a concept album, then Freak Out! is the first concept album. He wrote hooky, funny pop songs to crazy, fucked up avant-garde jazz/rock, and has some odd, odd lyrics. He was an excellent satirist, and he was probably the most prolific record maker of his time. Maybe. His ideas are DNA for all sorts of stuff.

In short, he broke down a lot of genre barriers, wrote some of the best records, was an excellent satirist, and stood for freedom of speech more than anyone else.

How can 1 band change history too much? I like Led Zeppelin alot but can't call them the most influential rock group ever. Same with The Who. They influenced many bands which led to an overall influence in rock. But hey, you can't call 1, 2 even 5 bands the most influential. Music evolved, these bands helped it evolve. See. They all had their own sounds. Led Zeppelin sounded nothing like The Who... Hendrix nothing like Bob Dylan... you just can't compare.

The point that you can't compare is kind of relevant to the point.

No, there's no definitive one-man-show when it comes to influence, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to compare top artists for influence. I see where you're coming from, but don't make it less fun, homie.