there's songs with billions of views right now on youtube that i have a feeling they might dissolve in time pretty quick

but for some reason some beatles songs are stuck to memory more than them and don't seem to dissolve as much at least...

what made them so intangible in time?

thanks

EDIT: i wanted to also add, they probably have the most memorable picture of any band out there, which may also have contributed in some way

 

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Early access to George Martin samplepacks & Abbey Road plugins...

 

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they were simply great musicians with excellent ideas & songs, and created thier own and new sound

 

No drum machines, no computers, everything is analog. The rest is pure magic.

4 real, lively people with hearts and minds played the music themselves.
Each of them could play an instrument.

Singing, rhythm guitar, piano = John Lennon
Vocals, guitar, bass, piano = Paul McCartney
Vocals, lead guitar, sitar = George Harrison
Drums, percussion, vocals = Ringo Starr

Techno is soulless music.

 

This may sound unpopular but context, advertising and branding (including their video clips and movies) made a huge part on their popularity, aside from their songs being excellently crafted and they being at the front of the popular production avant-garde at the time.

Keep in mind most music genres and trends are fated to disappear and be replaced (impermanence is ruthless and also applies to music). Also keep in mind we now, for example, think and write with our roots based on the classical tonal language consolidated in Europe during the XVIII century but till then we had almost a thousand years of modal monophonic chant and different polyphonic traditions which we now only know a few composers and names and that are invariably confined to a niche audience as "historical" music.

It makes you think.

 

Hello @ Djord Emer, I totally disagree with you. I cannot agree with you at all.
That's probably because I was a little older and grew up with the Beatles.

Very good music never disappears, it survives everything.

 

Hello Foster. There are many things that make Beatles songs hooky and memorable. If you study them you will find lots of things about what makes them hooky, singable, memorable, etc. (that's what I have done for the last...20 years or so, on and off. Lots of compositional tools to be "found" in their music.)
Keep it up Foster!

 

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You're wecolme to disagree, no problem there!

Cheers.

 

...yeah, well they were bigger than cheeses:

 

There are no easy answers to this. It wasn't just the music because the era in which The Beatles thrived included 10 years of the greatest upheaval in social norms, possibly in history. It has been argued that The Beatles were in some ways responsible for this revolution, but I think they were simply at the right time and place.
This band spearheaded changes in fashion as well. Hair got longer, skirts got shorter and "the pill" came on the market. Sex was a ubiquitous part of teenage life and they wanted fresh music to go with it.
Then there is a vital incident. Two of the most talented writers of the 20th Century met and the team Lennon/McCartney came to be. They were very competitive and each pushed to create more adventurous music than the other. So, an album like Please Please Me which was very much a product of it's time, would result in songs and sounds that in less than 5 years, would be unrecognisable to an audience in 1962.
The suits were gone, replaced by hippie rainbow clothes. The mop top hair was gone, replaced by long hair and beards. The instruments had changed. Not just guitars, but mellotrons and early modular Moogs. What other band can change themselves and the world around them in five years?
Then there are the songs. Why are they great? I think because to this day they remain challenging. Superficially many may seem simple, but there is always more to a Beatles song than meets the eye. Then there are the songs that are still hard to unravel. Tomorrow Never Knows. She Said, She Said or A Day In The Life which still sounds ominous to this day.

 

Because they were musicians not producers. Today songs are made by producers without the intervention of musicians.


Musicians rare but producers everywhere...

 

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George Martin

 

and that is the only reason? if so, why was the Phil Spector produced Let It Be album also a worldwide success?

 

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Very nice set of answers so far. So I liked pulling together my favourite bits...

• @Paul Pi :- Censored for stealing John Lennon's sense of humour
• @Jayster :- "they were simply great musicians with excellent ideas & songs, and created their own and new sound"
• @BEAT16 :- "4 real, lively people with hearts and minds played the music themselves."
• @Baxter :- "There are many things that make Beatles songs hooky and memorable... Lots of compositionally tools to be "found" in their music."
• @Lenny Belardo II:- "There are no easy answers to this... Two of the most talented writers of the 20th Century met and the team Lennon/McCartney came to be... the songs. Why are they great? I think because to this day they remain challenging. Superficially many may seem simple, but there is always more to a Beatles song than meets the eye."
• @Riviera:- "Because they were musicians not producers."
• @Kluster :- "George Martin"

Adding just one point... Before their first hit single, over an 18 months period, they played live for four hours a night, for 270 nights. They discovered that being a whole band is more than the sum of the parts.
This "music as a live organic process" is a huge factor - and the Beatles just took that for granted.
I would query @Jayster 'great musicians' but that's a very tiny quibble. i.e., the Beatles were really excellent (individually, and as a band) at playing their own songs (and a few early covers) but they would have struggled to make careers as versatile session musicians.

But even with that essential live band experience, and being a brilliant band, I think the answers already given above are right to emphasise how their talented creative songwriting craft is (by far) the most important ingredient.

 

This is the only keyword in your comment (other words don't matter much):




Music is even much more important than musician.

 

Can you sing many of their tunes in the shower?
What makes a hit tune?

The answers vary depending on how technical anyone wishes to get so I'll keep it simple. The Beatles tunes that are so well known are catchy, that is, people can latch onto it as sure as they end up singing those advertisements they hated and slap themselves for whistling or humming because they were catchy...."She loves you, yeah,yeah,yeah..." - Just from that you can see the people who wrote Bieber's "Baby,baby,baby,baby"....knew exactly what they were doing and as much as I detested that tune, I can see why it was popular.

With or without George Martin, in short, Lennon and McCartney were a collaborative hit machine. Martin was the cream and strawberries on the pavlova, not the core ingredients metaphorically, as great as George Martin was.

 

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They were trying to be as good as the Rolling Stones, so their music became almost as good.

 

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That's an impossible comparison because they were completely different. You may as well say that's because they were trying to be as good as the Beach Boys, except Wilson went into a state of depression when he heard Sgt. Peppers, and Keith Richards said they also tried to do a similar thing with Satanic Majesties and failed. All three of those bands were unique.

 

Although the Beatles never wrote as good a song as The Rolling Stones first single "I Wanna Be Your Man"