I actually
will give you an opinion
.......(you'll see why in a min
)
can't tell you anything really about Radiohead's career/creative arcs [NYC commercial radio had gotten so spotty in playing new(er) bands in the by mid-90's & '00's till recently, and I lost 1 major college station in a move, and no access to acquiring mp3 formaatted music. Of course I've heard a
few of their songs over the year.
But I
can speak fairly knowledgeibly about The Beatles and their album changes because I'm a serious R&R fan- seen hundreds of people live, listened to a
lot of radio- and I was/am a Beatles fan during their career once they hit the USA in '64 at 11 yrs.
My opinion & take on the Fab4 in general, and how they changed things....
they
were very inventive over the years, And their earlier pop-rock (and maybe even some of their R&B covers {some of that honed in on their Live Show at a club in Hamburg, Germany I think even before their famous Cavern <Liverpool> gigs} was
incredibly catchy & powerful.
Since the USA was the rising Superpower it was in the 50's & 60's - "making it" here in USA was a ticket to Super Fame since we were importing our pop & other creative culture around the world.
It really took a
strong place on the USA pop charts, and then opened the doorway for other brit bands, and in counter-turn spurred USA musicians further, and they took off esp of course as "the 60's" arose....... and the cross-competition & cross-influences went further.
For instance, there is probably a strong arguement that California Fun in the sun & surf rock.... Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, influneces dipped as The Beatles got stronger.
con't in a min
ok, I iz back
I'm not disregarding R&B & Soul etc-- they were
quite on top of the charts as a part of the 60's BUT AS FM RADIO
arose -- Music on the AM dial beagn to split apart into Black, Latin & White. At some FM station's they stayed happily in an lively mix, but as it got bigger, and more & more structured and narrowing playlists started to take over from more Freeform
Radio. And
even FM Radio started to also split into White, Latin & Black Radio, and then Black FM radio turned Urban Radio, before Hip Hop arose.
So the Beatles radically changed the direction of R&R in general......
And when they after growing sophistication musically and in the peeks of approaching psychedelia on Revolver & Rubber Soul -- the FULL ON Bright & Dark colors of Sargent Pepper's-- just spun people around!
The White Album-- maybe a bit less, but still very much head-spinnig work on there.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
SO as to U2's changes from
JT/R&H to AB/Zooropia being an
equal type of turn around, and
as important on to U2 fans as The Beatles changes in R&R Music was for their fans....an
absolute YES in MHO... and perhaps a little bit below in turns of over all importance R&R Music changes .....
I don't know if it was quite as big in terms of number of acticles.......
You might also try googling up
Melody Maker-- it goes back further than Q, and
I think it was still around in the early-mid 90's. Also try (Brit) Sounds, as well!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As for my
Beatles fanship " vs " U2 etc....
because of how The Beats
incredibly, indelibly changed American Popular Music forever ....
..... in fact for you SF "geeks" out there (I'm one, too :neasrd:
)- I'm sure somehow it's floating around virtually somewhere on the web, or info as to where it might be found
There's an Episiode of SLIDER'S that has them go to a USA where the Beatles did NOT get to America, or something like that!
OOooo, I hadn't thot about
that episoide in a long time ....I'm gonna look it up myself!
.....I'd have to hold them a bit at least) above everyone who followed......
I
have found for me that The Who, Springsteen & E St,
and U2 are
equal to The Beatles as far as creativity & power goes.
We'll, of course, never know
how good The Beatles would have been as a LIVE! touring band in their mid & later work.
I certainly think
U2 and the others as I just mentioned were certainly
their equals in LIVE! perfomances as far as you could match them in a sort of chronological way till the Beatles "left the field" which you could almost literally say since SHEA Stadium was one of the last places they played/toured.