HelloAngel said:The way I look at it is this... think of the actors people still consider to be the BEST of all time.. Bogart, Grant, Bacall, etc. Why are they considered so?
Because they were the first ones of their kind. They were the first mega superstars in their line of work. So it was with the Beatles as a rock band. They were the first stratospheric rock band in a time when you didn't see that, and in a time when music wasn't nearly as diverse as it is now. Of course U2 hasn't racked up scads of #1 hits - they have too much competition now that the Beatles never did. There weren't thousands of artists and entire football stadiums full of umbrellas of genres back then like there is now.
The Beatles broke through in such an explosive way. They galvanized people. They were the big First. U2 galvanized people in a different way 20 odd years later, but still at a massive level. U2 will absolutely have the same staying power, but there will always be more ink and more reverance for those Big Firsts that we now call The Standards.
I think comparing the Beatles' remebrance level among music lovers -- who came along at a very different time in history and in music -- to U2 is possibly a mistake, and a ponderance out of context. I dunno. I mean, that's how I've always looked at it.
Well-said.