Yesterday and Today: The Beatles in the Eyes of Gen Z
The Beatles on top of the Apple Corps Headquarters roof circa 1969. Credit: George Patino Castos via Flickr
Jan. 30, 1969, London, England. It’s a cold and foggy day, about 45 degrees. By all accounts, it would seem that everything is normal.
Nothing could signify to pedestrians that today would become anything of note. Five stories up the Apple Corps headquarters, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are debating whether or not to perform for the first time for a live audience in three years. This would be the band’s final performance together as they would eventually break up the following year. Until the very last moment, before the band decided what they would do, it was completely silent. The four members, the director of the project Michael Lindsay-Hoggs, as well as the keyboardist for the day, Billy Preston, waited on bated breath before the silence was broken by Lennon, who said, “F**k it- let's do it.” The group performed for 42 minutes until it was shut down by police.
The Beatles’ history is full of moments like this. Their long and culturally revolutionary journey as a group is a massive point of interest for historians and fans. Not only is their discography and musical talent some of the best in history, but the story behind the group is also the material of legend.
However, over time it seems that the band is becoming less revered in the eyes of younger generations. While the Boomer Generation adored the band, their children and grandchildren do not have the same love for the group. A survey from British radio station Radio X took 2,000 respondents made up of Baby Boomers and Gen Z. The survey showed that 1 out of every 3 Gen Zers was familiar with or a fan of the Beatles.
The natural progression for the popularity of something is to grow from obscurity to admiration, then after admiration to overrated. From popular television shows, artists, companies and athletes, all of these members of the cultural zeitgeist are subject to having the public eventually turn on them. Articles like Vice News’ “There Are Some Totally Legit Reasons to Hate The Beatles” and the Sydney Morning Herald's “The Beatles are the Most Overrated Product of the Past Half Century,” as well as countless Reddit pages, have declared the band as boring and over-valued. The superfans of the sixties appear to be disappearing as the new and jaded generations take over the general opinion.
The magic of the group fading over time may be because heights they reached. The fairy tale story of the Beatles is one of the most well-known mythologies in music. Starting from obscurity as young men from Liverpool, the gradual rise to stardom, the explosion of popularity and invasion of the United States, the complete reconstruction of identity and style, and finally, the biggest break up in music history. The iconic nature of their story perfectly matches their discography and progression in artistic evolution. While all of this may be lost on present and future generations, it is important to preserve history. The sad reality is the realization that this is the natural process of art and history. Nothing gold can stay. In an age of heightened interactivity on social media, self-obsession and lowering attention spans, the Beatles music can’t compete with 2023 entertainment. It’s not much of a wonder why Gen Z is turning their backs on the fab four and taking a quote from John; “I don't’ believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.”