Beatles vs. Boy Bands

It’s the 1960s and everything’s going awry from theaverage American parent’s viewpoint. Elvis Presley is gyrating his hips andmaking your daughter swoon while your son wants to put grease in his hair andstart swiveling, too. Then, just when you thought it couldn’t get much worse,four lads from Liverpool take America’s TV screens by storm. With good looks and”mop-top” haircuts, every girl wants to marry them and every guy wantsto either look like them or kill them for stealing their girlfriends’ attention.And their name? The Beatles? They can’t even spell correctly, you think. Withmessages like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You,”what’s a parent to do?

Now it’s 2001, and today’s youth want tough boys,boys from the back streets (though they look like runway models fresh off RodeoDrive). Today, there’s a new band of boys that has captured the wall space ofgirls’ bedrooms everywhere.

Girls are hot for guys who beg, in song, for girls to”Quit Playin’ Games with My Heart.” But don’t forget, if a girl’s nottreating these boys right, they can just say “Bye, Bye, Bye.”

Itseems the new millennium brought a mega-virus to the boy-band super computer.Some 60-year-old guys were stealing the spotlight from the pin-up boys of today!Who could that be? None other than the kings of pop culture, the Beatles. Couldit be that quality is what prevails over youthful good looks?Precisely!

The Beatles’ latest album claimed the number one spot on theBillboard chart over the Backstreet Boys’ new album. Although “1” heldthe top spot for only a week against the pop moguls from the back streets, thatone week was a triumph for quality music of the past.

“1”includes 26 tracks in order of release date. With such toe-tappers as “SheLoves You” and “Can’t Buy Me Love,” how can you not be compelledto travel further into the musical icons’ ingenious forest of impeccable music?With “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby,” the maturity levelrises. The songs’ simplicity range from a lone guitar solo to a beautifulorchestral piece.

There’s a little something for everyone on the Beatles’album, unlike the mushy ballads and digital beats of most boy bands today. Theonly complaint avid Beatles listeners might have is that such classics as”In My Life” or “And I Love Her” are not included becausethey were never released as singles.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love boybands and have actually been to many *NSync concerts. It’s just that much oftoday’s pop music is like candy. You can gorge yourself on it for only so longuntil one day it makes you sick. The Beatles are like fruits and veggies. Youhave to grow up first to appreciate them, but once you do, they’ll only make youstronger!