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Analyzing The Beatles Chart Revolution

The Beatles, gone for 30 years, are #1 in a world of Britney, Backstreet and Bizkit, a world they never made. Or did they?

 

Some 30 years after the band's formal dissolution, The Beatles are the best-selling musical act in the United States and throughout the world. The Beatles 1, a collection of every Fab Four single that reached the top of the charts in the U.S. or the U.K. in the 1960s, has sold more than 5 million units and has spent seven out of the nine weeks since its release at the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart (the Backstreet Boys' Black & Blue was #1 for those two weeks out of the nine). The record has achieved similar chart-topping status in 34 countries.

 

To say the pop-music landscape of today is different from that of 1970 is a vast understatement. To begin with, The Beatles were at the center of popular music, and arguably of pop culture itself, between 1963 and 1970. Since that time, popular culture has become ever more decentralized, and thus, the possibility that one act can cull a consensus among a broad spectrum of music fans becomes ever more remote.

 

So what could account for the enormous success of this Beatles compilation?

" Nobody should be particularly surprised that it has been as successful," said Robert Christgau, Village Voice senior editor. "The Beatles are, alongside Elvis Presley, the dominant brand of pop music."

 

Nor should anyone be astonished to learn that the natural constituency of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys can be fans of John, Paul, George and Ringo, Christgau said. "Kids have always loved the Beatles — so do senior citizens. Unlike, say, the Rolling Stones, there's an ebullient, universal quality to their music, or at least their hits." Christgau said Yoko Ono sent The Beatles 1 to him as a Christmas gift.

 

Beatles spokesperson Geoff Baker corroborated Christgau's observation: "It's like Harry Potter, or a pair of Levis, or a Rolls-Royce," he said. "The reputation goes before it."

 

But Baker stressed that "in terms of expectations, nobody at [Beatles label] Apple or the Beatles themselves thought that nine weeks into the release of this album that it would be shipping 19.8 million. "What?" Baker cracked. "You gotta stop smokin' that sh--."

 

Billboard senior editor Ed Christman, who covers the music retail beat, points to the holiday season as the obvious ground zero for The Beatles 1's dominance. "Every holiday selling season, one or two albums emerge as the gift-giving item, the safe thing to get. Holidays without [a record like that] are when retail has a hard time. The Beatles emerged as the gift-giving idea."

 

John Artele, director of purchasing for National Record Market, agreed. "It went nicely to the baby boomers as an addition to an existing collection," he said, "and it goes nicely to the younger set as an primer."

 

Christman said "three things saved the holidays from being a complete disaster for music retail": DVDs (which "became a mainstream item this year"), the fact that the week leading up to Christmas yielded record sales throughout retail ($45 million, according to SoundScan), and The Beatles 1.

 

But here it is, four weeks after the holidays, and the compilation is still on top. Artele said he expected the record to drop off the top the week after Christmas. "But it turned out to have legs," he said. "It looks like it's settling into being a pretty healthy catalog piece."

 

Some have observed The Beatles 1 may have an appeal similar to The Eagles Greatest Hits, the 1975 compilation tied with Michael Jackson's Thriller as the best-selling album ever.

 

" [Capitol] did a nice job of marketing this," Artele said. "The one strategy that always works is television."

 

Indeed, Capitol Records has bombarded the airwaves with commercials for the record, and ABC's December broadcast of "The Beatles Revolution," which found notables from Brad Pitt and 'NSYNC to Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos to pop philosopher Deepak Chopra and President Clinton testifying to the enduring influence of the Fabs.

 

" [The record] was discussed on every entertainment channel. Most people like to talk about the Beatles, because they can always reminisce or tie it into a story," Artele said. "So the public awareness of this thing was pretty high, considering it had no airplay," Artele said.

 

What he means is that The Beatles 1 comprises songs that have been played on the radio more or less constantly for more than 30 years. "With the [three double-disc] Beatles anthologies [released in 1995 and '96], they had those new songs ['Free as a Bird' and 'Real Love']. There was nothing new with this," he said, adding, "There's also an integrity factor, where [consumers] say, 'Oh, I'll get this. I know this is good.' "

 

Similarly, Baker cited "the ease of the album, in the respect that you've got ... the number 1 hits, all there from A to Z, on one disc. I think the simplicity of that attracted a hell of a lot of people, bizarrely. A lot of people tell me, 'I bought it for my car.' It's a driving album. It's just 27 very good songs, for fifteen quid, which is not the norm."

 

However, Artele suggested the Beatles might not be able to turn the clock back to the '60s for much longer. He sees Jennifer Lopez's upcoming J-Lo album and the "Save the Last Dance" soundtrack as likely contenders to knock The Beatles 1 out of the position it seems entitled to — by name — next week. Of the latter, he says, "Everybody [in the retail arena] is out of it. That record is a monster."

 

But the fact that The Beatles 1 has for the past several weeks outsold every record on the pop charts is singular. Semisonic singer/songwriter/guitarist Dan Wilson suggests that perhaps nine years ago, on the cusp of Nirvana's Nevermind, The Beatles 1 would not have hit such a resonant chord.

 

" I think that part of it is that pop [music] is back. ... I think there was a time when [the Beatles' music] just wasn't filled with enough pain for people, y'know? Now, a lot of the music out there is just fun and pop, and it doesn't have that undercurrent of agony all the time, so I think people are appreciating the Beatles again."

By Rob Kemp

 

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