... sorry - I'm not normally insulting, but i just couldn't resist and it'll become clear shortly:

The Beatles were successful due to a "vaccuum". That vaccuum was the baby boom. The boomers have always demanded more when they've hit certain ages... yes, that subject has been talked about on this forum and countless other forums ad infinitum...

...so let me get to the point:

When the greatest number of "rock n roll" record buying boomers hit their teen years, somebody - ANYBODY - was going to fill that void... yes, Elvis was big - but he was really the first "litmus test" that the market existed... and once the world understood that the this new "thing" had legs (Elvis, Buddy Holly, etc. - the early REAL Rock N Rollers) ...the search was on to find the biggest "bestest" possible act. So after several years it was bound to happen that the right talent (3 extremely talented singers and song writers/musicians- sorry, but Ringo was a tag along and we all know it) ...was formed at the right time meeting the right manager (Brian Epstein - who was able to get their names and faces everywhere) ...with the right look and the right sound.... again, to the right market wave that demanded it. If they hadn't been there - someone would've filled the vaccuum... and, no, they might not have been as big ...but they definitely would have the mantle the Beatles own in history.

All of these elements are the reason why there never ever will be a surge like the one that the Beatles were involved in - at least not in our lifetimes and probably for at least another few hundred years, or till whenever there is another baby boom bigger than the last. Such gigantic mass appeal "hysterical phenonmenon" requires a very broad "mass market". Those kinds of markets don't exist anymore (for music anyway)...

...those boomers are now retiring, dying or collecting things (like Beatles memorabilia) ... they splintered into too many different musical tastes - and the succeeding generations are certainly nowhere near as solid a mass - nor do they have the numbers to create the same kind of surge...

...so whenever I hear this notion that it was the Beatles that "caused" this phenomenon - I feel compelled to point out that it's really quite the opposite... it was the boomers that demanded something - anything - and the Beatles filled that niche... they were in the right place at the right time with the right sound and enough talent to make it last a very long time. They were the ultimate marketers... they knew how to stay ahead of the game way in advance.

Example: Remember Sgt. Pepper? Okay - everybody thinks this was the Beatles being so "with it" and "cool" that they led the way with the "Summer of Love" ... hey folks ... that's not how it happened - they saw their popularity with "Beatlemania" ending - they just saw the curve in the road - and where it was going - before anyone else. Want proof? In 1966 Dick Clark was talking with a group of kids on American Bandstand asking them what they listened to - and nobody was saying the Beatles. When Clark asked why - one kid simply said "I don't know anyone who listens to them anymore" ... a year later Sgt. Pepper came out and while it seemed the boys had transitioned into a natural next step - it was really a shrewd understanding of where the road was going. (History doesn't really record those kids comments - but they're there... you just have to get past the hype about the Beatles - whom I adore, btw, and read between the lines).

So again, my point is that YOU guys on this forum - as people who are MARKETERS or at the very least have been contributing on a marketing forum - should've seen this WAYYYYY before anybody else.

Just my 2 cents

Anon

P.S. - The above insults are tongue-in-cheek - just pokin' fun (This has been a "Michael Ross" disclaimer)