Five Similarities Between the Beastie Boys and The Beatles
1. Early Success/Hit Single
The Beatles had "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" and the Beasties had "Fight For Your Right To Party." Fans of both will agree that neither of these songs are the artist's best. But without these early-in-the-career hit singles would they have been allowed to make the great music that followed?
2. Genre Defining
Before The Beatles made it big, pop music was basically rhythm and blues sung by white guys (see: Elvis). Before the Beasties made it, rap was basically sung by African-Americans. But once each became popular, their respective genres became bigger than the artists themselves. The Beatles brought songwriting to the mix and the Beasties brought sampling, heavy metal, and humor to rap. Not to mention opening the genre to its biggest asset: the white suburban CD-buying market.
3. Used Studio as an Instrument
Before The Beatles, studios were simply rooms where artists went to "cut" tracks. In-and-out. Songs were prepped before hand and rarely was over dubbing ever used. Flash forward a few years, one infamous meeting with a Dylan joint, and suddenly you have Rubber Soul, Revolver, and The White Album. The Beatles were the first band to ever use the studio as an instrument. They tried tape loops, delays, dubbing, sampling, reversed tapes, you name it, they experimented with it. The Beasties' Paul's Boutique was perhaps the first album to define itself strictly on its sampling (you could say that De La Soul was another early pioneer). The Beasties were the first rap group to approach recording hip-hop like a rock band: with experimentation and no boundaries.
4. Career Growth
As per #1, both The Beatles and Beasties made it big on early pop songs, but became legends based upon their later works. I know some people out there still prefer "She Loves You" to "Come Together," and I know plenty still love License to Ill, but both artists grew better with each subsequential album. You can see how the Beasties went from License to Paul's to Check Your Head just as you can see how the Beatles went from Sgt. Pepper's to the White Album to Abbey Road. As they matured, so did their music.
5. Everything After Them Is Judged By Them
Everyone knows that "The Beatles are the greatest band ever." They practically invented songwriting, the hook, and the look. All bands and artists are compared to The Beatles and almost all of them have been influenced by them. You could take every song on The White Album and directly correlate it with another artist. Example: "Sexy Sadie" leads you to David Bowie and Queen, "Helter Skelter" leads you to heavy metal. As for the Beasties, by no means are they anywhere near the top when it comes to their rhymes. But their group flow and attitude is certainly ground breaking. Once the B-Boys hit, you had 3rd Bass, our beloved Vanilla Ice, and eventually Eminem. All white hip-hop artists from now on are going to be judged by their relation to the Beasties. And all have them to thank for breaking the color barrier in hip-hop.
Jaded Bitterman is founder and CEO of the Holy Shit It's The Fucking Feds Foundation which helps innocent victims of police brutality and wrongful arrest. He currently resides in Montana and is writing his memoirs about survival and the coming technology age.
