The Beatles

I don't see the relevance of this poll - nobody says that they're a prog band.

BTW: Does anybody else get that strange feeling of Deja-Vu?

I think we all agree that they were not prog. I understand their inclusion as Proto-prog as they were a big influence on prog bands, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Many of the reviews of Beatles' albums on this site are biased because people are rating them for their progressiviness, so their earlier work get very low ratings just because thery were not prog at all. That's not fair.

Dalkaen wrote: No, but they were certainly an influence upon it. As well as an influence on pretty much... everything.

eddietrooper wrote: I think we all agree that they were not prog. I understand their inclusion as Proto-prog as they were a big influence on prog bands, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Many of the reviews of Beatles' albums on this site are biased because people are rating them for their progressiviness, so their earlier work get very low ratings just because thery were not prog at all. That's not fair.

Edited by T.Rox - May 22 2006 at 05:15

The Beatles is no a Prog Band or Proto-Prog Band.

But The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, The Cream, Jimy Hendrix are most important bands/ artists for the born of Prog!!!

the beatles are not a prog band.

Sacred 22 wrote: I'm curious as to what you think. I do not see the Beatles as a Progressive Rock band at all. To me they are nothing more than a pop band. I'm sure this will stir many opinions. If we are to include the Beatles here, then why not the Stones or The Dave Clark Five for that matter. I am just wondering where to draw the line.

Surely they were among the first band in experimenting new sonorities (the already mentioned Mellotron, Hammond, Moog and sitar among the others) and new recording devices and methodologies (double tracking, slowing and speeding capstans, reverse tapes, out-of-phase stereo recording and so on)

They were not the first, nor maybe the most experimental proto-proggers, but they have undoubtedly been the most famous ones!

And they DID influence 90% of modern musicians and experimentators...so I think they fit in well with the "proto-prog" label!

Voted no. Influential and innovative on their later albums but definetly not prog .

The Beatles most definetly weren't a Prog Band, at least according to the definitons of Prog on this side (and those definitions really are to the point). And it has been said before, that they were very influential. From todays point of view a lot of their stuff might sound just like Pop (meaning nothing less than popular), but at their time they were progressive in the sense that they didn't stick to conventions.
As I wrote in another thread, there are critics who say, that the early works of Pink Floyd don't sound any more progressive than a violin sonata from the 19th century played on a hammond organ. Looking back from today that may be right, but who would question that they are one of the best, most influential bands in the history of Prog?