Jesus still sells some books. Gives even more away. I think they even made a movie.
The Beatles sold more packs of bubblegum cards than there are One Direction fans.
The only area where One Direction exceeds The Beatles is in number of band members.
My 17-year-old LOVES them, so, regretfully, I'm quite familiar with their mediocrity.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
No, but Simon Cowell is. Say no more!
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
If anything, Simon Cowell is one sly fox.
When Borders book store closed by Penn Station a couple of years ago, it seemed like only a week went by before something else opened there; a One Direction store. I had never heard of them then and still have not heard a note of "their" "music". So no, they are not bigger than the Beatles. Everyone knew who The Beatles were. Everyone.
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
OK, since someone brought up the Bay City Rollers, here's an interesting story I saw on a documentary about Top Of The Pops from a few years back:
At the peak of their popularity, the Rollers appeared on TOTP, which at the time was being taped at BBC Television Centre (ie the big sort of semi-question mark shaped building in London that apparently people literally got lost in). The building was besieged by such a number of screaming teenage girls that literally nobody could get in or out of the building. The upshot was the BBC brass ordered that TOTP could never again be taped at Television Centre (I guess they had to use one of the other BBC facilities after that debacle).
So, if One Direction are "bigger than The Bay City Rollers", then I would ask the question, have One Direction literally brought all business at the headquarters of a major television broadcaster to a literal stand still?! If not, then I would say they're not bigger than The Bay City Rollers, never mind being bigger than The Beatles.
How many times have One Direction been on The Ed Sullivan Show?
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Units shifted per artist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._music_artists
1. Beatles
2. Elvis
3. Jacko
4. Madge
5. Elton
6. Led Zepp
7. Floyd
8. Carey
9. C Dion
10. Whitney
11. AC/DC
12. Queen
13. Stones
14.Abba
20. Phil Collins
24. Genesis
UK singles charts records & stats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Sing...singles_charts
Last edited by PeterG; 02-13-2014 at 06:08 AM.
I'd have to check the numbers but I think for a brief time Grand Funk could have been said to have been bigger than The Beatles- they sold a boatload of albums and even played Shea Stadium and such... of course, history has had its say
How many times have One Direction been on The Ed Sullivan Show?
Coffee blown through my beak, thanks!
A lot of people/bands have been tauted as being bigger than the Beatles over the years, but no ones still talking about them are they? At one time, the Walker Brothers were bigger than the Beatles...never heard of em. Until recently. And that was only because they were talking about Scott Walker like he was teh second coming of Howard Hughes.
Love him by the way, glad I finally heard of them 40 years after they were bigger than the Beatles
The Beatles invented One Direction.
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
Not true - Backstreet Boys did also as well as Britney Spears --- How do I know this? I was asked to play bass for BB back in the 90s. I didnt do it - why? Deets:
(1) clothing endorsement
(2) fitted IEM
(3) 1500 dollars per deim
(4) Trace Elliot bass amp/cab (endorsement was to Backstreert Boys, not to me)
(5) Tobias bass endorsement (endorsement was to Backstreert Boys, not to me)
(6) retainer
At the time, I turned it down because they were just starting and I had gotten similar offers before. I had no idea how big they would become and the showband I was in at the time was making great steady money - BBs schedule was all over the place in spots and the 1500 divided over the time defecits didnt look good. The only thing I could have kept was the IEM as that was to be fitted to my ear. Some of the show involved syncing while other aspects weren't. Hindsight being 20/20 it was one of the worst mistakes I ever made.....For the record, my friend Freddie who was the bass player for my group's sister showband took the Britney Spears offer (almost identical to above)....He is still her bass player to this day
I know Three Dog Night sold more records between 1969 and '73 than The Beatles. Of course, The Beatles broke up in 1970, but 3DN was that huge.
But, popularity is only one measure of so-called "Big"-ness. I think social impact and contribution to, and advancement of, the art far outweigh record sales.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Since The Beatles, a rock band, set artistic & popularity standards many other rock band have been compared to since, maybe the question should be - is One Direction bigger than The Ink Spots or The Mills Brothers?
Last edited by davis; 02-13-2014 at 12:44 PM.
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