Reader thinks the Beatles were great, despite column
In regards to Matthew Stephens’ “The Beatles are overrated” (from Wednesday):
To start an article with ”The Beatles suck.” is a rather bold statement to make unless you plan to really back up your premise. It seems that the article is made up of many bold statements, not very intelligent, but bold and unsupported nonetheless. Mr. Stephens may want to take note that if you want to make a persuasive argument, don’t talk down to your readers.
To assume you know more about music is to be ignorant to the people who both study and play music at a professional level, including those of us who go to the same university as the author of the article. If you would like to be musically humble Mr. Stephens, there are quite a few students that would love to talk theory, history, and general practice of music with you.
Somehow, Mr. Stephens has gotten confused with how music is perceived. To compare the Beatles, anyone of them, to Jimi Hendrix seems illogical. Yes, Hendrix may have more technical ability, but isn’t sound more important? It is in part, the often poor recording, intonations and subtle flaws that make the Beatles and their studio recordings masterpieces. The whole idea of sound was shown in the punk movement that followed the Beatles, the ideal that anyone could pick up an instrument and play.
I generally don’t care about Mr. Stephens’ opinion by the end of the article, which seems to be the only thing I got out of the article. Nor do I care about his attachment to Picket’s version of “Hey Jude,” I suppose Mr. Stephens was one of the many that liked Across The Universe (the film adaptation) more than the original recordings (take that as you wish).
I imagine that I am submitting to the author’s wishes. Someone who writes an article like such is likely to write only under the basis of getting ridiculous feedback and attention, so I guess I become part of that.
But the next time Mr. Stephens plans to write anything legitimate and worthwhile in regards to music, I suggest he put down the pen and talk to someone who knows something more about music which, based on his article, there are lots of them on campus.
Andrew Walker, Ohio sophomore
