A girlfriend of mine announced over brunch a few months ago that she was going to break up with her talented, successful, and incredibly kind live-in boyfriend. This sparked some concern at the table; the last any of us had heard, things were going very well. So well, in fact, that there had even been a recent spate of charming house parties and family get-togethers -- and talk of an upcoming engagement. Why the sudden change of heart?
Because he doesn’t like The Beatles.
My friend went on to clarify that her ex doesn’t exactly hate The Beatles, but that he had the nerve to openly mock their placement at the top of yet another "Most Influential Artists of All-Time" list. This, she said, clearly revealed him to be an insensitive, disrespectful idiot (her words, not mine).
We all felt that she was being a bit harsh. But at the same time, it was hard to come to terms with the thought of a rational human being, otherwise very intelligent and even a creative type himself, refusing to give The Beatles their proper due.
Of course, my girlfriend didn’t really ditch her boyfriend simply because they disagreed about The Beatles.
What followed at our brunch was a very interesting conversation about the intense polarizations that musical taste can create, and the extreme reverence that (almost) everyone has for the Fab Four.
So how did John, Paul, George and Ringo provoke a debate so heated that it drove a wedge between two young adults? For that matter, what causes the rise or fall in popularity of any artist at any given time? What can create celebrities out of the oceans of creative talent?
Robert Prechter provides remarkable insights into these and many similar questions in his combined issue of The Elliott Wave Theorist, "Social Mood Regulates the Popularity of Stars -- Case in Point: The Beatles."
He explains that the unprecedented success of The Beatles flowed from "the ability of four young musicians to serve as a focal point for the expression of mass spontaneous joy and excitement that was already there." Prechter also puts the popularity of The Beatles in a context no one has ever explored before:
A brief history of the Beatles as it relates to our best sociometer – the stock market – should help elucidate the case for socionomic regulation of the popularity of famous people. The main general point of this review is to show that the radical shifts in the Beatles’ fortunes followed quite precisely the radical shifts in the stock market’s fortunes.
The changes in their experiences are so stark – and the role of society so obviously important – that one cannot fail to see the trends of social mood at work.
Prechter’s report may not help endear you to the small fraction of the population who don’t acknowledge The Beatles’ influence on pop culture. But it will help
you understand the all-powerful role that
social mood plays in our cultural lives.
Whether you are an artist trying to make a name for yourself -- or a trader looking to stay ahead of the trend -- Prechter's analysis of The Beatles has something for you. When you subscribe to The Socionomist, you will get immediate access to The Beatles Report in your Subscriber's Library.