Lets decide once and for all, which is the greatest band in your opinion is it the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

The Beatles by far.

They're actually my favorite band/musical group in all.

Beatles are better than Rolling stones period

I'd have to go with the beatles, they are by far better than the rolling stones and their songs are just classic especially the yellow submarine song. Me and my friends used to run away in gym singing that song all the time. =)

Both bands are very overrated, but I would go with the Rolling Stones.

I have only one song from each,but id say the rolling stones.

An easy decision for me...The Rolling Stones. I agree both are overrated but here are my reasons for going with The Rolling Stones.

1)  The Rolling Stones managed to keep a solid act together a lot longer than the Beatles. While admittedly, a band doesn't necessarily mean its better the longer it lasted together, but ultimately as a group it doesn't heart by any means to be around many years longer than its competition.

2) The fact of the matter is, the Beatles are bubblegum pop. They technically fit more as such than a rock and roll group, which the Rolling Stones fit CLOSER to. That is more of a Genre thing, but as I prefers rock n roll over bubblegum pop...

3) The Beatles lacked versatility in their songwriting. The fact of the matter is the vast bulk of their library sounds EXACTLY the same to me, and it doesn't even feel like I'm getting a lot out of it to begin with...which goes to reason 4.

4) LACK OF IMPACT. Ok, they cemented themselves in pop culture, I get that. However...looking back...what emotionally connection do many of these songs really have beyond nostalgia and remembering them as "the big thing" at the time?

I never could get into the Beatles for the above reasons, but thats just me. It seems one of those bands I can't listen to that everyone seems to love...

Redrunelord : Mind if I play devil's advocate?

1.) I'd argue, and I'm sure many would agree, the Rolling Stones should have retired long ago. Sometimes it's best to quit while you're ahead. The Beatles recorded Abbey Road and then called it quits. I can't think of a band finishing on a higher note than that.

2.) The Beatles really aren't bubblegum pop because that style did not emerge until the later years of the 60s, by that point the Beatles were in their classic period. If you want to call them pop, however, that would be accurate. However, I tend to think that pop music is whatever is selling. Just because they were "pop," they were still rock. 

3.) Dude, there's hundreds of songs. If you really search, I can't imagine you being unable to find something that resonates with you.

4.) British explosion? Turned rock music into an album based genre? Followed in Dylan's footsteps by creating their own thoughtful, fluff-less lyrics (later on)? Selling more copies of their music than anyone else ever or since? Countless studio innovations that have become commonplace now that many of us overlook? "Tomorrow Never Knows" literally changed the face of rock music in under three minutes. The list goes on.

By the way, I like the Beatles, though they're far from my favourite musical act. I don't mind people disliking their music at all. However, some of these points you brought up were a little faulty. Most of them have less to do with the sound and more with everything else. Last I checked, the most important aspect of music was the sound of it. Not the genre. Not the critics. 

*****

I prefer the Beatles over the Rolling Stones. Many of the rock bands from the 60s sound like cheap imitations of earlier blues musicians, and the Rolling Stones definitely fit that category for me. Comparing their cover songs to the originals, they're definitely lacking the soul, passion, and humility I crave from music. That being said, I still like The Rolling Stones.

NotJon : fair enough, I was expecting this, but allow me to justify my claims

1) The Beatles technically didn't exactly end on a high note when you look at the technicalities of how they broke up and their post-break up material.

2) That style emerged largely because of the Beatles. While, in a sense, that deserves credit for an innovation, looking back now it comes off as generic.

3) I am dead serious. I gone through a large amount of their library and my point here was mainly that their songs all blend, not the lack of emotional connection.

4) I said that they made a huge impact on pop culture, but my point there wasn't directly related to that. It was that a lot of their songs lacks emotional connection beyond nostalgia. Its like that movie "The Little Mermaid" in a sense in that while many peoples enjoys the nostalgia, it isn't exactly leaving much else. I will also argue against your point about album sales...ok they sold a lot of records, but look at who is selling all the music in the modern world? 

Now the sound of it...I also covered that...my issue is that it all sounds very generic and a lot of it uninspired. Now not to say it wasn't uninspired, its just that a lot of their songs I don't get the impression that it was.

Redrunelord : This be fun!

1.) I don't understand. Abbey Road > scapegoating Yoko Ono/clash of egos. Post-break-up, John, George, and Paul all had very nice careers. Ringo makes songs too lol.

2.) Faulting them for the stuff that followed is a bit excessive. I love Mike Patton and he was arguably the biggest inspiration for rap-metal artists, which I do not particularly like much. Blame the soulless music that followed.

3.) Typically songs from the same artist sound similar. Heck, I listen to a lot of jazz and a lot of it can blend in to the untrained ear. Listen to the songs over again, you'll appreciate some things that may have annoyed you before or maybe you'll make better sense of it. Try after every few weeks or so. I find that as I've gotten older, I've also gotten more open-minded. I tried liking Led Zeppelin for about six years. Nothing. Then I tried again, and I got into them. Sometimes it just takes one more listen or something to give it a more personal connection (in my case, my friend that I liked at the time loved them). 

4.) I don't understand your final point. It's not only nostalgia, a large number of recent fans have no nostalgia and love their music the same. Their song "Something" is one of the best love songs of all time. "Hey Jude" is beautiful, in my and many other people's opinion. 

Try listening to music with different ears. For example, Kraftwerk, innovators in electronic music, sound very dated and almost like a parody if you listen to them with no context. Try understanding where they're coming from. Or don't. Either is a fine option lol. I understand where you're coming from. I prefer listening to music that speaks to me from the first listen. If it took too long, I'd lose interest. However, my favourite artist, Björk, became my favourite because something about her just stopped me from giving up. It wasn't that she was bad, she was just so different and hard to get a handle on. Once I did...OMG. 

NotJon : To be perfectly honest, my job is actually to listen to a variety of music and thoroughly look at all genres as unbiased as I can. It isn't 100% fair in itself to automatically assume that I did not listen to the Beatles in such a manner.

1) I wasn't referring to the solo careers as much, which is a different story altogether. No, I'm referring to the unreleased material that got handled during the 90's.

2) Not what I was getting at, again. Yes they had their innovation in a sense, and I can't fault them for that. However...my criticism is that within their own genre, and when I look at their work collectively, it just feels generic on the whole.

3) Yeah, I listened to a lot of their work and I do notice subtle differences but they are largely insufficient for me to really nail properly.

4) A lot of the fans heard the songs as children, or had people around them look back in reminscience. Now if the style is a complete departure from their normal listening habits...ok, i can see where it came from. Now you also said opinion...my opinion is simply that there isn't enough to hold me to their music.

Now I can completely relate as to why people likes them...I love AC/DC but I suppose you could argue some of the same points to me particularly over being relatively generic to the untrained ear. I can buy why people likes the Beatles, but ironically the same things that stopped me from getting into the Beatles didn't prove as much of an Issue for AC/DC. Music is subjective and my final take is that i couldn't really care less for the Beatles.

i dont either one really but if i had to choose i would choose the rolling stones not sure why though

Man, those are great classic bands in the 60s, but Rolling Stones wins me. They are too great of a band for me to pass up.

How is this even a question? The Beatles for sure! Just look at every thing that they did not only for rock and roll, but for the whole music industry, and even the whole world! The Beatles brought people together, they crafted the sixties! Their music is the personification of the love and personal angst of a lost generation! Even to this day, the Beatles have at least one song that resonates with every single person living on this planet! There's a reason why everyone loves the Beatles... It's sort of like the world's way of saying, "It's alright, we're all here rooting for you!"

By contrast, the Rolling Stones, while a great band, don't really have that much of an emotional connection. The band did a lot for music, but I don't feel that they were a necessary part of our musical and cultural history like the Beatles were. Every innovation that came about from the practices of the Stones would have eventually come about, but the same is not necessarily true of the Beatles.

Redrunelord : I'm sorry, but I just have to let you know that never, in the history of the written word, has anything more untrue been committed to public record as the foul and calamitous fabrications you've been spouting in this thread. The Beatles lack versatility? You say your job is to listen to music somehow, but you clearly have not listened to many songs by the Beatles if you think they all sound the same. Their early stuff sounds a lot alike, granted, but when they started they were just a pop band with pretty faces playing what was popular at the time. But as they grew and became more prominent, they became more experimental, and tried many different things. Their later albums sometimes come across as more of a collaboration between different artists than a single album made by one band who has been playing together for years. Pretty much everything after Rubber Soul is a different genre of music, sometimes even between songs on the same album!

And you go on to say that there's no emotional connection to this music... And I find myself wondering if you have trouble connecting with other people on a personal level. The Beatles play to the most intense emotions that ALL HUMANS feel together. "All you need is love, love is all you need!" A simple song but a strong message, and that's what the Beatles were all about.

I am so truly sorry that you can not feel the love that is flowing through this music. Really I am, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

Lazlo Falconi : I do not wish for this thread to simply become me going back and forth between people I disagree with, and I really am not in the mood to try and defend my points extensively today. I read through your post and I stand by what I say. Remember that emotional connection will be different for different people, and their music I never felt one with. As well, in a sizable number of their songs, it feels like the band were simply writing them to appease producers who worked hard to make them sound good (mind you i'm not saying that producers are the sole reason for many people feeling appeal, its just that they did have a hand in The Beatles' releases). It often came off as their songs just never felt like they meant it as much as they say they did at times. That line you gave actually strikes to me as a very forced thing to say in a song, and it does fit into the prototypical "pop" song. 

I do find some of what you say in yourself blasphemy, but not your opinion. I do say it is unfair to say that my reasonings for disliking the Beatles is, to quote you word for word, "has anything more untrue been committed to public record as the foul and calamitous fabrications you've been spouting in this thread." That is a rather bold thing to say considering it is largely subjective, as I have stated. You think the Beatles had a massive influence, but I disagree. You say the Rolling Stones had no emotion, but I disagree in myself.

I do take some offense to what you said about "And you go on to say that there's no emotional connection to this music... And I find myself wondering if you have trouble connecting with other people on a personal level." That was a low blow in the regard that it is entirely unfair to make such a statement about someone when you don't know them simply on account they disagree with your taste in music.

I haven't heard a whole lot of either bands really, but from what I've heard from the Beatles I can't stand... I almost have to change the station whenever they play a Beatles song.
Even though the Beatles were considered "rock and roll" back in the 60s, I still don't like their music, and like almost all the other bands from the 60's.

Just from to a few of the Rolling Stones songs I can conclude that I like them way better, and that's just by the style of their music. Listening to ever more of their songs confirms that I actually like the rolling Stones .

Hands down, the Beatles are VERY overrated, and the Rolling Stones are pretty good, but not the best.

There i tied it by voting for The Rolling Stones i have there songs stuck in my head more then the Beatles

You people type too much so i wont type much about it since everyone will get real lazy to read all of you ppl message

 

I'm not a huge fan of the Rolling Stones to be perfectly honest. Some of their songs are good, but not as good as most of the Beatles songs.

I haven't listened to all of the songs both of the groups made, but I'm leaning in favor of the Beatles.

I'm going with the Beatles, because I have more of their music, and I'm not much of a fan of The Rolling Stones. So yeah, I'm going with Beatles.