There aren't many cultural touchstones that can transcend generations. A good cigarette is one, as is a good steak. Good television programs not so much - there's a concrete and easily measurable generation gap when it comes to what different generations of folks like watching on the tube. Good music is even more stratified. You're not going to find too many baby boomers who'd list the Arctic Monkeys among their favorite bands, just like you won't find too many Generation Y'ers who'll profess their love of James Taylor or Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
Yet whatever the race, color, creed or generation, it seems unanimous that everyone loves beatles music. From the very first strains of "Love Me, Do" to the last refrain of "Hey, Jude," beatles music crosses generations and bridges cultures in a way the music of no other artist.
My family is a good example. I'm thirty three years old, a bit of a musician, a liberal, and I live in New York City. Some would call me a hipster (a label I'd reject, but that would just make me more hipsterish, so whatever). My brother is a year and a half older than me, is an engineer living in the suburbs with a wife, a kid and a sit-down lawnmower. And a pick-up truck.
Then take my mom. At age sixty five she's still teaching troubled kids from the inner city, as well as mentally handicapped kids from both the city and more well to do suburbs.
What's the common thread? We all love beatles music. The themes that John Lennon and Paul McCartney dealt with lyrically are universal, of course - whether it comes to a love song like "Yesterday" or a call for social responsibility like "Across the Universe", almost all beatles music rings true and distinct. There's something for everyone to latch onto in almost any given bit of beatles music, and as a result it's not dated at all.
On top of that you can add that, musically, the beatles blended ear-candy style bubblegum pop with complex basslines, creative lead guitar and ground-breaking sound mixing. What they did in the studio from, say, Rubber Soul through Sgt. Pepper's Loney Hearts Club Band simply hasn't been replicated. Even the most snobbish classical music or jazz buffs recognize the virtuosity in beatles music. And that's what sets the beatles apart.