Off The Beatle Track

I recently picked up a copy of Chuck Klosterman’s book Football.¹ The book is about “the cultural value of football”–U.S. football, that is–though Klosterman digresses into several other topics. One of those digressions concerns pop music.

The GOATs

Klosterman begins Chapter 4, “The Semantics of GOAT² Herding,” this way: “If you believe, as I do, that the Beatles are the greatest pop band of all time. . . .” Why, yes, Chuck, I do. I do believe as you do.

Klosterman says that The Beatles aren’t the greatest band simply “because they made the best songs. . . . Greatness is about the creation of archetypes.” Later he refers to the “idiom [that] the Beatles established.” I must confess that I don’t always know what writers mean when they start using words like “archetype” and “idiom.”

But Klosterman basically argues that even if, say, Beyonce or Taylor Swift were to release more great records than The Beatles did, neither would be “greater” than The Beatles because The Beatles’ songs “represent the enduring understanding of rock and pop and psychedelia.”³ In other words (I think), unless they were to innovate in some way that changed the public’s understanding of what pop music is, or unless they became so successful that their songs were to become synonymous with pop music, Beyonce and Taylor Swift are merely playing in the sandbox that The Beatles built.⁴ But playing exceptionally well.

Jordan vs. LeBron

Klosterman may be right; he’s a published author, and I’m a hack who writes a blog that no one reads.⁵ But I don’t think it needs to be that complicated. The Beatles are the greatest because they made the best songs.

As I think I’ve said before in this blog, I would love to find an artist who made better music than The Beatles. As much as I enjoy The Beatles’ music, I would be ecstatic if I found an artist whose music I enjoyed more.

In the ’80s and ’90s, I spent of lot of time watching Michael Jordan play basketball. He was my GOAT. It took a while, but lately I’ve had to acknowledge that LeBron James has surpassed Jordan and is the new GOAT. Jordan left the NBA in 2003, the same year LeBron debuted, so the torch was passed quickly.

The Beatles broke up in 1969, though they didn’t announce it to the world till 1970. With each passing year, the likelihood that some new artist will embark on a career that exceeds The Beatles’ seems less and less likely. So I feel confident that no pop artist’s catalog will surpass The Beatles’ catalog. The Beatles are the pop GOAT. Somebody prove me wrong.

1. The book carries a 2026 copyright date, and I found a signed copy in early 2026 in a used book store for $12. How did it get there? ↩︎
2. For “greatest of all time.” I won’t keep in you in suspense: Tom Brady is his football GOAT. ↩︎
3. I also don’t know exactly what “represent the. . . understanding of” means. Whose understanding? When? The Beatles seem to me to be very much a late 20th-century Western phenomenon. Do the majority of folks living in India in 2026 believe that The Beatles’ music endures? ↩︎
4. But The Beatles, of course, followed in Buddy Holly’s footsteps, and Chuck Berry’s, and others’. ↩︎
5. Except you. ↩︎