Yes, you heard correctly.
The cast of hit tv-show Glee have overtaken British superstars The Beatles in the ammount of entries held in the Billboard Hot 100. In total, the actors from Glee have had a total of 75 entries in the chart, four more than Lennon & co., with six new entries from the cast entering the chart in the latest run-down alone.
Although they are yet to overtake the king of music, Elvis Presely, who holds 108, with James Brown following with 91, The EDGE can’t help but ask what this means for modern music?
Albeit, the cast of Glee has their followers, and undoubtedly many would defend the actors in their bid for chart success. Indeed, many people not partial to the TV series can see the musical merit in their endeavours to smash the charts. But can these actors, whose songs are largely cover versions of well-loved tracks, really be more deserving of musical accolades than The Beatles? We let you decide…
Check out the next issue of The EDGE released 15th October, for more on the Glee debate.
11 Comments
Fair enough they may have sung the 99th/ 93rd best song of a particular week. But surely this does not make them successful. When they start racking up the international number 1’s and stadium filling anthems then I’ll start taking them a little more seriously
Suppose it depends how you measure succeas… personally i am outraged!
I wouldst like to think i was dismissing glee (god, you guys are going to love the feature in the next issue lol) I just feel that there is certainly something to be said for the way that music has changed over the past 50 years if glee now has more entries than the beatles! Loving the responses to this btw x
It’s a good thing, if the most popular music was forever going to be music from the 60’s it would be a pretty bad reflection on the following five decades.
This is a sad day for music when synthetic, made-for-TV pop music has done this!
In answer to the last question…No, not in a million years!! I don’t like Glee, but it is successful, so I do respect it (sort of). However, Glee should never be mentioned in the same breath as The Beatles, a truly innovative band that have inspired almost every act that is around today. The Beatles were miles ahead of their time. Glee is a bunch of decent singers taking already well-know respected songs, and doing the same thing to them again and again. It also has enough cheese to supply America’s obese population for generations.
I feel Glee’s popularity is being dismissed somewhat unfairly. The Beatles insane popularity is hailed as an example of the “power of music” (or some other generic hippy phrase), the same (admittedly lesser) popularity that Glee enjoys is dismissed as “synthetic”. Instead of merely scoffing at the likes of Glee, it would be far more interesting to explore just why this music has reached so many people.
I would never compare ‘Glee’ and The Beatles…I adore both. But what I do respect ‘Glee’ for doing is bringing music of many different genres and eras to a completely new audience. I understand that people perceive ‘Glee’ as some kind of peppy, un-important garbage, but even if you dismiss their interpretation – I applaud them for bringing a post-modern musical to prime-time TV and proving that great music can be translated to a universal audience.
I don’t understand why in today’s society pop music can no longer be respected. I’m tired of hearing people complain about Glee covering other artists – they have happily handed over their rights to the producers…these artists know what is going to happen and are more than keen to take their share of the profits. The whole music industry is hypocritical for ALLOWING Glee to do this. So far, the only band to refuse a request from the producers of Glee are Gorillaz. So that leaves Journey, KISS, Aretha Franklin, Jay Z, Kanye West, Queen, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, AC/DC, Sammy Davis JR, Beck, and James Brown (all influential artists of the last 50/60 years) who do not seem to object to prostituting their music to Glee.
Glee is not deserving of praise or merit to even come close to the genius/lasting influence of the Beatles, but what it is deserving of is some kind of respect for creating this level of success in a mere year. Maybe all of us who buy into this music are tasteless morons, but we all take ourselves much to seriously in this world. 10 years ago, the Backstreet Boys could sell 30 million albums…maybe we are coming back around to pop-music trash…but it’s clear from Glee’s success that there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it. : )
A lot of interesting and valid points. Though its fair to point out that alot of the artists no longer own the rights to their music e.g. ironically the beatles. The backstrret boys point was a fair one but we look back at that as a bit of a cultural msitake. Crazy frog made number one lets not forget!!
I know this un-related but I also recommend watching this incredible scene as an example that Glee has some serious, touching and worthy dramatic moments. Such a powerful message of tolerance – Glee isn’t just cheese : )
Sorry it’s me again above, hadley!