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Close to one and a half million people gathered to say goodbye to Madonna as a live artist at Copacabana in Brazil. But there is no doubt who is the pop queen in 2024. Taylor Swift.
Sometimes things don’t go as planned, and unfortunate circumstances meant that I never got to review the latest album from Taylor Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department”. It seems to be the last time to let go of it now, but let me put it this way:
Taylor Swift serves extremely good pop music. Is she – as an artist and songwriter – good? Yes, she is extremely good. Excellent, fantastic, great – use whatever adjective you want.
She sings exceptionally well, and writes songs that sometimes sound like the new wine. In other words, there are good reasons why she has become the world’s “pop icon in person”.
When someone asks if she is “bigger than the Beatles”, I know many who will shout in disbelief “where the hell did Elvis become?!”
It is NRK that in several programs has aired the issue “is Taylor Swift bigger than The Beatles”? Not exactly a newly invented sport. After all, there are no topics that can be more geeky than discussing pop music – “who is the best of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones”?
It is said in an expression that one should not compare apples and pears. Taylor Swift vs. The Beatles are this “confrontation” in an extreme version. Not apples and pears, but oranges and tanks.
Arild Rønsen
Editor in the music newspaper PULS, and previously a journalist in Klassekampen and TV 2. He has written five books about Vålerenga, and translated several biographies (Neil Young, Madonna, David Beckham). Rønsen is a trained typographer, and has a long history as a performing musician.
As recording artists, The Beatles existed for just under seven years. At 34, Taylor Swift already has almost two decades behind her as a studio artist. And this she must have – she creates new songs at a pace reminiscent of the songwriting duo Lennon/McCartney.
But there also ends all forms of equality. Let this be an illustration: When The Beatles made their last live performance at Candlestick Stadium in San Francisco in August 1966, they used the “PA” system for the man who was the announcer during football games. (Sure, I know they played on the roof of the Apple Building on January 30, 1969, but that’s a whole other story.)
Of course, it is also impossible to measure The Beatles and Taylor Swift against each other in terms of the number of records sold. Taylor Swift takes one day to reach one billion listens on the streaming services, a technology no one in their wildest imaginations dreamed of when The Beatles were active. And here it is not least about money. At the time, an album cost around 150 kroner, which in today’s kroner value corresponds to well over 1500 kroner. Today, “swifties” get Taylor Swift’s entire catalog for NOK 110 a month.
The number of concert tickets sold is also a completely hopeless parameter, for reasons I should have explained.
This leaves us with what really counts – the music.
In both Taylor Swift’s and The Beatles’ case, we are talking about excellent composers and equally talented artists. Nevertheless, there is at least one significant difference.
Read more comments from Arild Rønsen
Where Taylor Swift has moved with small steps from country-inspired pop songs to pure pop, The Beatles took genre-crossing steps, almost from album to album. Thirteen titles in all, if we include the extended EPs/mini-LPs “Yellow Submarine” and “The Magical Mystery Tour” + the single “Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever”. It’s almost unbelievable to think that three years passed between “Please Please Me” (1963) and “Revolver” (1966).
From “Revolver” to the end with “Let It Be” in 1970, The Beatles developed pop music into a type of art music the world had never heard before, perhaps best exemplified by “The White Album/The Beatles” in 1968.
The Beatles were at the height of their amazing career and could do whatever they wanted in the studio. Money didn’t matter. Instead, they chose to release a purely indie album. Collecting ‘Back In The USSR’, ‘Dear Prudence’, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’, ‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except From Me And The Monkey’, ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Helter Skelter’ on one album was unheard of; I could actually include all 30 songs.
At all; for six straight years, The Beatles fought their own back catalog tooth and nail. Extreme friction. At the same time as they were the world’s biggest pop stars. Revolution.
Thus, we peel off everything other than the music in this “competition”.
The Beatles – #1.
