You Can’t Do That: The Beatles, Artistic Freedom And Censorship

Abstract

At the end of the twentieth century, the Beatles’ position as the most important popular music group of all time is virtually unchallenged. Critics seem to argue only about the relative merit of early and later works, rather than their overall importance. In Britain the country’s most successful band, Oasis, constantly cite the Beatles and proudly carry the group’s imprint in their work. Their former rivals, Blur, sought to distance themselves from Oasis via an eponymously-titled album whose debt to the Beatles is almost painfully obvious. Meanwhile, the Beatles themselves continue to earn vast sums of money each year from their back catalogue and seem to have found a new generation of fans with the Anthology albums.¹ In sum, the Beatles’ legacy is almost undisputed.