PUBLIC OPINION > The Beatles Are Worth $250K to Some People
SodaHead Music
2012/05/09 23:00:00
"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner made an enormous investment on the latest episode of his show when he decided to shell out $250,000 to use a single Beatles song ("Tomorrow Never Knows") in a scene. In the scene, placed at the end of the episode, Don Draper takes a moment out of his busy life to listen to the new Beatles album, "Revolver," to try and grasp the youth culture of the day.
The lyrics ("Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream ... Love is all and love is everyone") are a stark contrast to his endlessly cynical persona, and offer viewers the rare luxury of an original Beatles song in a television show. The reason their songs are so expensive is because they like to keep their image untarnished, though it still cost $250,000 after Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono all signed off on it. But was it worth a quarter-million?
The lyrics ("Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream ... Love is all and love is everyone") are a stark contrast to his endlessly cynical persona, and offer viewers the rare luxury of an original Beatles song in a television show. The reason their songs are so expensive is because they like to keep their image untarnished, though it still cost $250,000 after Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono all signed off on it. But was it worth a quarter-million?
This vote couldn't have been much closer. Some people totally get why Weiner used the song. The Top Opinion read, "It is ridiculous, but considering how central to the plot this one song was, I can understand it." But some couldn't justify the exorbitant price. One commenter wrote, "While I agree that, on the whole, Beatles songs should fetch more than the average tune, the bar needs to be lowered somewhat!"
Young People Aren't Convinced
Age was clearly the deciding factor hear, and there was a distinct drop at age 35. It wasn't a complete blow-out on either side of the age break -- just a difference of 20% -- but the vote would have tipped had the age balance been just a little bit different. The Beatles are definitely still one of the most popular artists in recent history, even among youth, but young people just aren't convinced they're worth $250,000.
Smokers Think It's Too Expensive
One of the least enthusiastic demographics were smokers, who were 17% behind the overall vote. We don't think smokers are particularly opposed to The Beatles, so there must be another reason. Well, $250,000 is, like, 2.5 million cigarettes. Why would you waste that on a Beatles song you could get on iTunes for $1.29? They could have just flashed download instructions and had 2.5 million smokes.
The Well-Off Wouldn't Do It
Income brackets often reflect results similar to age groups, with lower brackets matching younger voters, but not this time. Lower income brackets, unlike young voters, were more likely to give the $250,000 buy a thumbs-up. Voters who made between $50,000 and $100,000 a year were about 20% less likely to approve, on average.
If you'd like to vote on this question, dig deeper into the demographics, or engage in existing discussion about the topic, visit our poll about The Beatles. We'd love to hear from you!
Top Opinion
-
skroehr 2012/05/14 19:06:54
+3Capitalism. What the market will bear. The remaining artists set a price, and people pay it. If they don't, then they can use something else. Yes, the Beatles were really that important of a piece of our culture. I say more power to them. I get a little worried that once Paul and Ringo pass on, that you'll be hearing Beatles songs in and on everything, cheapening their place of musical royalty in the minds of young folks who don't remember just how big these guys were, and how much of an influence they had on music, art, poetry, fashion, politics, and even world peace. They were really something, and we'll not see the likes of them again. Not in a positive sense anyway. They wrote their songs. It was their ideas that George Martin committed to vinyl. The were one of the last pop-culture icons to have an original thought, if not THE last. Whatever they charge, hey, that's what the price is. If they don't want real diamond, they can go buy a zirconium.
September 11 does not need to be a sad anniversary in every instance. Were you aware of the fact that 9/11/12 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the day the Beatles walked into EMI studios in London and made their first record, "Love Me Do"? My reflections:
http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/...
Tom Degan
"If you want to know what God thinks of money, look at the people He gives it to."