The 'Glee' cast: Bigger than The Beatles?
The irrepressible "Glee" kids have surpassed the Fab Four with 75 hits on the Billboard charts — depressing cultural critics everywhere
The "Glee" kids are hanging out with a cooler crowd. With 75 hits on Billboard's "Hot 100 chart," the cast of Fox's hit musical show has beaten The Beatles' record of 71 (in the non-solo act division). For cultural critics and and other commentators, the news that a TV cast who specialize in Broadway covers of pop songs had overshadowed one of history's most seminal bands was fairly grim. (Watch a cover of The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on "Glee.") Here's a sampling of their wisecracks:
Here comes the sun
"The Glee cast is now, by extension, bigger than Jesus," says Kyle Buchanan in New York.
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Twist and shout
Sure, "Glee" has "abandoned all pretense of character development and narrative consistency in pursuit of empty spectacle and iTunes downloads," says Nate Jones in Time, but, "guess what, spoilsport? The plan has paid off."
With a little help from my friends
"Of course, the real winners in all of this are Journey, who wrote the abject misery of 'Don’t Stop Believin', which has been purloined by absolutely every simpleton singer in the world [and the 'Glee' cast] at some point in the past 12 months," says Mof Gimmers at HecklerSpray. "Well done you."
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Help!
"Yes folks, we have to either bang our heads against a brick wall, or accept that the public's taste in music has changed from hardworking, original bands to covers of famous songs by American musical theatre," says Ruth Harrison at FemaleFirst.
While my guitar gently weeps
"I suppose, like the eventual heat death of the universe or the fact that word 'Snooki' has now entered the cultural lexicon, that this was bound to happen eventually," says Travis Woods at Beat Crave.
Can't buy me love
"What billboard.com doesn't say is that the Beatles actually had to create their music," says Howard Gensler at the Philadelphia Daily News. "The overproduced 'Glee' team just has to schlock it up."
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