One of the best motivators both in life and in a career is competition. Now, competition as a concept doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be better than one person or thing. Rather, in a more general sense, it means that there is an exterior force motivating you to do better. We will spare you the philosophical conversation about the definition. However, two bands that used competition to their benefit were The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
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The Beatles and The Beach Boys were always fighting for the top spot in the 1960s music scene. They didn’t want to be technically better than each other; they seemingly just wanted to be on par with each other and fight in the same ring. After all, when it comes to music, no one is truly “better” than somebody else.
Regardless, after The Beatles put out Rubber Soul, The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds. With something to prove, The Beatles then released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In essence, these three albums are the product of the competition between The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Thus, as the saying goes, a little competition never hurt anybody.
Paul McCartney on The Beatles and The Beach Boys’ “Intercontinental Rivalry”
In the 2021 six-part documentary miniseries McCartney 3,2,1, The Beatles’ bassist sat down with Rick Rubin to talk about quite literally everything there was to talk about. One of the most fascinating topics the two addressed was the competition between The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
Concerning the topic, McCartney told Rubin, “There was a little intercontinental rivalry. Mainly, Brian [Wilson], his writing. I think he’d heard one of our albums, and thought, ‘I’ve got to do better,’ and that was Pet Sounds, which I love. Still one of my big albums.”
“We heard Pet Sounds and thought, ‘Right, we got to do something better than that,’” said McCartney. “So, we did Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
While it is unclear if McCartney wanted to beat The Beach Boys outright, it really doesn’t matter, as the process of competition is what gave way to these extraordinary bodies of work.
Both groups had their own bag, their own style, and their own set of fans. However, they still were consistently fighting to be the biggest band in the world. Consequently, they created some of the greatest albums of all time. So, if you’re looking for a little spark and a little inspiration, maybe try to find a healthy competitor, as it just might breed greatness.
Photo by Everett/Shutterstock
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