with the beatles

one thing i love about the japanese is that we both share a passion/love/obsession with the beatles. i was in a recycle shop today and there was a reworked instrumental/elevator version of girl playing in the background. other examples:

1) in the music part of free time lessons if you have nothing else to talk about you can always argue why the white album is superior to abbey road

2) at every kareoke bar they will have only about 2-3 selections for prominent western artists and yet you can sing pretty much any obscure beatles song you know, from cry baby cry to ive just seen a face to doctor robert to for you blue

3) i once had a student that dressed as george harrison for an entire year and thought i was the coolest person ever for carrying around a george harrison biography in my bag

4) other places ive heard beatles music: internet cafes, curry restaurants, elevators, ecc schools, golds gym, department stores

5) you see beatles tshirts all the time either in stores or being worn on the street

what can i say...japanese pop and enka music is generally terrible (in my humble biased opinion) but their love of the beatles totally balances out any bad musical taste they may have.