The Beatles were the most influential band in pop history. In their 8year, 12album
history, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr altered (改变)
popular culture dramatically. And it wasn't just the suits and changing lengths of hair the
four Liverpool boys wore that had such an impact, but what they seemed to stand for.
The world saw them as the voice of a new generation, one with a very different attitude
to life.
     Their influence was at its height in the 1960s, but their music continues to stir listeners
today. However, up until recently one aspect of the Beatles was struck in Yesterday: The
music had never been remastered (重新灌录). But on September 9 that situation came to
an end, with the release of the entire band's music in a digital makeover. It is probably the
biggest reissue (重新发行) in pop music history, said British newspaper the Financial
Times.
     The albums were remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, the location where the
band produced much of their work. The cover of their last album, Abbey Road of 1969,
featured the four young men striding (大步行走) across a zebra crossing on Abbey Road
itself. It is one of the most famous of all Beatles images.
     Recently, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album, hundreds of Beatles lovers
gathered there to show their appreciation.
     Pop groups come and go. The boy band pursued by screaming fans one year will be
forgotten the next. But the Beatles are one of the few groups whose music seems to have
endured (持久). Why? Paul McCartney's biographer Barry Miles has an explanation: "They
were the first rock band… and they just happened to be the best. They were the first band
to play stadiums, to have their own products. They were groundbreaking in every way," he
says.