The Beatles were timeless. 100 years from now their music will still be listened to and discussed/studied, as will the whole "Beatlemania" era.
Sure, someone else would have come along eventually, but at the time they changed music completely. Music was stagnating, with artists like Pat Boone being at the top of the charts. The Beatles gave popular music a swift kick in the pants and started the ball rolling.
I can understand how some people (as is evidenced in this thread) don't like them, but to ignore their influence on popular music and culture is folly.
Personally, I love their music and always will.
Music wasn't stagnating. The INDUSTRY deliberately castrated rock and roll.
There were good bands out there and they had regional fame and are still legendary among cult circles. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will ignore them however as they are the unsung heroes.
The INDUSTRY gave us corporate rock in the 1970s, boy bands in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, and rap-rock hybrids today.
REAL rock has persisted in SPITE of the corporate efforts to kill it.
Here in Houston, there is one station remaining playing ANY sort of new rock releases and they have the balls to call themselves "alternative". Alternative to what? They only play rock songs that are on the charts and are the only game in town. That makes them the establishment and much of what they play is 10 years old which makes them an oldie/classic station of sorts.
In the 1990s, Nirvana didn't invent grunge but they were the band that could be used to take it to the masses just as the Beatles and Elvis before them sold an already existent form of rock and roll.
So much bad music and so many overhyped acts.