Make no mistake, The Beatles were pretty much at the leading edge of production and songwriting for the time. They may not have been the most technically accomplished musicians but they were a couple of rungs up from your average pop players.

Time passes and things change so their stuff has dated, as everything does, but the influence lives on and is widely acknowledged by many contemporary artists. It is likely that some of your favourite musicians list The Beatles amongst their influences.

I was born in the 1960s but I still prefer music that is being produced now to the crude stuff we thought was cool when I was a kid. It's an evolution - stuff develops from modest beginnings and some of what that evolution has produced is fantastic. My favourite band has only existed for about 3 years yet I still sometimes think I hear Beatles influence in some of their music - even though they're a metal band.

So, I'm not a huge Beatles fan but I cannot, in good faith, deny that they largely earned their rep.