http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/09/youngpeople.history
John Lennon controversially declared they were bigger than Jesus, and
the levels of fan hysteria and devotion they engendered made them
synonymous with the youth culture of the swinging 60s. But a Cambridge
University historian today argues that the Beatles were not heroes of
the counter-culture but capitalists who cynically exploited youth
culture for commercial gain. David Fowler claims: "They did about as
much to represent the interests of the nation's young people as the
Spice Girls did in the 1990s."
Fowler claims that many commentators during the 1960s saw youth
culture as being all about the Beatles. But he says that just because
they were fantastically popular - maybe bigger than Jesus, as John
Lennon said in 1966 - it did not make them leaders of their generation.
<...>
He believes that much that has been written about the Beatles, that
they were at the forefront of a cultural movement of the young, for
example, is untrue. "They were young capitalists who, far from
developing a youth culture, were exploiting youth culture by promoting
fan worship, mindless screaming and nothing more than a passive
teenage consumer."
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