When they retreated into the studio, they proved instrumental in pioneering advanced techniques and multi-layered arrangements. As performers, they were (at least until touring wore them down) exciting and photogenic. As singers, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive vocalists in rock, and the group's harmonies were intricate and exhilarating. As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none they were key to the evolution of rock from its blues/R&B-based forms into a style that was far more eclectic, but equally visceral. They established the prototype for the self-contained rock group that wrote and performed its own material. They synthesized all that was good about early rock & roll, and changed it into something original and even more exciting. It's hard to convey the scope of the Beatles' achievements in a mere paragraph or two. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and never let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity and never losing the ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience.

Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and they introduced more innovations into popular music than any other group of their time. So much has been said and written about the Beatles - and their story is so mythic in its sweep - that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans.

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