Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, personally I quite like the Beatles, but the changes were coming with or without them:
1959 Tamla Records formed in Detroit
1959 Buddy Holly, Ritchie Vallens and JP Richardson die in a plane crash
1959 Miles Davies, Kind of Blue
1959 Bo Diddley!
1959 Bill Haley and the Comets leave Decca after five years of hits
1959 Roy Orbison signs a record deal
1959 The Supremes are formed
1959 Jimi HENDRIX buys an electric guitar
1959 Albums released by Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Charlie Mingus, Miles Davies, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Ray Charles, Duane Eddy
1959 ‘Payola’ scandal
1959 Ben E King joins the Drifters
1960 Eddie Cochran dies
1960 Lionel Bart’s ‘Oliver’
1960 Neil Young starts a band
1960 Ritchie Blackmore starts a band
1960 Chubby Checker does the Twist
1961 Motown Records sign the Supremes
1961 The Miracles make Motown’s first million selling record
1961 Billboard splits the charts into categories so it isn’t just a list of rock n roll hits
1961 Ike & Tina Turner headline a California gig with the Beach Boys as support
June 1962 The Beatles release their first single
The Beatles are / were fantastic. They are proof that not all people on drugs are boring. They were never really bigger than Jesus, they just have better PR.