The debate over the cultural value of the Beatles was as vehement as it was significant in 1960s and early 1970s Britain. Lennon and McCartney's early compositions received some early critical plaudits, Sgt. Pepper sought to blur distinctions between high and low culture and the band members’ side projects forged links with the avant garde. To accept the Beatles as artists, however, required critics to rethink how art was created, disseminated and evaluated and how it interacted with contemporary social, economic and technological change. This article makes extensive use of contemporary journalism, scholarship and fan literature, much of it unstudied, to demonstrate that the rethinking process was contested and protracted. No consensus emerged. Claims made for their artistry, which contributed to a wider discourse elevating ‘rock’ over ‘pop’, were countered by cultural conservatives who defended their own status as artists and intellectuals by exposing the Beatles as kitsch.

中文翻译：

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“我说高，你说低”：披头士乐队和 1960 年代和 1970 年代英国的文化等级

关于披头士的文化价值的争论在 1960 年代和 1970 年代初期的英国非常激烈。列侬和麦卡特尼的早期作品获得了一些早期的批评喝彩，中士 胡椒试图模糊高低文化之间的区别，乐队成员的业余项目与前卫建立了联系。然而，要接受披头士乐队作为艺术家，批评家需要重新思考艺术是如何创造、传播和评估的，以及它如何与当代社会、经济和技术变革相互作用。本文广泛使用当代新闻、学术和粉丝文学，其中大部分没有研究，以证明重新思考的过程是有争议的和旷日持久的。没有达成共识。对他们的艺术性的主张，促成了更广泛的将“摇滚”提升到“流行”的话语，遭到文化保守派的反对，他们通过将披头士暴露为媚俗来捍卫自己作为艺术家和知识分子的地位。