[goto11]

Before Beatles, performer and songwriter was typically separate jobs. It was quite normal for a song to be recorded by multiple different artists and even to chart with multiple artists at the same time. The idea of a "cover version" did not really exist, since none of the versions were considered more original than the other. Famously, Elvis Presley never wrote a song himself. Beatles changed that, because they made it prestigious for performers to write their own material.

[mgkimsal]

I get what you mean but 'prestigious'... doesn't seem the best word. The idols they looked up to had all written a lot of their own stuff (Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly seem like the archetypes there). The Beatles sort of invented the 'self contained group' (singers, songwriters, performers all in one) and it seemed to become almost mandatory for groups after that to at least have a go at writing.