[mattejade]

Exactly. It's not that critics weren't able to recognize the genius of The Beatles, it's that they weren't obligated to assume it's there.

They could see clearly about how they actually felt when hearing the music; they could see without the mist of the mythology that now influences us to see The Beatles as revolutionary.

They were allowed to point to Motown and say "this has better songwriting", or early Pink Floyd and say "this is more experimental/adventurous", and they wouldn't have to factor in things like 'influence' when evaluating how they actually felt when listening to the music.

[hgsgm]

That's kind of like saying the champion team in $sport isn't the best, because they lost some games sometimes.

[d0gbread]

It's not like that at all unless you've selected a single criteria, not mentioned it, and assume everyone applies it the same.