after about 1966, the beatles weren't really pop music anymore. they were still very popular, but it just isn't reasonable to try and understand them as pop music. as somebody that wasn't alive at the time, i don't look back at sgt. peppers or revolver or abbey road and say "this was 60s pop music", even though in some sense it was. the supremes were 60s pop music. the beatles were really quite experimental, you need to speak of them more in the company of pink floyd or king crimson, and the reaction to i am the walrus really demonstrates it. it's hard to pull out a modern comparison, but it isn't one direction (their early stuff, maybe). it's something more like skrillex or deadmau5 - although there isn't a popular electronic artist that comes close to the beatles in terms of experimentation, relative to the period.

also, you don't have to be much older than ten to get a handle on them, but that one kid was too young.