The Beatles did not play music.
Blue-eyed soul ( also known as white soul ) is rhythm and blues and soul music performed by white artists . Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as `` rock and roll '' in the United States in the early 1950s , and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later , particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States . The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 . According to the RIAA , the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States , with 178 million certified units .