John Lennon was a rock and roll artist.
John Lennon . He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 , and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice , in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and in 1994 as a solo artist . The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 . With members John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr , they became widely regarded as the foremost and most influential act of the rock era . Rooted in skiffle , beat and 1950s rock and roll , the Beatles later experimented with several musical styles , ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock , often incorporating classical elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways .