The Beatles weren't a boyband I would say. Boybands generally TINGE of PRODUCERS CONTROLLING THE MUSIC, and have as much personality as an empty can of sweet potatos. And Boybands don't make good music.
To call The Beatles a mere boyband would be unfair to what they've done and achieved. The Monkees would be a fair choice for a boyband as they were manufactured, stale (even at the time) and even with the tv series (
which did have it's high points) had only the smallest amounts of personality (especially in their music *_*). Yeah you could say The Beatles were the main inspiration for the whole thing... even a prototype. But a Boyband... such INJUSTICE!
* Kaworu unleashes his flaming fury
Ofcourse this would make me fall into the dreaded and pervertedly corrupt hands of classification and genre wars, and I don't really believe in classification enough to take a strong stance (I hate classificating things)