The Beatles and Michael Jackson (as a solo artist) were well received by music critics and their appeal transcended their target audience. Nobody can sell more than twenty-five million copies of their album by appealing only to teen agers. The early Beatles (1964 1965) were not popular with fans of Elvis Presley or older folks, but the baby boom just swamped these early objections. The post 1965 Beatles wrote songs that appealed to all age groups and have become timeless classics.
The late sixties bubble gum bands did not have this staying power. Nor did they appeal across the age spectrum or have wide spread critical approval. The early 1970s Jackson Five fall into this category. Some critics liked them, but some hated the Jackson Five. If Michael Jackson retired when the Jackson Five broke up, he would be as well remembered as Tommy James and the Chandelles. However, Michael Jackson went on to have an extremely successful solo career. His albums, Off the Wall and Thriller were popular with a wide swath of people. Michael Jackson also capitalized on the early days of MTV. His album Thriller out-sold any single Beatles album.
During the 1970s, the band Led Zeppelin was very popular with the younger baby boomers. Rock critics hated Led Zeppelin, but their bad revues and complaints about ripping off old blues songs did not prevent Led Zeppelin from being the most popular rock band of the 1970s. Music critics also hated Disco music, but that did not stop Disco from being huge in the mid to late 1970s.
So in summery, teen oriented bands like the Monkees and the Jackson Five were criticized and there was some degree of hatred towards them, but your specific examples of the Beetles and Michael Jackson had so much talent, they were able to over come the early complaints leveled against them.
Sources: "Sonic Cool: The Life and Death of Rock and Roll" by Joe S Harrington
"Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The work of a legendary critic. Rock and Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock and Roll" by Lester Bangs. Lester Bangs was a prolific rock and roll critic who was often published in "Cream" and "Rolling Stone" magazines, during the 1968 to 1982 time period.
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