This picture is from 1960 in the Cavern before The Beatles were signed and commodified.
Standardisation and commodification both play key roles in building a cultural phemomenom, the cultural machine that runs the music industry is churning out mass produced repetive artists, even John Lennon believed The Beatles sold out, which is easily seen from the above picture and the clean cut image that everyone associates with them. In this LA press release after their album 'Revolver' http://youtube.com/Irw1OCWp1Gs
In the clip George says 'our image is how you see us' showing us how important fans are to an artist and there is 'not art without an audience'. Fandom especially for The Beatles was why they became such a phenomenon. Youth create a vibrant culture to create their own meanings, from things such as the way they dress by adopting the production line to their own needs for example the mods, as resisting the dominant ideology or creating fanzines to integrate or participate in the commodity.
Overall texts are designed to be relevant in the moment and by commodifying the artist it helps them stay relevant longer.
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