you can consider them average musician if you like but at their time they are better than on what they call "average musicians". The thing is they always experiment with their music which is rare today. Have you seen a band whos every song is unique and dont sound the same with others? well its rare today and they still base it on some tune/song from other singers.
Average musician=One who cant create songs that are really original. They just alter some notes and instruments from an original piece... Most of them dont compose their songs.
Talented=Creates original ones.. They copy tunes from other songs but only a part of it.
And just look at the top 100 singers/bands of all time in every music site, They are always on top 3. Some of them are real music critics.
Well im not a fan of them but well i have to defend them coz if they never existed, We are probably still stuck on Classical songs. They are the one who made the transition, though not direct, from classical music to new wave and to modern ones. I believe alternative bands originated from them coz alternative bands creates original music
PS. im talking bout modern pop, Mostly right now, We can only consider a song pop when it uses synth and/or some/full autotune on a song. When it has a repeatitive rythm and mostly when the song isnt emotional and all about partying and other things.
Pretty much their genre of music is from pure rock to rock and roll and classic pop.