Early Beatles were a boy band, but they made some pretty decent pop starting with Revolver.
They were by no means the "first" boy band either, Elvis, for example, was basically the Justin Beiber of his time. The Monkees were much worse offenders of being a boy band than the Beatles.
I'm not saying I love the Beatles, but calling them a boy band, especially considering their later albums, is a bit of a stretch.
Anyway, on-topic, I never really cared for the Velvet Underground. I understand that they played an important role in the development of rock music, laying the foundation for punk and noise rock and whatnot, but I just never really enjoyed them that much.