Dizzy Miss Lizzie the Rock & Roll Queen

I'm sure she thought about it exactly 0 times, but Queen Elizabeth's long reign was timed perfectly with the rise of rock & roll:

Her coronation in 1953 coincided with the rise of American stars like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, who would soon influence the U.K. artists who would make Britain the epicenter of both music and cool a decade later. Elizabeth came into her own in the mid-1960s, just as the British musical invasion overtook the world.  Right when the U.K.’s empire saw its Colonial power collapse once and for all, a young wave of British stars, led by the Beatles, began to colonize global culture. From that point on, successive waves of U.K. musicians ruled the world of song and style, from the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in the ‘60s, to punk and new wave in the ‘70s and ‘80s, to Amy Winehouse and Adele today.

Though far from a hipster herself, Queen Elizabeth recognized the economic, and cultural, power of British musicians early on. In November of 1963, three months before the Beatles exploded on The Ed Sullivan Show, the Fab Four played the Queen’s Royal Variety Performance, a televised, annual charity event. Elizabeth’s extended family enjoyed the youthful power of the songs they performed, like “From Me to You” and “She Loves You,” and laughed heartily at a famous jibe lobbed their way by John Lennon. “The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands,” he instructed the crowd. “The rest of you, just rattle your jewelry.”