The Beatles, Popular Music and Society

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxii

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2. Men of Ideas? Popular Music, Anti-Intellectualism and the Beatles

   • Ian Inglis

   Pages 1-22

3. Coming Out of the Rhetoric of ‘Merseybeat’: Conversations with Joe Flannery

   • Mike Brocken

   Pages 23-34

4. The Beatles and the Spectacle of Youth

   • John Muncie

   Pages 35-52

5. Lennon-McCartney and the Early British Invasion, 1964–6

   • Jon Fitzgerald

   Pages 53-85

6. From Me to You: Austerity to Profligacy in the Language of the Beatles

   • Guy Cook, Neil Mercer

   Pages 86-104

7. The Postmodern White Album

   • Ed Whitley

   Pages 105-125

8. You Can’t Do That: The Beatles, Artistic Freedom And Censorship

   • Martin Cloonan

   Pages 126-149

9. Tell Me What You See: the Influence and Impact of the Beatles’ Movies

   • Bob Neaverson

   Pages 150-162

10. The Celebrity Legacy of the Beatles

    • P. David Marshall

    Pages 163-175

11. Refab Four: Beatles for Sale in the Age of Music Video

    • Gary Burns

    Pages 176-188

12. ‘Sitting in an English Garden’: Comparing Representations of ‘Britishness’ in the Songs of the Beatles and 1990s Britpop Groups

    • Andy Bennett

    Pages 189-206

13. Back Matter

    Pages 207-211

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More has been written about the Beatles than any other performing artists of the twentieth century. Accounts of their lives and times have been retold, reproduced and reinvented to the extent that their achievements have passed into contemporary folklore and popular mythology. What has been surprisingly absent, however, is any sustained critical investigation of the numerous debates and issues the group provoked. This book provides that long overdue analysis, by seeking to present the academic study of the Beatles in its appropriate contexts - historical, political, musical and sociological. Consisting entirely of newly commissioned articles and written by an international group of scholars, its contents challenge many of the traditional assumptions about the Beatles and offer fresh and provocative insights into the nature of their success and its continuing influence. It is essential reading for those wishing to understand not only the phenomenon of the Beatles but also the cultural environment within which popular music continues to be practised and studied.

• University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

  Ian Inglis

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