More than 50 years after their breakup, the Beatles are still attracting fans from various generations, all while retaining their original fan base from the 1960s. Why have those first-generation fans continued following the Beatles and are now introducing their grandchildren to the group? Why are current teens affected by the band's music? And perhaps most importantly, how and why do the Beatles continue to resonate with successive generations? Unlike other bands of their era, the Beatles seem permanently frozen in time, having never descended into "nostalgia act" territory. Instead, even after the announcement of the band's breakup in 1970, the group has maintained its cultural and musical relevance. Their timeless quality appeals to younger generations while maintaining the loyalty of older fans. While the Beatles indeed represent a specific time period, their music and words address issues as meaningful today as they were during the Summer of Love: politics, war, sex, drugs, art, and creative liberation. As the first anthology to assess the nature of fan response and the band's enduring appeal, Fandom and the Beatles: The Act You've Known for All These Years defines and explores these unique qualities and the key ways in which this particular pop fusion has inspired such loyalty and multigenerational popularity.

Sex, death and nostalgia are among the impulses driving Beatles fandom: the metaphorical death of the Beatles after their break-up in 1970 has fueled the progressive nostalgia of fan conventions for 48 years; the death of John Lennon and George Harrison has added pathos and drama to the Beatles' story; Beatles Monthly predicated on the Beatles' good looks and the letters page was a forum for euphemistically expressed sexuality. The Beatles and Fandom is the first book to discuss these fan subcultures. It combines academic theory on fandom with compelling original research material to tell an alternative history of the Beatles phenomenon: a fans' history of the Beatles that runs concurrently with the popular story we all know.

“A must-have for Beatles fans looking for new insight . . . Leonard uncovers fresh ideas [that] . . . six decades of Beatles literature passed over." —The Spectrum Part generational memoir and part cultural history of the sixties, Beatleness is the first book to tell the story of the Beatles and their impact on America from the fans’ perspective. When the Beatles arrived in the United States on February 7, 1964, they immediately became a constant, compelling presence in fans’ lives. For the next six years, the band presented a nonstop deluge of steadily evolving sounds, ideas, and images that transformed the childhood and adolescence of millions of baby boomers and nurtured a relationship unique in history. Exploring that relationship against the backdrop of the sexual revolution, political assassinations, the Vietnam War, and other events, Beatleness examines critically the often-heard assertion that the Beatles “changed everything” and shows how—through the interplay between the group, the fans, and the culture—that change came about. Beatleness incorporates hundreds of hours of in-depth fan interviews and includes many fan vignettes. Offering a fresh perspective and new insights on the Beatles phenomenon, it allows readers to experience—or re-experience—what it was like to be a young person during those transformative years.

"Autobiographical essays that explore how John Lennon and The Beatles influenced the intellectual and artistic development of the author. Explores the musical, cultural, and personal aspects of intense music fandom"--

More than 50 years after their breakup, the Beatles are still attracting fans from various generations, all while retaining their original fan base from the 1960s. Why have those first-generation fans continued following the Beatles and are now introducing their grandchildren to the group? Why are current teens affected by the band's music? And perhaps most importantly, how and why do the Beatles continue to resonate with successive generations? Unlike other bands of their era, the Beatles seem permanently frozen in time, having never descended into "nostalgia act" territory. Instead, even after the announcement of the band's breakup in 1970, the group has maintained its cultural and musical relevance. Their timeless quality appeals to younger generations while maintaining the loyalty of older fans. While the Beatles indeed represent a specific time period, their music and words address issues as meaningful today as they were during the Summer of Love: politics, war, sex, drugs, art, and creative liberation. As the first anthology to assess the nature of fan response and the band's enduring appeal, Fandom and the Beatles: The Act You've Known for All These Years defines and explores these unique qualities and the key ways in which this particular pop fusion has inspired such loyalty and multigenerational popularity.

“We’re Going to See the Beatles!” presents the story of Beatlemania in America as experienced by their most devoted fans. “We’re Going to See the Beatles!” includes anecdotes from those who cheered the group as they arrived at Kennedy Airport in 1964, who kept vigil for them outside the Plaza Hotel, and who sat in the studio audience of The Ed Sullivan Show for the band’s landmark first live TV broadcast. Other fans detail what it was like to see the Beatles in one of their rare concerts at such famous venues as Shea Stadium and Candlestick Park. From the earliest whispers about the band to the Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and from their subsequent tours and albums to their breakup, author Garry Berman has collected stories from the fans who witnessed the hysteria firsthand. Contributors from around the United States also share photographs and mementos to help create a richly detailed and entertaining oral history. What emerges is a highly personal account of the Beatles and their incredible impact on music and popular culture.

Hundreds of books have been written about The Beatles. Over the last half century, their story has been mythologized and de-mythologized and presented by biographers and journalists as history. Yet many of these works do not strictly qualify as history and the story of how the Beatles' mythology continues to be told has been largely ignored. This book examines the band's historiography, exploring the four major narratives that have developed over time: The semi-whitewashed "Fab Four" account, the acrimonious breakup-era Lennon Remembers version, the biased "Shout!" narrative in the wake of John Lennon's murder, and the current Mark Lewisohn orthodoxy. Drawing on the most influential primary and secondary sources, Beatles history is analyzed using historical methods.