UK University Offers Masters In The Beatles

LONDON — The city of Liverpool already has a Beatles museum and its airport is named after John Lennon. Now a local university says it rolling out a graduate program entirely devoted to the Fab Four.

Liverpool Hope University said Tuesday that its new master's program, "The Beatles, Popular Music and Society," would give students the opportunity to analyze music and culture through the band's work.

"There have been over 8,000 books about the Beatles but there has never been serious academic study and that is what we are going to address," said Mike Brocken, who is directing the program at the university, which is in the band's hometown in northwestern England.

Brocken said students would be expected to study the Beatles' songs, stardom, hometown and cultural impact through four 12-week courses and a dissertation.

Brocken said studying the band was really a way of examining society as a whole.

"If popular music is about anything, it's about people," he said. "If we look at popular culture, it simply provides us with a very complex mirror of ourselves."

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On the Net:

Liverpool Hope University: http://www.hope.ac.uk/

Comments

[ohnoyoudidnot!]

For those that grew up with The Beatles, the 1960's was a wild ride, taking our society to places we'd never been. The music of that time played a large role, reflecting us to ourselves, and The Beatles turned our minds inside out.

And look where that got us! LOL

[TheBaffler]

What's next, courses on Harry Potter, Stephen King, and Steven Spielberg?

The Liverpudlian Mediocrities are the most overrated artists in any medium, ever. Treating them with such reverence is beyond philistine.

[Pyfagorus]

Well, they were certainly no Petula Clark, or Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass... but they did have one or two decent tunes.

[educatedfoolz]

Liverpudlian Mediocrities? What planet have you been living on? The Beatles were one of the most influential groups of the twentieth century. Lennon-McCartney will go down in history as one of the greatest songwriting teams of the modern era. I guarantee that 100 years from now, when we are all dead, that their music will live on. As John said humbly on "Let It Be", "I hope we passed the audition." With flying colors!

[TheBaffler]

Please learn the difference between popularity and aesthetic merit.

[RepugsOut08]

Yawn. Reading your post wasted five seconds of my life I'll never get back.

[TheBaffler]

And then you wasted more seconds typing a witless retort. Guess your time isn't worth much.

[Tropiholic]

the beatles could never hope to be as accomplished as you are baffled, could they?

[rektruax]

While I would like an in depth explanation of Bafflers position, your retort is equaling puzzling.

[RepugsOut08]

Lol!

[PaulRaymond]

Ya know, whenever there's a story about the Beatles, either as a group or individuals, there's always some yahoo who just doesn't get it. The Beatles were, and shall remain to be, one of the most significant cultural entities that the world has known. Unfortunately though, there are some that although they have been fortunate enough to share the planet at the same time as the Beatles, they will never have any comprehension as to just how lucky they truly have been. It's their loss. Too bad.

[HappyMarsden]

What on god's green earth is this course supposed to prepare them for, in the workforce? Managing a garage sale?

[KristaJulieva]

Where would civilization be if no one had ever studied anything but that which was directly tied to a trade? 99% of MFA degrees aren't supposed to prepare one for a specific niche in the workforce. But some of us think there is a value in receiving and creating knowledge if the arts.

[RevBookburn]

I think I could pass that right now. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

[Pyfagorus]

Quick, answer this question: There's only one Beatles song that has a woman singing lead on it, and it's only for one line of the song. What was the song, what was the line, and who was the singer?

[OttoMann]

If you want to call it singing, that would be Yoko, "Not when he looked so fierce," from The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.

[Biyobi]

"Bungalow Bill" / "But when he looked so fierce" / Yoko Ono

[ChrisR]

Now name 2 which feature female backing vocals.

[TheBaffler]

Quick, answer this question: Name 1000 bands/musicians better than The Beatles.

Yes, it's so easy to answer that it's obviously a joke question. A list of bands worse than the Liverpudlian Mediocrities would be shorter. They aren't even the best band from Liverpool.

[KCFreedom]

Hey mommy and daddy, I found a degree plan to spend your tens of thousands of dollars on!

That'll get me a job at, uh, waiting tables.

[RepugsOut08]

Hey, it's the post Bush economy. At least waiting tables is a job! ;)

[Herodotus Shoggoth]

Finally, a field I can excel in.

[whitemerlot]

Look, I probably like the Beatles more than almost anyone I know, but even I wouldn't want to waste my money on something like that. Why can't people just listen and enjoy the music? Why must everything be analyzed, interpreted in every which way, seen in multiple contexts, viewed through an historical lens, etc.? Can't art simply be art and nothing else? I'm imagining John Lennon laughing hysterically from above about the whole prospect of this university course.

[Pyfagorus]

"Why can't people just listen and enjoy the music?... Can't art simply be art and nothing else?"

Yes, why can't we just get rid of subjects like musicology, art history, literary criticism, etc. so that everyone understands/appreciates works of art on the same level as Joe Shmoe on the street?

[000Jade000]

Sign me up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6ZcfJspcI

[SColbert]

A degree in The Beatles, I thought that my school having a degree in puppetry was bad.

[firelord5000]

What a terrible waste of resources.