335: The Beatles and The Academics - How To Process The Beatles

About this episode

Do academics ruin the Beatles, or help them last? Three scholars join host Robert Rodriguez to explore Beatles Studies: the history of how academia has treated the band, what fans and scholars get right and wrong about each other, and what the field still hasn't covered. Guests: Christine Feldman-Barrett (author, A Women's History of the Beatles), Duncan Driver, and Paul Long (co-editor, Journal of Beatles Studies). In this episode: • Why early academic writing on the Beatles was dismissive, and how that shaped the field • The "Aeolian cadences" legacy, and why Beatles lyrics rarely get serious literary study • Shakespeare and the Beatles: why some artists seem to reflect us back to ourselves • Gen Z, "boomer nostalgia" and why the Beatles keep finding new listeners • Beatles university courses and the Journal of Beatles Studies • Mark Lewisohn's Tune In, Ian Leslie's John & Paul, and why there's no "final word" • What's missing: social class, women's perspectives, and the global Beatles • How to read any Beatles book critically 🔗 Read the open-access Journal of Beatles Studies: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/jbs Subscribe to Something About The Bea