A new journal establishing the Beatles as an object of academic research is now available online.
The Journal of Beatles Studies (JBS) is a brand-new open access journal published in association with the University of Liverpool and the University’s MA in The Beatles, Music Industry and Heritage.
The journal provides a voice to new and emerging research locating the Beatles in new contexts, groups and communities from within and beyond academic institutions.
The theme of this premier issue is ‘Navigating and Narrating the Beatles: Establishing a Research Agenda for the 21st Century’.
Contributions explore how, why and through what means the Beatles are both subject and object of critical study.
Articles seek to understand Beatles scholarship as a means through which we can begin to answer the question of why the Beatles have remained a cultural constant, the focus of continuous evaluation and re-evaluation for more than half a century.
Co-edited by Dr Holly Tessler at the University of Liverpool and Paul Long at Monash University, the journal will publish original, rigorously researched essays and notes, as well as book and media reviews, twice a year.
Dr Holly Tessler, Senior Lecturer in Music Industries at the University of Liverpool said: “I am absolutely thrilled that the first issue of the Journal of Beatles Studies has been released for a wide audience to read and engage with.
“As the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated exclusively to study of and about the Beatles, we’re very proud to publish research that highlights the robust and diverse nature of 21st-century scholarship around the Beatles.”
Anthony Cond, Chief Executive at Liverpool University Press said: “Paul McCartney may have once said “The Beatles were always a great little band. Nothing more nothing less,” but that isn’t the full story. Built on once-in-a-century talent, and sitting at the epicentre of cultural change, The Beatles’ influence and importance continues to inspire serious study.
“The Journal of Beatles Studies, published by Liverpool University Press, will provide an outlet for Beatles scholarship that is academically-framed and will be openly available for anyone to read, reflecting the huge global appetite for anything connected with The Beatles.”
To celebrate this exciting new journal, Liverpool University Press is publishing a commemorative paperback edition of the first issue of The Journal of Beatles Studies which will be available for purchase alongside the Open Access journal edition.
To order a copy of the commemorative paperback edition, (ISBN: 978-1-802-07766-7 £20.00) please email lup@liverpool.ac.uk.
You can read the journal online here.