Tracking the Beatles story

Drawing on letters published in the fan magazine Beatles Book Monthly from 1963 to 1969, this article investigates the changing nature and extent of enthusiasm for the Beatles, often, in its extreme form, called ‘Beatlemania’. Numerical analyses are carried out via spreadsheet analysis of positivity as represented by adjectives such as ‘excellent’, ‘fab’, ‘great’ and ‘fantastic’, exclamation marks, feelings of connection to Liverpool and loving terminology. Probing of the letters also enables a qualitative discussion of the nature of reader attachment to the Beatles, and conclusions are drawn about the shifting level of interest in the band as reflected in correspondence content across the decade. This is then related to the chronology of the band’s decline and end.

This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .