University in Liverpool Offers Masters in the Beatles Degree

A local university in Liverpool, birthplace of the Beatles, is now offering a master's program called "The Beatles, Popular Music and Society."

Liverpool already has an airport named after John Lennon, and a Beatles Museum. Now, it also has a graduate program for studying the Beatles. Liverpool Hope University made this announcement Tuesday. Students can analyze Beatles' songs, how they rose from humble means in Liverpool, and how they become popular worldwide etc. The course listing in Liverpool Hope University said the following:

''The Beatles, Popular Music and Society' marks a seminal advance in popular music studies. For the first time in the UK and possibly the world, a postgraduate taught course is offered to research into The Beatles, the city from which they emerged, the contexts of the 1960s, technology, sound and songwriting and the industries that have set up in their wake to capitalize on tourism in the city of Liverpool.'

The students will be offered four, 12-week courses and will submit a dissertation on the Beatles at the end of the course. Mike Brocken, Senior Lecturer in Popular Music at Hope, will be one of the professors teaching the course. He said there are more than 8,000 books about The Beatles, but there is no single place that offers a serious academic study of them. He hopes this master's program will solve the problem and fill the gap. He claims they have received numerous requests about this Beatles program not only from within UK, but also from overseas including the United States. Brocken told the AP:

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

If you are interested in this Beatles master's program, call the university’s postgraduate inquiry line at 0151 291 3389 or contact them via their website here.