World-First for New MA in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society

A brand new MA in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society has been launched at Liverpool Hope University and is the first MA of its kind in the World.

The new course, which can be studied both full- and part-time, covers four modules with specific issues relating to The Beatles and Popular Music, consisting of four 12-week taught modules plus a dissertation.

Mike Brocken, Senior Lecturer in Popular Music at Liverpool Hope University said: "There have been over 8000 books about The Beatles but there has never been serious academic study and that is what we are going to address.

The Beatles influenced so much of society, not just with their music, but also with fashion from their collar-less jackets to their psychedelic clothes. Their output covered a huge range from the black and white film 'A Hard Day's Night' to Strawberry Fields Forever which was accompanied by arguably the first pop video. Forty years on, now is the right time and Liverpool is the right place to study The Beatles. This Beatles MA is expected to attract a great deal of attention, not just locally, but nationally and we have already had enquires from abroad, particularly the United States.

The MA the Beatles Popular Music & Society is a seminal moment in popular music studies. For the first time in the UK and possibly the world a post graduate 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 capitalise on tourism in the city of Liverpool."

Popular music studies is now rightly regarded as an academic discipline in its own right and its interdisciplinary nature will appeal to those who have come from backgrounds in the humanities, cultural studies as well as music. There are also opportunities to study at certificate and diploma level."

The one-year full time course will cover not just The Beatles but popular music in general and its effect on society since the sixties.

The first module introduces methods and approaches of how we go about studying popular music and is linked to a specific text that is recommended to students, Longhurst - Popular Music and Society. This module then focuses down on several short Beatles-related issues that can be covered by some of Longhurst's text - issues such as covering and authenticity, locality, the music industry of the post-war era, and subcultures.

The second module discusses Liverpool in the immediately pre and then post wwii eras and how various social and musical issues fed into the early Merseybeat & Beatles profiles. It will also discuss the politics of place and focus on venues in and around Merseyside, genres, class and suburbia.

The third module looks at the studio sound and compositions of the Beatles and will bring in popular music semiotics. There will be an opportunity in this module to present a case study of one song and this will be linked to a performance if the student so wishes, otherwise assessment via a presentation and written work will be acceptable.

The final module deals with social anthropology and ethonography of the Beatles and gives the student the opportunity to get out and interview people with a presentation and report to submit. Students may wish to study some local musicians or media or even the local industry that has now set up to capitalise on the group.

1. Students on the full-time course would attend two evenings per week and cover all four modules in one academic year. Part-time students would attend once per week for two years. In both cases a dissertation is due towards the end of August.
2. There is no need to be a music reader for the final module as popular music semiotics allows us to study a musical text in a different way.
3. Different guest lecturers will be available for all three modules.
4. Assessment will be via an annoted biblio, a presentation, and an essay.

MA The Beatles, Popular Music and Society Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma The Beatles, Popular Music and Society MA The Beatles, Popular Music and Society

Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma The Beatles, Popular Music and Society: A unique opportunity to study in the city of Liverpool, home of The Beatles and with access to leading Popular Music academics and Beatles specialists, this MA is the only one of its kind in the UK and the world.

Programme Overview
This MA will examine the significance of the music of the Beatles in the construction of identities, audiences, ethnicities and industries, and localities; by doing so it will suggest ways to understand popular music as a social practice, focusing attention on issues such as the role of music in the construction of regional identities, concepts of authenticity, aesthetics, meaning, value, performance, and the use of popular music as a discursive evocation of place. Furthermore, in a consideration of popular music as a text, popular music semiotics will also be employed.

This MA, therefore, will be of interest to those working in the fields of popular music studies, cultural studies, social anthropology, politics, gender studies, and musicology, among others. Such a course is an essential addition to the discipline of Popular Music Studies.

The study of the City of Liverpool and its relationship with the Beatles is also overdue. Research questions exist such as how rhetoric surrounding locality quickly establishes itself around Liverpool and the Beatles; how certain local popular music narratives are marginalised or largely ignored (including those involving the Beatles - who it seems are sometimes considered ‘too popular’ to be studied). While several serious academic texts on popular music provide comprehensive overviews of such popular music complexities, this programme sets out to examine a specific area of study within this broader academic popular music framework.

The central focus of the programme will be an academic understanding of the worlds in which the Beatles emerged and how those worlds were reflected, contested, supported and negated by and through the creativity, presence and pervading status of the Beatles and their music. Students will research, investigate and present subject matter reflecting the above issues. They will interrogate such issues as locality and place, music in every day life, and music tourism in the city, and will historically consider popular music’s origins. By doing so, they will create sustainable research for scholars of the future.

Modules
Currently four taught modules are offered on this programme.

Texts and Contexts: Understanding Popular Music
This will offer the student an understanding of how Popular Music Studies has expanded and developed to deal with the changing nature of popular music over the past 50 years. This module will also provide students with contextually- related research methods.

Topics in History: Liverpool
This module will introduce and discuss musical production and consumption within the post WWII era and will discuss the roles of locality, economics, space and place, and other issues specifically relating to Merseyside. tel: 0151 291 3389 e-mail: postgraduate@hope.ac.uk www.hope.ac.uk/postgraduate

 Musicology and the Beatles
In this module students will take a popular music semiotics approach and will textually analyse a variety of Beatles material.

Historical and Critical Approaches
Students will be invited to study a more ethnographic approach to the Beatles, the various cultural discourses surrounding their music, and the local tourist industry established in Liverpool to capitalise on the group.

The Dissertation module will be introduced to students towards the end of the Topics in History module with a request for student abstracts, the allocation of supervisors, and the agreement of research areas.

The Postgraduate Certificate will be awarded on the successful completion of 60 credits. This will consist of two taught modules.

The Postgraduate Diploma will be awarded on the successful completion of 120 credits. This will mean the completion of all modules apart from the Dissertation.

Location and Facilities
All teaching for this programme will be delivered mainly at the Cornerstone Campus (which is close to the City Centre and ideally situated for access to public transport). It has its own gallery, the Cornerstone Gallery, with a busy exhibition programme. There will therefore be an opportunity for on-site learning and involvement with the Gallery.

The Cornerstone is just starting to undergo the final phase of its redevelopment which is scheduled for completion in November 2009. The new three-storey Centre located on Shaw Street will boast state-of-the-art facilities including improved music facilities, a Performance Hall with tiered seating for 300+ capacity, a library, an exhibition gallery, and extensive facilities for business incubation and a selection of teaching rooms extended across three floors.

Research Environment
The Course Director, Dr Michael Brocken is a highly qualified Popular Music Studies specialist – one of the first in the world to receive a doctorate in Popular Music Studies. He is research-led and research-active and possesses an appropriate level of subject expertise, as well as a range of publications, to under-pin the teaching of the course. The programme team are also either highly qualified or pursuing the highest qualifications in their chosen areas.

Fees
The fees are still to be agreed but we envisage that the fee will be similar to other programmes in the Arts and Humanities Deanery which currently are:

Home and EU £3445
International £6800

All Liverpool Hope graduates are entitled to a 20% discount off tuition fees. There are a range of scholarships available to international students. For more information, please go to http://www.hope.ac.uk/international/internationalscholarships

Study Mode/Course Duration This programme will be offered on both a part time and full time basis. All teaching will take place in the evening on either one night for part time or two nights for full time. There will be one intake a year in September. tel: 0151 291 3389 e-mail: postgraduate@hope.ac.uk www.hope.ac.uk/postgraduate

 Entry requirements Entry requirements
It is recommended that applicants should have a 2:1 degree in a relevant subject, which ideally includes some element of Popular Music Studies. However, it is not always possible to study popular music as an undergraduate pathway therefore other pathways will also be considered, for example Cultural Studies, History, English, Music, Media. Appropriate professional qualifications and/or experience will also be taken into account: non-traditional entrants may be interviewed. All prospective students will be expected to demonstrate critical engagement with popular music texts and possess analytical writing skills. Entrance therefore may be influenced by exemplar written work such as a review of a recently seen concert, an argument re the location (of aspects of) an oeuvre within popular music, or a discussion on the music industry.

Future Career Opportunities
Although this course will have a wide appeal, it would be beneficial to those teaching in schools or in FE or HE. There is evidence to suggest the importance of postgraduate qualifications for those teaching Music or Popular Music.

As with other areas of industry, within the music industry itself postgraduate qualifications are of increasing importance.

For further information Please contact the Postgraduate and International Recruitment and Admissions Team on 0151 291 3389 or postgraduate@hope.ac.uk for further details of the application process.

Please note that we hold several Postgraduate Open Evenings every year. Further details regarding these events can be found on our website: www.hope.ac.uk/postgraduate

tel: 0151 291 3389 e-mail: postgraduate@hope.ac.uk www.hope.ac.uk/postgraduate

(3/4/2009) Liverpool Hope University will offer a Masters in Arts degree in the Beatles, which the university says is the first in its kind in the worlds, reports Reuters. The course, "The Beatles, Popular Music and Society," discusses the Beatles, their hometown of Liverpool, the contexts of the 1960s and the industries that have set up in their wake to capitalise on tourism in the city. It can be studied full or part time and is composed of four 12-week modules and a dissertation. Mike Brocken, a senior lecturer in popular music at the university, on the university's website, says about the course, "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. Forty years on from their break-up, now is the right time and LIverpool is the right place to study The Beatles." How true. Who among us would have loved to say we majored in Beatles? Actually, I think I did and I suspect many of you did, too, though we didn't get diplomas that said so.