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Beatleness

How the Beatles and Their Fans Remade the World

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Beatleness

By: Candy Leonard
Narrated by: Tamara Marston
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About this listen

The Beatles arrived in the United States on February 7, 1964, and immediately became a constant, compelling presence in fans’ lives. For the next six years, the band presented a nonstop deluge of sounds, words, images, and ideas, transforming the childhood and adolescence of millions of baby boomers. Beatleness explains how the band became a source of emotional, intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual nurturance in fans’ lives, creating a relationship that was historically unique. Looking at that relationship against the backdrop of the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War, political assassinations, and other events of those tumultuous years, the audiobook critically examines the often-heard assertion that the Beatles changed everything, and shows how through the interplay between the group, the fans, and the culture that change came about. A generational memoir and cultural history based on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with first-generation fans, Beatleness allows listeners to experience or re-experience what it was like to be a young person during those eventful and transformative years. Its fresh approach offers many new insights into the entire Beatle phenomenon and explains why the group still means so much to so many.

©2014 Candy Leonard (P)2014 Audible Inc.
History & Criticism Social Sciences United States

Critic Reviews

"I love this book! …beautifully written. It's an incredibly hip and astute account of all the Beatles' major happenings that affected so many people around the world who were riveted to their every move…” (Will Lee, Grammy Award-winning bass player and studio musician, Late Show with David Letterman and Fab Faux)
"Candy Leonard was 'possessed' when she first heard the Beatles, and Beatleness is her story and ours. It's breezy, smart, and open-hearted, and everyone who grew up with the band - or wants to know what that was like - will appreciate its insights and feel its emotional impact." (Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor, Rolling Stone )
"A fascinating study of the Beatles' resounding impact upon late-twentieth-century American culture... While hundreds of Beatles books stake claims about being the definitive work, Leonard's Beatleness finally gets to the heart of the matter, offering readers new insights into the unusual and lasting nature of Beatles fandom." (Kenneth Womack, author of Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles and The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four )

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A different perspective on the Beatles

I enjoyed this different perspective on the Beatles, hearing the views of fans, particularly women, and what the Beatles meant to them.

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