Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Francesa y Alemana
CULTURAS DE LAS ISLAS BRITÁNICAS
PLA 13
Next week’s practical will be devoted to examining the enormous impact and
continuing legacy of The Beatles. If you do not know anything at all about The Beatles,
please consider watching The Beatles: Their Golden Age (Aretha et al., 2012) or Eight
Days a Week: The Touring Years (Howard, 2016) before doing the activities below.
A. Answer the following questions.
1. Explain the demographic and economic factors informing the success of The Beatles in
early 1960s Britain.
2. How did The Beatles contribute to subverting class and regional prejudices deeply
ingrained in British society? And traditional gender roles?
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3. What was Britain mainly associated with in the popular imagination across the world
before The Beatles? How did they change that perception?
4. What is the British Invasion? What role did The Beatles play in it?
5. Discuss the relationship between The Beatles and the mass media (radio, television, film).
6. It has been said that The Beatles were both a major appropriating and globalizing cultural
agent. Would you agree with this? Why/not?
7. How did The Beatles shape the youth (counter)culture of the 1960s?
B. Listen closely to the following Spotify playlist with songs by The Beatles.
Identify the main theme(s) and topic(s) in two non-consecutive songs and consider whether
and how they relate to the issues discussed above.
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Recommended resources
PODCAST
Holland, T. & D. Sandbrook. “The Beatles.” The Rest Is History 91, August 30, 2021.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fIa9FkLt6TyCMptLvzdlW?si=4e33944b2e9c40fc.
ARTICLES
Armstrong, D. “The Beatles and the Deconstruction of Gender Identity.” Music Journalism
History, March 24, 2019. https://www.music-journalism-
history.com/2019/03/24/the-beatles-and-the-deconstruction-of-gender-identity/.
Fagge, R. & C. Lieberg. “A Very British Invasion: The Beatles in America.” University of
Warwick, accessed November 25, 2023.
https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/features/the-beatles-in-america/
Potter, J. “The Impact of The Beatles on American Culture.” Far Out Magazine, February 7,
2022. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/impact-of-the-beatles-on-american-culture/.
Sandbrook, D. “The Beatles: 8 Landmark Moments That Chart the Changing Face of Sixties
Britain.” History Extra, December 29, 2021.
https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/beatles-career-changing-face-
britain-1960s-landmark-moments/.
Sommer, T. “For Your (Re)Consideration: The Social and Cultural Roots of the Beatles.”
Observer, August 13, 2015. https://observer.com/2015/08/for-your-reconsideration-
the-social-and-cultural-roots-of-the-beatles/.
