A museum, a statue, a guided tour, and now a whole year of dissecting their work.
Liverpool never ceases to celebrate the most famous of the groups it gave birth to: the Beatles.
Recognized as the most important group in the history of pop music, the Fab Four continue to fascinate, 51 years after their separation.
So much so that the city's university opened a new masters specialization last week called The Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage.
From Beatlemania to the relationship between Lennon and McCartney and the musicological merits of classics like
Revolver
or
Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band,
everything has been said about the ten years of their unparalleled career.
This course year therefore takes a different angle.
The university promises to explore how "
their music and history are inextricably linked to a growing number of creative and cultural industries, including music, media and social networks, tourism and heritage
."
An economy in its own right
The subject is far from anecdotal in Liverpool, where the economy around the "
four boys in the wind
" weighed 81.9 million pounds in 2014, and employed 2,335 people according to a study. The university also intends to take advantage of this economy to feed its courses.
“Through interactions with the Beatles tourism and heritage sectors in Liverpool, you will learn about the role and importance that The Beatles and their heritage contribute to these industries at the local, regional and national level,”
says the establishment.
In detail, the course will unfold several major themes.
An introduction to the workings of the music industry, a look back at the cultural heritage of the Beatles across the Liverpool region, then the study of the group's perception in the 20th, then in the 21st century.
All the generations are there
The course officially started on Wednesday, September 29.
As a
New York Times
report reveals
, only eleven students are participating in this first year of class.
A sign that the aura of the Fab Four has passed through the generations, the students are between 21 and 67 years old.
The first class was devoted to
Penny Lane
, the band's iconic song and street in the south of the city, which now attracts fans from all over the world to the banks of the Mersey.
While training may seem futile at first, the university assures its students that it can open the doors to "
the music industry, museums, arts administration, journalism, editing and teaching
”.
Academia's fascination with the Beatles does not seem to be fading anytime soon.
While no institution has yet issued a Beatles-stamped diploma, several American universities have for years offered entire courses on the history of the group, such as Indiana University, Alaska University, Southern California or Skidmore College. in New York State.
Next September, an academic journal entirely devoted to the Liverpool group will also see the light of day.