Music News: Masters Degree in Beatles

[Garritan]

LONDON (Reuters) – A university in Liverpool has launched a Master of Arts degree in The Beatles, the city's most famous sons, and called the qualification the first of its kind.

Liverpool Hope University says on its website that the course entitled "The Beatles, Popular Music and Society" consists of four 12-week taught modules and a dissertation.

"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," said Mike Brocken, senior lecturer in popular music at Hope. "Forty years on from their break-up, now is the right time and Liverpool is the right place to study The Beatles.

"This MA is expected to attract a great deal of attention, not just locally but nationally and we have already had enquiries from abroad, particularly the United States."

The university said it was the first postgraduate taught course on The Beatles in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world.
This could open up all kinds of degrees - Masters of Metallica, Bachelors in Michael Jackson, Doctor of Poison, U2 U, Eminem of Arts...

[Larry G. Alexander]

Well, isn't that special. *()

How does anyone make a living with a degree like that? Would having that on your resume' impress a potential employer? It would be worth about as much as an Art History degree. :)

[efiebke]

Berklee, at least 27+ years ago (when I graduated from the place), offered a course in writing songs in the style of John Lennon. I attended a concert at Berklee where the instructor of this course showcased John Lennon's music. I remember it being a pretty cool concert. I also vaguely remember the instructor dressing up to look like John Lennon. He even seemed to sound like him.

But offering a degree in the styles of any one particular pop-song artist??? Well, all the power to the people who decide to study for that degree! Who knows?? Maybe they'll land a job somewhere teaching students how to write in the style of that pop-song writer. (And I AIN'T knocking pop-song writers!) Berklee might hire the instructor with the MA degree in Beatles music. ;)

By the way. . . I thoroughly enjoy music by the Beatles, and John Lennon, and Paul McCartney. And while we're at it, I also enjoy pop-songs written by Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, David Matthews, Carol King, Carly Simon, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, and many, many, many more pop-song writers. But if or when I go for my Masters Degree, it will probably be in Nursing. I guess that I am a very boring person. :o

[Hippie]

Well, isn't that special. *()

How does anyone make a living with a degree like that? Would having that on your resume' impress a potential employer? It would be worth about as much as an Art History degree. :)


LOL

I was thinking the same thing but with different words.

LOL

[Aziraphal]

I thoroughly enjoy music by the Beatles, and John Lennon, and Paul McCartney. And while we're at it, I also enjoy pop-songs written by Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, David Matthews, Carol King, Carly Simon, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, and many, many, many more pop-song writers. But if or when I go for my Masters Degree, it will probably be in Nursing. I guess that I am a very boring person. :o

*yawn* no, just kidding :D

Those other songwriters made nowhere near such a tidal-wave-inducing splash in the industry. Su perhaps this is more than just a hyped-up fan club and the Beatles would be worth studying.

As long as it's not just endless drooling over the Come Together tape echo and DSP analysis of Hard Days Night intro chord, that is.

[Ken-P]

...I lost words in a few seconds :)

But I guess that in England you can get Master of Arts in Heraldry (which is very specialized study in my opinion), so why not in MA in the Beatles? If there are academic interests, why not?

>>Would having that on your resume' impress a potential employer?

Haha, good point. But any Master (whatever the emphasis maybe) degrees are still valuable for job hunting in general. It is especially true if the potential employer has higher degrees.
It is because Masters (and Doctors) are essentially research degree and it shows the holder went through certain academic training and most-likely holds skills such as thesis writings, presentations and other things which are valuable assets for a lot of jobs.

And of course, you can choose to write you have "Master of Arts" in this case. :)

[BenNichols]

That is just taking the pi$$. I nearly sweated blood doing my masters in soundtrack composition. It was long, hard, dedicated work, and to think that someone can get a degree of 'equal' weight by enthusing about a band....

The beatles are just the beatles, they wrote some good songs, and they wrote some duff ones (in someones opinion), and yes maybe they influenced popular music in a big way, but why oh why do people keep banging on about them?!?!


(sorry, i think the beatles are the only band in the history of music that get on my nerves cos of the aura that surrounds them...)

on another note: at manchester university they offered me a module on a famous blues/raggae singer (I think it was Bob Marley)...a lot of students chose that module thinking it would be easy, turned out to be flipping hard. They had to analyse his poetry and find ultra deep meanings for everything!

[PaulR]

[INDENT] Bachelors in Michael Jackson,

:D:D:D

The more you think about that - the funnier it gets.