ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores some of the discourses, both academic and popular, that surround the Beatles as a cultural phenomenon. It provides a rationale for the use of the Beatles as a case study through which to reflect on changing representations of men and masculinities in the 1960s, the period in which they were active as a working group. However, a dearth of academic works on the Beatles, despite an increasing acceptance of their historical, sociological, cultural and musical significance by the popular media and serious music journals. Coser in Men of Ideas takes a historical perspective on the rise of the intellectual in a number of fields, academic, scientific, literary, politics and the mass-culture industries. Inglis has advanced a number of arguments around the ways in which popular music can operate as an agent of change in the political and cultural environment.
