Beatlemania: Technology, Business, and Teen Culture in Cold War America (Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Technology)

I got this book for an upper level college history course and i found it to be a very interesting read. The cultural history discussed by the author gives a well rounded and creative look at why the Beatles became so popular in America, along with historical information on the background of the Beatles before they became famous.

This is a great read for nostalgia buffs. You get plenty of background information, too. But as to why everybody went so crazy in the mid-sixties, I still can't quite figure it. Maybe the book might have used more pictures. Many of them are real treasures now.

I was only five years old when the Beatles premiered on the Ed Sullivan Show, singing "I want to Hold Your Hand" to hoards of screaming, fainting girls. Although my traditional, Goldwater-voting father rolled his eyes at the hype and hysteria, this performance fused the rest of us to the collective zeitgeist of the early 1960's. Beatlemania explores the musical phenomenon that swept away the staid attitudes of the fifties and whipped up the world's youth to write lyrics and melodies that defined not only their generation, but those to come. Millard argues that this was made possible by the convergence of technological advances in recording and production that made high-quality sound available to the masses, spawning the expansion of the global music industry that we know today. Indeed, Beatlemania was a turning point not only for economic expansion, but the export of political, poetic and philosophical ideas that shaped the viewpoint of a generation of youth facing the draft, the struggle for civil rights, and other challenges of conscience such as poverty, sexual freedom and drug use. I enjoyed this book and recommend it for anyone interested in the Beatles and how they, "made friends with a whole country of strangers by television" and went on to revolutionize the world.

Writing about the Beatles is just more bait for him to exploit his teenage students. This monster befriends couples in his classes and then tries to isolate and screw the girl. He's done this repeatedly. I've seen him in public where he's said to me, "I've f***ed your girlfriend." He dates his students exclusively. And he's in his late 50s or early 60s exploiting girs out of high school...He graded me unfairly after he started screwing my girlfriend. I had to challenge every grade...Years later, I even saw him at an ABC store buying alcohol for his student of the month--who was obviously under-age. When I reported it to UAB, they ignored it. More people have to have the courage to report this sick predator ...The first day of class, he has his student's answer a questionaire to find out which female students are most compatible with his tastes. He is sick and should be kept away from all students. Parents do not send their kids to college to have this sick, mentally disturbed "teacher" screw their kids--and pay him to do it.