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Fandom and The Beatles by Kenneth Womack & Kit O'Toole
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Fandom and The Beatles

The Act You've Known for All These Years

$26.24

Get for $14.99 with membership
Length 10 hours 25 minutes
Language English
Narrators Emily Sutton-Smith & Michael Butler Murray

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More than fifty years after their breakup, the Beatles are still attracting fans from various generations, all while retaining their original fan base from the 1960s. Why have those first-generation fans continued following the Beatles and are now introducing their grandchildren to the group? Why are current teens affected by the band's music? And perhaps most importantly, how and why do the Beatles continue to resonate with successive generations?

Unlike other bands of their era, the Beatles seem permanently frozen in time, having never descended into "nostalgia act" territory. Instead, even after the announcement of the band's breakup in 1970, the group has maintained its cultural and musical relevance. Their timeless quality appeals to younger generations while maintaining the loyalty of older fans. While the Beatles indeed represent a specific time period, their music and words address issues as meaningful today as they were during the Summer of Love: politics, war, sex, drugs, art, and creative liberation. As the first anthology to assess the nature of fan response and the band's enduring appeal, Fandom and the Beatles: The Act You've Known for All These Years defines and explores these unique qualities and the key ways in which this particular pop fusion has inspired such loyalty and multigenerational popularity.

Kenneth Womack is one of the world's foremost writers and thinkers about the Beatles. His book Solid State was feted as the go-to book by the Los Angeles Times for readers interested in learning about the band's swan song.

Kit O'Toole is a Chicago-based independent scholar who has written about rock, jazz, and R&B for over twenty-five years. O'Toole is a contributor to the anthologies Interdisciplinary Essays on Environment and Culture, New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles, and The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper, and the Summer of Love.

Emily Sutton-Smith is a professional actress and one of the cofounders of an Equity theater in central Michigan. Her stage credits include Out of Orbit; Doublewide; Summer Retreat; Too Much, Too Much, Too Many; Miracle on South Division Street; End Days; The Usual: A Musical Love Story; The Smell of the Kill; The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds; Maidens, Mothers and Crones; and Additional Particulars. A New York City native, she has worked onstage at almost all the Equity theaters in Michigan, including the Williamston Theatre, the Purple Rose Theatre, Performance Network Theatre, Tipping Point Theatre, the Detroit Rep, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, and MeadowBrook Theatre. Emily is a proud member of the Actors' Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA. Her film and TV credits include The Funeral Guest, Gifted Hands, Butterfly Effect: Revelation, The Prince of Motor City, and Nevermore. Emily studied acting at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York City, and holds a Grande Diploma in Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University.

Michael Butler Murray is a professional actor, narrator, and musician who has voiced over fifty-five audiobooks. His recorded titles run the spectrum from dramatic to comedic fiction and nonfiction titles varying in topics from the Middle East to understanding your dog's olfactory senses. Born on Long Island, New York, he has been performing his entire life. Over the past few decades, he has performed in slews of musicals, dramas, and improv shows across the country, has appeared in several films, and performs regularly with his guitar comedy duo, Schoolcraft & Murray. He loves stretching his legs in the great outdoors, sailing, surfing and, naturally, sitting in a quiet box reading aloud.

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