Students from around the world will be able to study The Beatles’ impact on music and heritage from September 2021, after the University of Liverpool began accepting applications for its unique Masters programme.
The only qualification of its type in the world, the MA in The Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage will appeal to those currently working – or considering pursuing a career in – the music and creative industries; as well as those employed in museums and galleries, the arts, and across the tourism and leisure sectors.
MA Programme Leader, and The Beatles expert, Dr Holly Tessler said: “I’m absolutely delighted that we are able to bring formal study of The Beatles to the University of Liverpool’s Department of Music and Institute of Popular Music – the world’s first specialist centre for the study of popular music.
“What makes this MA unique is its focus on The Beatles in a future-facing way, considering the legacy’s influence on the music and creative industries, in popular culture, and within heritage, culture and tourism in the 21stCentury.
“This MA is as much about the wider study of Liverpool’s – and Britain’s – heritage, tourism and culture sectors as it is about the role The Beatles played in them.”
The University’s Department of Music has a rich history of engagement with the cultural legacy of The Beatles.
Dr Mike Jones is a member of the Beatles Legacy Group – which seeks to establish the economic value of Beatles tourism to Liverpool’s economy – and frequent media commentator on the group, its members and its continuing relevance.
Dr Jones said: “Liverpool should be regarded not just as the birthplace of The Beatles, but their cradle. What The Beatles took to the world was, in part, Liverpool’s unique culture.
“The introduction of The Beatles MA at last gives the University of Liverpool a framework to explore this deep, significant and lasting relationship”.
The postgraduate qualification, which sits alongside the University’s MA Music Industry Studies and MA Classical Music Industry, begins by contextualising study of The Beatles within a music and creative industries framework. It then broadens to examine the role the band plays in wider fields such as tourism and heritage, before considering how that influence could be replicated in different places, industries and contexts around the world.
University of Liverpool Head of Music, Professor Catherine Tackley, said: “The launch of this exciting new programme coincides with the opening of the Tung Auditorium in the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, which will extend the University’s contribution to the rich musical and cultural life of this city with which the Department of Music is closely associated.
“We are excited to welcome the first students to study the MA in The Beatles in 2021.”
Applications for the MA in The Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage are now open. To find out more about the programme, including how to apply, visit www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/taught/beatles-ma/overview/.
