The Beatles: Image and the Media

by Michael R. Frontani

The Image and the Media charts the transformation of the Beatles from teen idols to leaders of the youth movement and powerful cultural agents. Drawing upon American mainstream print media, broadcasts, albums, films, and videos, the study covers the band's career in the United States. Michael R. Frontani explores how the Beatles' media image evolved and how this transformation related to cultural and historical events. Upon their arrival in the U.S., the Beatles wore sharply tailored suits and cast themselves as adorable, accessible teen heartthrobs. By the end of the decade, they had absorbed the fashion and consciousness of the burgeoning counterculture and were using their interviews, media events, and music to comment on issues such as the Vietnam War, drug culture, and civil rights. Frontani traces the steps that led to this change and comments on how the band's mantra of essential optimism never wavered despite the evolution of its media profile. Michael R. Frontani is associate professor of communications at Elon University. His work has appeared in American Journalism , Journal of American Culture , Journalism History , and African Studies Review .

Genres: Music

302 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2007

Reviews

[farheen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i hope to also be deemed the foremost beatles scholar please. it’s my only dream in life.

[RA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Frontani's history of the Beatles "era" via the media. A nice recounting of the media view of the Beatles' phenomena, including mainstream press, and "counterculture" rags & mags.

A bit of socio-political analysis, as well as cultural impact.

[Debbie Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although there is a lot of information covered in other books, the angle of looking at how the media shaped the perception of the Beatles is quite interesting.

[Michelle Frontani · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the penultimate books about the Beatles.

[Deirdre Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

yes, this one is amazing, full deserving of the five stars. Academic Michael R. Frontani has written a well researched, prescient book about how the image the Beatles projected to the world reflected their changing status from mop top entertainers to artists committed to the anti-establishment ideals of 1960s counterculture. He quotes from numerous eye witness accounts of the Beatles phenomenon, including Time, Newsweek, the New York Times and ultimately Rolling Stone magazine whose Beatles-besotted editor-in-chief, Jann Wenner, exploited and capitalized on the Beatles image to promote the commercial interests of his rock publication. Frontani traces the Beatles trajectory from a group packaged for American audiences as teen idols to drug culture subversives adulated and idolized by nearly all of society, from screaming youth to the leading intellectuals of the day, skillfully documenting how their morphing image was reflected and absorbed by the media, and the world at large.