BEATLEMANIA

Based on original research from the Fab Four’s visit to Wellington between 21-24

June 1964

A.J.W. Taylor PhDPsychology Department

Victoria University of Wellington

Abstract

• To objectify the major parameters of crowd and audience reaction ….

• Advance publicity had warned of the ‘mass-hysteria’ to be expected at the sight, sound and lyrics ….. Adolescents anticipated their arrival eagerly, while the authorities were disparaging and somewhat fearful ….

• Findings published in Britain in 1966, in the United States in 1968, and once more in Britain in 1992 by special request to encourage …..

• When writers from those countries mentioned the study recently near the 50th ….seemed interesting to review the accretion of similar studies …..

• Sadly, the outcome showed psychologists had not taken mass-audience research further. Hence …appropriate to lift the Wellington study from obscurity, in the hope of inspiring the next generation to make amends.

Procedure

• Appraise range of descriptions/definitions

• Methodology – inclusive, comparative design

• Method – an amalgam of clinical, naturalistic, observational, & psychometric features, plus interview(s) with John Lennon

• Clinical Honours class exercise - safeguards, funding

• Results – pubcns in 1966/1968/…1991/2014….

Range of descriptions/definitions

• Paul Johnson (1964) - ‘this apotheosis of inanity…(with Beatles fans forming) a bottomless chasm of vacuity…. who scream themselves into hysteria, whose vacant faces flicker over the TV screen, are the least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle, the failures.’

• Science Newsletter 1964/2014 - ‘there has not been enough serious study of mass adolescent reactions to explain the impact of these four mop-headed British youths…(and) psychologists are as puzzled as parents over the explosive effect the Beatles are having on American teen-agers’

…..definitions

• ‘A condition in which the blood is set in commotion inconsequence of an alteration in the vital spirits, whereby fitsof intoxicating joy and the propensity to dance areoccasioned’ – said the 15th Century Swiss/German polymathParacelcus’

• ‘A reaction in excess of that which a normal person mightdisplay in the circumstances’ – said James Williams, thesomewhat lugubrious lawyer and VC of VUW in 1964

Clinical signs/symptoms of hysteria

• Loss of physical functions

• Loss of psycho/sensory functions

• Oblivious to externally imposed controls

• Exhibitors require short-term care and protection

Signs can be presented by individuals or groups in response to psychological stress of a personal, occupational, or cultural kind – cf. instances of dancing mania, Liztomania, radio-drama, brainwashing, ‘74 Auckland firemen to merphos gas, and Asian family response to diminishing genitalia of elderly males

Psychometrics

• A crudely created Beatlemania/Fan Scale (BS) – 11 items

• MMPI Hysteria scale – 60 items

• Maudsley Neuroticism scale – 24 items

• Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor scales – 156 items

• Age, gender, living at home/away, law keepers/breakers

• NB –scoring and data processing in pre-computer days…..

Participant recruitment: … aim

• A: to invite 400 individuals from crowds greeting the Beatles on arrival at Wellington airport and massed outside their Hotel St George, to one of four testing sessions at VUW five days later

• Alt B: to seek the cooperation of colleges in spread of socio-economic areas in Wellington, to access and test pupils in classes that teachers thought most affected by the Beatles and their music

1. Observations/participant recruitment on arrival at Wellington Airport - crowd est. 3,000

2. Airport crush

3. Police airport crowd control

4. Crowd outside Hotel St George(crowd est. 3 000)

5. View from Hotel balcony

6. First interview with John Lennon in press scrum

From interview(s) with John Lennon

• The group merged from working/middle classes early in the ‘swinging sixties’

• Did stints in Liverpool and Hamburg, in Rock & Roll tradition of Elvis Pressley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly….

• Came under influence of Brian Epstein & George Martin, and brought Richard (Ringo) Starkey in as drummer

• Created a distinctive beat, composed music, wrote love lyrics, and sharpened their image

• Appealed to the aspirations of youth, in the dawn of what proved to be a strong and pervasive counter-culture attempting to promote love, peace and liberation

• Reached an estimated tv audience of 73 million in Feb 1964 via US Ed Sullivan show – shortly before coming to NZ

Concert build-up

• Two bands in preliminary non-stop ‘work-up’ with psychedelic lighting effects

• Induced audience arousal, hand-clapping

• Mayhem erupted when Beatles appeared for final 20 minutes

• Sustained fever-pitch intensity over throbbing beat

• Security guards/police kept busy

• Stentorian National Anthem cool-down

The three front men in concert

Ringo on the job

Audience responding

Overwhelmed with ecstasy

A heartfelt response

A lunging male held back by police

Clinical observations/overview

• No pathological signs of hysteria sufficient to warrant a clinical diagnosis and referral for psychological treatment…….

• ……….but sufficient indicators of untoward behaviour to warrant a combination of developmental, personal, and social explanations……

Psychometric response

• Method A: Students handed out 85 invitations for testing (36 keen v 47 not), but only 10 people came …

• Alt. Method B: Four colleges and a teachers’ college responded with 336 participants between ages of 15 and 20 in a total of 10 testing sessions

• Validity checks – observations to tape-recording of Beatle music, auditory/verbal exchanges between subjects, reactions to printed Beatle autographs, and confirmed later by a spread of written responses to Beatle Fab Scale

Autograph checks……

Groupings for inter-comparison

• Separation of top 50 participants (scoring 16 +) and bottom 50 (scoring 0-5) on Beatle/Fab Scale, and a middle group of 122 (scoring 8-12)

• Further subdivision of the three groups by gender

Psychometrics of female respondents

Psychometrics of male respondents

Conclusions

• Beatlemania was primarily a reaction of adolescent females to the considerable direct and indirect musical, psychological, social and commercial pressures placed on them

• Those affected were younger, more gregarious, assertive, active, worrying, excitable and inclined towards emotional instability than their counterparts, but they presented no evidence of clinical hysteria, acute emotional instability, and social deviance

Conclusions (contd.)

• The audience reactions could be construed as reflecting a) a passing phase of personality development, b) the common need for generational independence, and c) the chance to try to create a less hidebound society ….

• Males might be more aroused if female musical groups were in the limelight ……

• The power of the rhythmic beat, the socio-cultural importance of music, and the emotional arousal of the lyrics warrant further attention

Independent replication still needed

• As the Sine qua non to validate or negate the findings, also:

- to improve methods adopted

- to elaborate the dimensions

- to reflect on the consequences……

Then, to encourage psychologists to adopt a General Systems Theory, and participate with scholars and practitioners of other disciplines in its application…..

Taylor, Antony. (in press). THE 1964 WELLINGTON STUDY OF BEATLEMANIA REVISITED. Psychology Research

Breaking news

• UCL psycho-physiologists Trimble, Mathias and Owens found two subjects (opera buff Stephen Fry and opera novice Alan Davies) gave similar primitive autonomic reactions to a dramatic passage in Verdi’s Simon Bocconegra (accessed 1/8/2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVN4d ShaZWk-)

New groups evoking audience reactions worth studying…..

‘UNLOCKING THE TRUTH’ – a New York heavy-metal trio of 13 year old schoolboys commanding attention – Cherry Party/Sony recordings

‘IN HEARTS WAKE’ – a Byron Bay quintet, presenting ‘a fusion of alternative hardcore, powerfully interwoven with thought provoking lyrics and melodic hooks’, sponsored by EMI recording studios - touring NZ soon – led by Jake Granieri-Taylor……

Most recent tangential references

• Reddish, P., Fischer, R., & Bulbula, J. (2013). Let’s dance together: synchronicity, shared intentionality and cooperation. PLOS ONE, 8, e71182.

• Sutton, J. (2014). For those psychologists about to rock. The Psychologist, 27, 5, 320-323.

• Walker, J. (2009). Dancing plagues and mass hysteria. The Psychologist, 22, 7, 644-647.