MU Celebrates Beatlemania

The University proved that Beatlemania is alive and well on Saturday at a day-long symposium titled, “Ladies and Gentlemen…The Beatles.” The event, which filled Wilson Hall, was sponsored by the University’s Center for Performing Arts, the Department of Music and Theatre Arts and the GRAMMY Museum. Participants listened to discussions, musical performances and some even had their brain activity mapped.

Dr. Stanton Green, Dean of Humanities, introduced the day by giving a little background on his own history with The Beatles. “[The Beatles] came into my life in 1963 when a friend showed up with a mop top and Beatles boots,” Green said. Even when he started college, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band could be heard from dormitory windows and he moved in for the first time.

The day featured a lot of this sort of reminiscing. Of course, the symposium was not just a walk down memory lane. Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum, asked in his Keynote Address, “Why did we, literally, go crazy about them?”

While Santelli noted that the genius of John Lennon and Paul McCartney had a big hand in it, while every other panelist seemed to add reasons to the list.

The first panelists were Professor Kenneth Campbell and students who had taken his First Year Seminar on The Beatles. First year students Timothy Kemner, Sarah Lewis and Jessica Mentzel as well as senior Alison Abate all spoke about their experiences and research on the Fab Four. Abate has been a Peer Learning Assistant for the past two years in the class, so she has essentially taken the class three times. She said that she went back to her original essay from freshman year.

Abate, a graphic design major, said, “I think the reason The Beatles are so important is that they did come into our lives when we needed them. They spoke about war and about love and about loss. Those are things that, no matter who you are or what age you are, those are important things, and those are things that everyone thinks about in life.”

Professor Kenneth Campbell once again joined the discussion on the Faculty Panel along with Professors Christopher DeRosa, Aaron Furgason, Stuart Rosenberg and Hettie Williams. Campbell discussed his theory that the British band wouldn’t have been the same if they were named Paul and the Beatles (a name trend at the time) because it really was about all four. “That made the Beatles special is that they were more than the sum of their parts,” Campbell said.

DeRosa analyzed “Echo Boomers,” the children of baby boomers who discovered The Beatles after Lennon died. Furgason went into a discussion of how much money record labels made off of The Beatles. Rosenberg reviewed each studio album The Beatles released (where he repeatedly requested for the music to be turned up more). Williams brought up the influence of African-American culture on The Beatles and said, “British bands helped to reintroduce black music to the masses.”

Black culture was brought up a few times throughout the day. Early on it was mentioned that the term “rock n’ roll” was taken from black culture (it was a slang term for sex), and The Beatles Motown influences were continually mentioned. Williams, along with Santelli, discussed the mutual respect between the band and Smokey Robinson. While Williams discussed Robinson’s cover of “Yesterday”, Santelli was able to bring in moments that he shared with Beatles’ members where they discussed their respect for Robinson.

Santelli often added a few words to panelists’ presentations, offering his extensive knowledge and personal interactions with the band. Professor Joe Rapolla said that was one of his favorite parts of the day. Rapolla said, “I, of course, enjoyed all of the music, but hearing the students present and discuss their Beatles stories, and having Bob Santelli fill in a lot of the gaps of my knowledge of The Beatles was great!”

Rapolla, head of the Department of Music and Theatre Arts, helped put the event together. He organized about half a dozen student performers and even stepped in to perform when a student came down with laryngitis at the last minute. The music helped to keep the mood upbeat and gave the audience a lot of short breaks in the lecture.

Some audience members were lucky enough to have Professor Andrew Demirjian map their brain activity while they listened to their favorite songs in a project called “Brain on Beatles.” Demirjian was asked to contribute a paper to the symposium, but his work with data sonification and sonifying brainwaves led him to a different idea. He said, “Students in my Responsive Media AR/CO 404 class last spring had an assignment to create a musical or visual self-portrait with their brainwaves. So fusing all this together I came up with an idea of creating a sonic portrait for visitors of their brain activity while listening to their favorite Beatles song.”

Participants picked many songs; though Demirjian said the most popular were “Let It Be,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “A Day in the Life.” The process involved Demirjian creating his own program. The communication professor explained, “The brain emits seven types of brainwaves so I took the ones that are most involved with attention and cognition and created a program that scaled their ranges to play over three octaves of a C minor scale. These notes would then be sent to a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and played by instruments like violins or piano.”

Demirjian’s project emphasized Abate’s earlier point: The Beatles evoke strong and relatable emotions. “I was really blown away by the earnestness and near spirituality visitors brought to the project. Sometimes it was difficult to wake them from their eyes closed meditative state while listening,” Demirjian said.

The day finished with a professional panel including Vini Lopez (original E Street Band Drummer), Bobbi Bandiera (Bon Jovi guitarist, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes), Marc Muller (guitarist), and Doug Sulpy (author of “The Complete Beatles Audio Guide”). The audience gave plenty of applause to Lopez and Bandiera, obviously showing some respect for local-grown talent.

To finish off the day, there was a closing performance. The Beatles’ last performance was on a rooftop, so it was only fitting to finish off the day with a concert on the balcony of Wilson Hall. Dave Annun, Nickolas Haberstroh, Eddie Soles, Jesse Lauria, Rapolla and Professor George Wurzbach rocked out in front of President Brown’s office in true rock n’ roll fashion.

Towards the end of the final panel, Bandiera said, “From beginning to end with The Beatles, it was such a great journey and learning experience.” The same can be said of the symposium.

PHOTO TAKEN by Nicole Massabrook