TITLE:
The 1964 Wellington Study of Beatlemania Revisited
AUTHORS:
A. J. W. Taylor
KEYWORDS:
Beatlemania
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.15,
October
30,
2014
ABSTRACT: In June
1964, an Honours class in clinical psychology set out to objectify the major
parameters of crowd and audience reaction to the Beatles’ during the group’s three-day
visit to Wellington, New Zealand. Advance publicity had warned of the “mass-hysteria”
to be expected at the sight, sound and lyrics of the four lads from Liverpool. Adolescents
anticipated their arrival eagerly, while the authorities were disparaging and
somewhat fearful of the breakdown in law and order that might occur. The
findings were published in Britain in 1966, taken a little further in the
United States in1968, and the original published once more in Britain in 1992
by special request to encourage more psychologists to undertake research off
campus. When writers from those countries mentioned the study recently near the
50th anniversary of the Beatles’ visit, it seemed interesting to
review the accretion of similar studies that might have occurred. Sadly, the
outcome showed that psychologists had not taken mass-audience research any
further. Hence it was thought appropriate to lift the Wellington study from
obscurity, in the hope of inspiring the next generation to make amends.