The research output collected together in this volume presents a social scientific investigation of elements of the career and music of the Beatles. Through its use of sociological and social psychological perspectives, it is able to offer fresh insights into one of popular culture's more familiar narratives. It maintains that an adequate understanding of the group's achievements, and the debates and issues they provoked, can only be achieved by rigorously locating them within the context of the social and cultural forces in which they emerged and by which they were constrained. While it remains true that much may be learned about the group from individual or specialist sources, the significance of this research lies in its strategy of considering those contributions as a whole, and subjecting the body of knowledge they contain to a systematic and critical analysis. In doing so, the research reveals much about particular facets of the Beatles' career, encourages further scrutiny of some of the conventional explanations of the group's success, and emphasises the validity of such examinations in a period when the personal and professional activities of its members continue to be consumed with great enthusiasm.