A book by communications faculty member Michael Frontani focusing on The Beatles was among the 2008 Outstanding Academic Title CHOICE Award-winners recognized by the American Library Association. Frontani joins history professors David Crowe and John Beck as winners of this year's CHOICE awards.
Frontani’s book, “The Beatles: Image and the Media,” is a cultural history of the evolving image of the band in the United States in the 1960s, and explores how the Beatles’ evolving media image related to cultural and historical forces. Applying a critical theory and cultural studies perspective, the book describes the transformation from that of safe teen heartthrobs to one that had absorbed the fashion and consciousness of the burgeoning counterculture. By the end of the decade, the Beatles were using their interviews, media events, and music to comment on issues such as the Vietnam War, drug culture, and civil rights. Despite this transformation, the band’s image never strayed from its essential mantra of optimism.
Critical theorist Douglas Kellner, George F. Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, calls the book “the best study to date of the Beatles’ reception in the United States, the creation and circulation of their media images as a young British rock sensation, and debates over their popularity and influence.”
From the CHOICE book review:
“Frontani (communication, Elon Univ.) prefaces this book with John Lennon’s murder and descriptions of the ensuing responses to Lennon’s life. He goes on to offer six succinct chapters on how the Beatles became a lightning rod for teens and society. Defining the Beatles’ various images by using four categories of media text–promotion, publicity, work product, and commentary–the author demonstrates how Brian Epstein brought Beatlemania to the forefront of music and culture, particularly in the US. Beginning with the oxymoronic “safe/toughness” heralding the Beatles’ American introduction in 1964 and concluding with Jann Wenner’s promotion of their commentary to launch Rolling Stone magazine, Frontani covers the Beatles’ “separate and distinct identity” evolutionary time line. He concludes with the 1995 Beatles Anthology broadcasts. Scholars will appreciate the copious bibliography citing the works Frontani employed to build his case for the Beatles’ impact on society and history. Those who witnessed the onset firsthand will enjoy taking the magical mystery tour again; those who came to Beatlemania later will relish this concise retelling of the story from a single focus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers, all levels.”
— T. Emery, Austin Peay State University
The annual CHOICE Awards include the best titles reviewed by the organization’s magazine and is the top recognition of the academic library community. The 2008 list includes 679 titles in 54 disciplines and subsections. CHOICE editors make their selections based on overall excellence and scholarship, the importance relative to other literature in the field, originality of treatment, value to undergraduate students and importance in building undergraduate library collections.
Six Elon faculty members have won CHOICE Awards since 2002. Other award winners include Janna Quitney Anderson, associate professor of communications, Rebecca Todd Peters, associate professor of religious studies, and Clyde Ellis, professor of history.