Student Designed project

The topic I have selected is Beatlemania. I have selected this topic for several reasons. My reasons may sound repetitive since I talk about it a lot but my father was a huge Beatles fan. Growing up I had access to every song, I was taught to play the songs on the piano and then the guitar. I was quizzed on trivia. I was even exposed to many of the books that described the Beatle’s history. I love them now and I can attribute it to everything in my life that referred to the Beatles. Now I thought it would be a good project because I can come at it from a different perspective, focusing on my father and the things he did because he lived during Beatlemania.

I already know quite a bit about the subject. I know about the stories behind the songs and when the songs were released. I know much about the four Beatles themselves. I wanted to learn more about their early history. That is, when they first came to the US and their climb to such heights. I know that one of their first performances that aided their fame was the performance on the Ed Sullivan show, but I do not know any details about that.

My intended audience is quite broad. Obviously there are a lot of people that love the Beatles and so it makes it quite a broad spectrum. I would say my primary audience is the younger Beatles fans. And my secondary audience is the older Beatles fans who actually lived through it.

My purpose is to explore the early career of the Beatles and the impact on the society as well as their live performances such as Ed Sullivan show and the concert on the apple corp. building. I think possible genres are a documentary or a story that included true accounts. This particular subject good be any media. Because it is so versatile it would be an appropriate article for a magazine, a broadcast on the radio, including certain songs, or even a television show.

My progress is slowly ongoing. As I do more research I am able to organize my thoughts a little better. I like doing research for this project so it has been very fun.

Three Questions

What surprised me?
I was surprised most with the building the artifact meetings were held. When I was young and heard these stories I always expected it to be in a fancier place, or at least not in an veterans of foreign wars building. That surprised me. I think part of why it surprised me is because I already had this picture in my mind of the stories of these artifact meetings, but my picture in my mind was not accurate.

What intrigued me?
The thing that intrigued me the most is the effort involved in making a meeting successful. The people that I interview described the meetings as being very formal, and the guest speakers planned very effectively. I figured that the meetings were a place to gather together and discuss the things they found. I did not think that they needed someone to come and lecture to the class. More specifically, I did not think a archeologist professor would called upon to lecture, so this intrigued me.

What disturbed me?
It is hard to pinpoint something in metal detecting that disturbed while researching. To be completely honest though, I found that metal detecting or coin collecting was just a smaller portion of "artifact collecting" and that slightly disturbed me. Not that it is disturbing in and of itself, but I grew up thinking that the bulk of metal detecting and these clubs was the coin collecting aspect and apparently I was wrong.

My Research

So far the most useful research that I have obtained came from interviewing my Grandfather. I did not just interview him once. It seems that as I would work with the things he had told me I would have more questions and so interviewing him was very helpful. Another aspect that it was helpful because it gave me a reference point. I would have had no idea the name of the metal detecting club unless I interviewed him. From that point, I was able to research the location and the club parameters. In fact, I did not even no where it was at. Mostly, I was trying to take the information that I recieved and find a way to visualize the place

I think the biggest problem I have is my place is not home to anything major so it has been difficult finding books, internet sites on the information I need. I have been able to view maps, population size, and historic photos but it has taken several hours of searching. Also, other than viewing the maps myself I have not found anything that I found to be useful to put into my article. I have not found quotes or anything to that nature so that is the other difficult part.

I think the biggest help I could have would be tips on how to keep this a historical context on a place. I more than often want to write about the event, and as I avoid it and as I receive feedback on how to avoid it it would help.