If You Could Devote a Year to Studying Anything, What Would You Choose?

Which band has the most No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and tops Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest artists of all time? Which band’s 1965 hit “Yesterday” is the most covered song in history? If you know the answers to these questions, you might be interested in the yearlong master’s degree program the people in the photo above have just begun. Based at the University of Liverpool, in the band’s hometown, it is entirely devoted to the Beatles.

What is your reaction to a program like that? Does it sound like fun? Like a fascinating learning experience? Or does it seem more like a waste of time and money?

In “A Year in the Life: Who Gets a Master’s Degree in the Beatles?,” Alex Marshall explores the program and its students. The article begins:

LIVERPOOL, England — On Wednesday morning, as a new semester began, students eagerly headed into the University of Liverpool’s lecture theaters to begin courses in archaeology, languages and international relations.

But in lecture room No. 5 of the university’s concrete Rendall Building, a less traditional program was getting underway: a master’s degree devoted entirely to the Beatles.

“How does one start a Beatles M.A.?” asked Holly Tessler, the American academic who founded the course, looking out at 11 eager students. One wore a Yoko Ono T-shirt; another had a yellow submarine tattooed on his arm.

“I thought the only way to do it, really, is with some music,” she said.

Tessler then played the class the music video for “Penny Lane,” the Beatles’ tribute to a real street in Liverpool, just a short drive from the classroom.

The yearlong course — “The Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage” — would focus on shifting perceptions of the Beatles over the past 50 years, and on how the band’s changing stories affected commercial sectors like the record business and tourism, Tessler said in an interview before class.

For Liverpool, the band’s hometown, the association with the Beatles was worth over $110 million a year, according to a 2014 study by Mike Jones, another lecturer on the course. Tourists make pilgrimages to city sites named in the band’s songs, visit venues where the group played — like the Cavern Club — and pose for photos with Beatles statues. The band’s impact was always economic and social, as much as a musical, Tessler said.

Throughout the course, students would have to stop being simply Beatles fans and start thinking about the group from new perspectives, she added. “Nobody wants or needs a degree where people are sitting around listening to ‘Rubber Soul’ debating lyrics,” she said. “That’s what you do in the pub.”

In Wednesday’s lecture, which focused almost entirely on “Penny Lane,” Tessler encouraged the students to think of the Beatles as a “cultural brand,” using the terms “narrative theory” and “transmediality.”

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

• Now that you’ve read the article, what is your reaction to a yearlong graduate degree devoted entirely to the Beatles? Did anything in the article change your initial opinion?

• Is there some subject that you’d love to spend a year studying at a university, or in some other formal setting, with a group of equally interested classmates? What and why?

• Is your subject a practical one that can lead to a career? If not, can you think of ways that you might use it in a future job or other kind of role?

• In considering what you might study in college, do you think you’ll be more motivated by preparing for a future career, or by learning about subjects that truly interest you? In your opinion, are those equally respectable paths for a young person to take? Why or why not?

• The article suggests that the Beatles and their music have shaped culture and history. What other musical artists, if any, would you argue deserve similar degree programs? Why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.