Beatles and McLuhan

The Beatles and McLuhan: Understanding the Electric Age examines how the incorporation of electric technology in The Beatles’ art would enhance their musical impact. MacFarlane surveys the relationship between McLuhan's ideas on the nature and effects of electric technology and The Beatles own engagement of that technology; offers analyses of key works from The Beatles' studio years; and collates these data to offer stunning conclusions about The Beatles’ creative process in the recording studio and its cultural implications.

Thom MacFarlane is an independent author and composer based in New Jeresy, USA. His research has focused on the relationship between music, sound recording, and human culture. His doctoral dissertation on the Beatles' Abbey Road Medley was adapted into a book in 2007. In 2012, he completed The Beatles and McLuhan: Understanding the Electric Age, in which the ideas of Marshall McLuhan were employed to explore the aesthetic qualities of multi-track recording. That book also featured the first complete published transcription of a conversation between John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Marshall McLuhan on their respective ideas. In 2016, he created a listener's companion on the works of singer-songwriter Billy Joel, and in 2019, a study on the music of George Harrison. His latest book, Lennon and McCartney: Painting with Sound, explores connections between music, sound recording, and the visual arts.