An American Grrrl’s Fab Four: Beatles Fandom as Autoethnographic Framework

This reflective article considers how a lifetime of Beatles fandom constructed an autoethnographic framework for its author while writing a book about the band. In writing the first cultural history of the Beatles to foreground women’s experiences of them, the author suggests that this project was only possible through following the “red thread” of her own fandom, which predates a career in academia. As an American, second-generation fan, and former musician, she believes that an autoethnographic ethos was embedded in and helped structure the research and writing of the book—even if autobiographical references remained minimal within its pages.