Sonic Mobilities. Producing Worlds in Southern China. By Adam Kielman. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2022. 216 pp. ISBN 978-0-226-81780-4

Abstract

ing the Beatles’ sets at the Cavern Club, and in the last chapter when the author demonstrates the rise of female scholars in Beatles Studies. A clear presentation of the data would have clarified the argument and been a great help in understanding the evolution of the social dynamics that are analysed. As previously stated, the main subject of this book is not musical analysis, and its focus on sociological and historical aspects of women’s narratives is well demonstrated. Indeed, Popular Music Studies are vitally multidisciplinary: we cannot speak about the music of the Beatles out of its context and analysing women’s reception of this phenomenon is a great input to Beatles studies. However, the opposite can also be true: dedicating a chapter to how the Beatles’ music influenced female musicians or how female bands influenced the Beatles without discussing music-making can be problematic. By occulting musical analysis in the fourth chapter, the Beatles’ influence on female musicians between the 1960s and the 2000s cannot be demonstrated firmly, likewise the influence of female performers on the Beatles. It would have been very interesting to show how female performers such as the Marvelettes or the Ronettes majorly influenced the Beatles, aesthetically and musically speaking. This point could have been developed in a book about women’s creativity and empowerment. Maybe a solution would have been to concentrate the chapter on a few musicians or bands – for example, the subversive approach to the Beatles’ music by Siouxsie Sioux or the beatlesque echoes in Sam Phillips’ repertoire – and to analyse their work in detail. However, this section has the great quality of making us discover or rediscover a lot of all-female bands or female musicians. In conclusion, A Women’s History of the Beatles is a sociological and historical approach of how the band contributed to women’s emancipation during the last 60 years and how personal stories can help rebuild a new gendered history, put in perspective with second and third-wave feminism. The profuse testimonies give a precious view on the past decades and constitute a remarkable collection of work, which might open new paths to future research, either in Cultural History or in Feminist Studies.