Beatlemania (Gen Z’s Version): An Interview with Skylar Moody by Anushka Bidani

---

*This interview has been edited for clarity.

Anushka Bidani: How did you get into the Beatles?

Skylar Moody: I was 15, in my second year of high school, and I had grown up listening to the Beatles my whole life. My parents always had them playing on the radio or they had their CDs going on. But it never fully registered with me because I kind of just classified that as ‘oh, that’s my parents music, that’s what they listen to, I’m gonna listen to what I want’. But my sophomore year of high school, I took a music history class because I was starting to get into the idea of learning about certain artists, where they came from, the legacy they were leaving on the world, everything like that. In that class, of course, we started to talk about the Beatles. Now I was familiar with them, some of their songs, but I didn’t know that they were in movies! And my teacher said, ‘Oh, they were in A Hard Day’s Night. They were in Help! And we’re gonna watch A Hard Day’s Night the next class period’ and I go okay, this should be interesting. And as soon as I watched that movie I just finally got to see their personalities come to life, and I fell in love with that. Immediately, I wanted to learn more. So I just started consuming everything I possibly could. And I thought it was going to be an obsession that lasted an year maybe, because that’s how it was with a lot of music artists that I fell in love with during that time but now, we’re coming upon ten years — so they’ve just stuck for this entire time and I love them to death.

AB: I think that’s a major way that people today are engaging with artists, and all of their obsessions – that they just try to find every single thing about them on the internet. Like I have a very similar arc: I learned about the Beatles in a university course and then I heard one of their songs, and after that I just could not stop going back.

SM: It just snowballs from there. Once you’re in the Beatles fandom, you’re there for life.

AB: Yeah, exactly! And, like you said, I have had a lot of obsessions over the years. So I thought, okay, this is something that would last for maybe an year at max, two years max, but it would peter out. But it’s been five years — still here, with no signs of going away. But do you think this happens a lot with us, particularly, because we are on the internet and there’s just so much content to consume, so that once we deep dive into an obsession it’s like falling into a black hole, drowning, like Alice-in-Wonderland?

SM: I feel like the internet definitely helps enhance that. For instance, if you were a Beatles fan back in the 60s, if you were going to be friends with other Beatles fans it had to be whoever you knew in real life. If you had friends at school or if you had family — that’s really all that you had. But now you can go on the internet, you can find people from all around the world of all different ages. So it’s so easy to be able to talk to whoever you want about this obsession and say, oh my gosh have you seen this? oh my god have you read that? And then, of course, now we have every bit of Beatles knowledge right at our fingertips. You can Google almost anything. You can find so many different authors and historians and novels and even classes that you can take about the Beatles. So it feels like the opportunities for knowledge are endless because you’re going to learn something new every day from so many different people.

It’s been 10 years for me, and I’m still learning new things every day. And part of me is thinking, wow I should have known that by now because it’s been so long but then I’m thinking, it’s the Beatles. We’re discovering new theories every day, learning new facts, seeing new footage all the time. So it feels like, in general, the Beatles fandom and learning about them is endless.

AB: Did you have a specific entry point? For instance, when I started listening to their music I went on Tumblr, and on Tumblr the McLennon community, the shipping community, that’s really big.

SM: Oh yeah.

AB: That was my entry point, and I feel like in the first few years everything I looked at about the Beatles was through that lens. Did you have a similar experience with any aspect?

SM: With social media? I was always on stan twitter growing up as a teenager, and that’s where I started to find a lot of my Beatles friends. Then it kind of just went into TikTok and then Instagram, as I became a content creator, and wanting to branch out to different platforms. But if you mean a specific moment where I knew that I was going to be a Beatles fan, that I knew it was going to stick…I remember when I first decided that I want to listen to more of them. I knew that my parents had all of their CDs, so I found my dad’s copy of Sgt. Pepper[‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band] and The White Album [The Beatles] and I decided, okay, I’m going to start with these because I know a lot of the songs on here already. Let’s see what else there is. And I remember listening to Sgt. Pepper. I think I was doing some work on my computer. I don’t remember what it was, but I had their music on in the background and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” came on. And as soon as it got to the point in the song where it was, “And of course Henry the Horse dances the waltz” and then it goes into that instrumental break—I immediately stopped what I was doing. And I heard this and I go, this is the Beatles? I have never heard—they make music like this? This does not sound like the Beatles! It was just that moment of, whoa, what is this? And it was that song in particular. And I think at that moment, I knew, wow, this is something incredible. This is nothing like what I’ve ever heard before. I’m in this. Tell me more, immediately.

AB: Is there any aspect of Beatles that you like to engage with more? Is it the music side of things, the history side, or maybe the fan fiction – is there a particular side that you gravitate towards more?

SM: Right now it’s more of the side of trying to preserve their legacy, and be the person carrying the torch for the next generation—one of many people, I should specify, because, in a way we’re all doing that. But definitely those who have the platforms and those who have the voice and aren’t afraid to speak out and share their voice. I love that. I love hearing people putting out their knowledge about the Beatles and encouraging others to try to come into this community and learn more and share with others. I love that, because that’s what I’m trying to do.

AB: How did you end up finding your calling in that specific direction? Going from someone who’s passionate about the Beatles to realising that this is something I want to do actively full time — that must have been a transition.

SM: Yeah, I think it was when I first downloaded TikTok and I remember I started to make a lot of videos, just general videos. But, I noticed whenever I made a video about the Beatles, it always got super, super popular. And I’m thinking, Whoa, that’s interesting. You know, I’m going to just try to start doing that. I’m going to keep talking about the Beatles and see where that goes. And I think just seeing that, seeing my following grow, and seeing how many people are out there and actually care about the band and want to see content about them and love when other people are talking about that. I was thinking, Whoa, you know, this is incredible. I want to keep doing this. I want to foster this community, find other fans, see if there’s anybody else out there creating content like this and trying to, you know, see where we go. I think it was that moment.

And that was also the year that the Get Back documentary came out on Disney Plus. So that was the first major Beatles event that I got to talk about on social media. And just having that community, because everyone was going online to talk about it, and then I’m one of those people on there with a platform, going out there saying, Oh, this is what I saw in the episode. This is how I’m analyzing it. What do you guys think? And I think just being able to have those conversations, right in the palm of my hand, and just being able to go online and speak to anyone, I figured, whoa, you know, this is amazing. I love creating content like this. If I could study what the Beatles do and read about them every day and just go online and talk to other fans about it and see what they think, I would love to do this every single day. And I think that was the big moment for me.

early days on TikTok

AB: I think we have, our generation, has been really lucky in that regard. We’ve had a lot of these big moments over the past few years – Get Back, “Now And Then,” the new Beatles films that are coming up. There’s just been a lot of these moments. And, also because we have all the past right at our fingertips, as you said, and all of these current moments, I feel like it’s really helping the community to expand and help new fans come in, which is very fortunate for the community. Do you think we, like you said you want to carry the torch forward, do you think we, this generation, in particular has a duty or feels like it’s their responsibility to do that because, it feels like we are the ones who are going to be doing this even after Ringo [Starr] and Paul [McCartney] are not around anymore. So do you think we feel more of a responsibility to do that?

SM: I don’t know if it’s more of a responsibility, but I feel like we definitely have more capabilities to be able to carry on that love. Because we’re the generation that grew up as the internet was being formed, we’re seeing all these social media platforms being developed. And I think we have that particular eye and that particular knowledge to see how content is created on social media, how we can speak with one another.

And it does come with its negatives sometimes because any small little argument can turn into something major that it doesn’t need to be. And I feel like that’s something we would need to work on. But I think the opportunity to have social media in general, kind of gives us that power to be able to say, oh, I can go online and talk about the Beatles with this or talk about the Beatles with that. I can easily find other people and spread the word out, get the message out. And I feel like as that continues to grow, we’re going to have this bigger community and people are going to go online and see, oh my gosh, people still care about the Beatles this much, and wonder what’s going on, what’s their music all about, what’s their story. And all generations can be a part of that, really. But I think the younger generations definitely have that social media knowledge and that ability to know how an internet community works and be able to carry that on.

AB: I also feel in many respects that because we have access to a lot of this knowledge, we do try to set the facts straight, set the record straight, in many ways. Like there are a lot of podcasts, you also do this kind of work, going back into history and just looking at what was going on. So I feel we do want to set the record straight also in many ways that, hey, this is the narrative that’s been going around for such a long time and this might not really be the truth.

SM: Right. It’s all speculation, really, with a lot of stories because a lot of things haven’t been super cleared up so I feel like if we’re ever talking fan theories, we always have to disclose like, oh, this is just a theory. You know, I’m not speaking the gospel here. I just want to share my thoughts and how I’m perceiving it. And if you don’t agree with it, fine. If you do agree with it, I want to know more. You know, let’s talk about it. And I think also going back to having like our own issues, like having small arguments in the fandom blow up into anything major. I feel like when we’re having conversations like that about theories or about what we think, it’s important to think constructively, not bashing heads with other people. It should be, I want to have this conversation with you. I want to see, oh, why do you feel like this? Oh, and then I feel like this, you know, how did you see it? We want to try to have those thoughtful discussions rather than arguing with each other about who’s right or who’s wrong. Because with a lot of situations, there’s no right or wrong answer. It’s just however you perceive it, however you see it.

AB: And I also feel that has been a shift in the recent few years because, earlier when books would come out, or any kind of text or research about the Beatles would come out, I don’t think authors would take that responsibility or initiative to disclose that, hey, this is just an opinion. It would be presented as the gospel truth. So I feel like us doing that is also a major shift in that we do acknowledge that, hey we could be wrong. We are still in the land of speculation here.

SM: And there’s no shame in that! Because the more that we find out, then we might go back and say, oh wow I was totally off on that – here’s what actually happened. No one’s gonna hold anything against you if you end up being wrong about something because it’s like, oh hey, you know this was a certain situation that we were looking at and, okay yeah maybe I was a little bit wrong on that but now we know the truth.

AB: Do you think access has also changed these dynamics and the way we interact with the Beatles a lot more? Because earlier there was just a limited number of people, like say, [Mark] Lewisohn, who would have access to the Beatles or to their archives but today, there just seems to be a much larger number of people or almost everyone on the internet who’s able to look at these open-sourced archives and be able to form their own opinions.

SM: I feel like it can be a little bit hard in that sense because when you have all of that access you’re immediately going to think, oh I’m right about this because I saw so much about this situation from this person or from this person and you think that you’re going to know so much because you’ve seen so much. But the amount of content that you’ve read regarding a certain point in their history or the amount of videos or documentaries you’ve watched, it doesn’t necessarily mean that — it might not all be right. Because even those people that put that information out there, they all have differing opinions. You’re going to hear so much. And just because you consume all of that doesn’t mean necessarily you’re the most knowledgeable person because someone could consume just as much information about the same topic that you want to talk about. And they might not be 100% right either! It’s all about coming into it with different perspectives. And I’m hoping that that’s something that we start to recognize.

AB: You also do a lot of work with the Beatles Fest, right? I think you’ve been doing that for a lot of years. Would you like to talk about that?

SM: I’ve been in that for two years now. I just completed, I believe it was my fourth or fifth year on staff. My first Beatles Fest ever was 2018. I went just as a guest with my parents. They took me there for my birthday, and it was heaven for me. Just being able to be in one hotel with all those other Beatles fans that just get it, and being able to see them live, in front of my eyes! Because at that point, I only had maybe 1 or 2 Beatles friends in real life, everyone else I knew on the internet. So I never got to experience that community, right before my eyes. And as soon as I saw it happen, I went, Oh my gosh, I need to come back to this. This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever been a part of. So when I finally got into it, as a staff member, it was 2022. And it was the first fest post-pandemic, it was when I was starting to get into my content creation so I’m thinking, I want to be able to tie this into the content I’m creating. I’d love to help promote this fest. I’d love to help bring in new fans and show them how incredible of an experience this is. To be able to be with your Beatles family in person, or even virtually — because they offer a virtual aspect to it as well. No matter how you join you’re going to be involved in some way.

And so I’ve been in this for two years now. I help run the social media account with Danny Abriano. Throughout the weekend, I’m shooting videos of the musical acts that are on stage, posting about different panels that are going on saying, oh, you can come check out this event, come check out that event, we’re going to be having this look-alike contest—make sure you’re dressing up! Just trying to cover the fest as it’s happening in real time, while also creating content for my own social media. I’m usually trying to vlog at the same time as that, so it’s just me running around trying to grab as much footage as I can and document everything about the weekend, and I wouldn’t have it any other way because I love being able to do that. Just seeing the joy in other people’s faces as they’re coming into it, and everyone’s just dancing and singing along…you really go into that feeling like you found your family.

at the Beatles Fest

AB: I’ve seen some footage from the fest, and I really enjoy the aspect that there are people from all age groups bonding over their love for the Beatles. I, for one, have not been fortunate enough to find a community like that or a space like that, so it’s really cool to see something like that going on.

SM: We gotta fly you out to New York in March – that’s the next one!

AB: Oh, I would love that. I do feel like that once you meet people online and you bond over the Beatles, that’s one kind of an experience and it’s its own joy. But actually meeting someone in real life and being able to share that love…I feel like that’s just a whole different experience altogether.

SM: It really is. I can’t describe it any other way other than – just go there. You just have to go there to experience it because you’ll walk in and you’ll go, whoa. It’s absolutely insane, and I hope that everyone out there is fortunate enough to either attend the fest or something similar to that, because I know they have different events in different countries and states, like the International Beatle Week in Liverpool. I’m sure it’s just as amazing, if not more amazing because you’re in the land of the Beatles. If anyone could attend anything similar to it I say, go for it. Because you will have the best time of your life.

AB: I recently saw a [Instagram] story of yours – I think you did some work with the John Lennon Estate on the new community forum, and you did some work with the Paul McCartney Estate recently on the Eyes of the Storm gallery opening.

SM: Yeah, when it was opened at the Brooklyn Museum I did some work with them.

AB: Would you like to talk about that?

SM: Sure! With the Brooklyn Museum, when it was first announced, I believe it was in January that it was first announced that the exhibit was coming to New York. And me, with the marketing social media mindset, I immediately thought I want to be involved in this somehow. I want to help create content, and help promote it because I have the audience that wants to see content like this. I think it would be amazing just to show them what I can do.

So I immediately got connected with some of the staff members. I was telling them all about me, about my Beatles crowd, how I’d love to help create videos for them. And they agreed to that. So I was there for the private opening night—that was two days before it opened to the public—so I got to see all of that with a whole other crowd of people, which was incredible. I got to help create two (2) videos for them. I got to consult on a lot of the social media captions that were being written, and the scripts for the videos. So it was a very hands-on Beatle experience where I thought again – I want to be doing this every single day, because this is my passion. Being able to use my love of the Beatles, and also my social media marketing knowledge. Because I know how to start a conversation on an online platform, so being able to do that was incredible.

Eyes of the Storm

SM: With the John Lennon Estate, they just opened the Citizens of Nutopia forum to the public. The best way I can describe it is – it’s kind of like a Discord server, if you’re familiar with that, you can go on there. There’s different threads where you can talk about different topics related to John or the Beatles. There’s areas where fans can share their artwork, share some of their favorite merchandise, their favorite songs, everything of the sorts. Making an account, getting on there, you’re immediately going to be interacting with fellow John Lennon fans, fellow Beatles fans. Everyone is so welcoming in there.

The estate had DM’d me about a week before it was launched to the public. And they said, hey, we’re starting this thing. We’re onboarding just a few fans at first, but we want to get you on there. We want your guys’ suggestions to see what we can do to improve, if you have any ideas of the sort. So I got to do that for about a week with some other fans before it was released to the public. And it felt just so, I mean, it was the exclusivity of it, but I just thought, wow, you know, they recognize that passion that we all have. And they know that we’re extremely dedicated to this and we want to foster this community, so I felt very honored to be a part of that.

AB: I think this is something I really have enjoyed about the Beatles, over the decades. They do want to create that platform for fans, but they also recognize that fans will bring some knowledge and will do some value addition to their craft also. There are not a lot of even modern-day artists who give fans that kind of respect and recognition that they do actually deserve.

SM: I’m very happy that they’re recognizing that within the Beatles fandom, that they know who’s extremely passionate out there. Who wants to do this for a living, who’s extremely dedicated to learning everything about them. And it’s just all about getting out there on social media, and not being afraid to use your voice and wanting to be one of many to carry on that legacy, in that way.

AB: I think the John Lennon Estate, in particular, has been very active on social media in the past few years.

SM: Definitely.

AB: Interacting with fans, creating these kind of communities. Is John your favorite Beatle?

SM: Yes! I’ve got him tattooed right on my arm to prove it.

John

AB: It’s REALLY cute, oh my god!

SM: A little birthday present to myself this year!

AB: How did John grow into your favorite Beatle? I know that’s a vague question, because it’s mostly energy and who you synchronise with a lot. But, was there any particular moment?

SM: When I first got into the Beatles, George [Harrison] was initially my favorite, for about a month or two. But of course, I’m starting to learn all about them individually as well as learning about them as a band. And any footage that I saw of John, within the Beatles, I would always look at him and think, oh my gosh, his personality, that’s exactly like me. That’s exactly how I would act in this situation. And then the more documentaries I started to watch about him, the more I was reading about him, I just felt so drawn to his personality because his personality is very similar to me. And so, I would look at that and go, oh my gosh, you know, I get this, I understand you, I can relate to you the most. And then his solo music was what I was the most familiar with, because as I was getting into that, I was hearing so many songs that I grew up hearing on the radio because whatever station my parents had on mostly played John and George, obviously, all of their solo music, but mostly, John and George. And so, just having that familiarity already with John, and then beginning to learn more about him, I thought, oh my gosh you know who-who are you, I need to know everything that I can about you, right now!

And then, being right next to New York City, when I first went to the Dakota and Strawberry Fields I felt so connected there already, I thought, whoa this is incredible. I cannot believe he used to live here. I cannot believe that this was his city too, and it’s my city, I’m right next door. So I think it was just all of that combined. I immediately felt connected to him, and I still feel that connection.

Dakota / Strawberry Fields Memorial

AB: I think that really happens. When I first got into the Beatles, I felt that way about John. He was the only one I was familiar with because John Lennon, that legacy, that’s just been so big. Especially in India, when you talk about the Beatles that’s the first name that comes to people’s minds. Like when I was in school, we used to have this almanac that our school used to give us, and they would have these inspirational songs at the beginning. There would be stuff like peace for the world, etc. and right there was Imagine by John Lennon. So for the longest time I thought okay, here’s some poet like Rabindranath Tagore, some peace activist, or something like that. And then when I got into the Beatles and I connected those dots — it was like, oh my god, how is this happening!

SM: Of all the places! I feel like you don’t choose your favorite Beatle, your favorite Beatle chooses you. And for me, that was John. And I love them all dearly, I love them all so much, but John is always going to be my top favorite just because of that connection that I’ve had to him for all this time.

AB: I feel like the John Lennon Estate has done a lot of work over the past decades to cement that legacy. Like I was talking about that whole angle that Imagine is what people recognize John by. And I feel like they’re still doing that. How do you think the fans today are being involved in that process? Like were they involved earlier also, if you have some idea? Or has the estate really picked up on this thread of connection today much more?

SM: I feel like over the years, they’ve started to pick up more and more on the fact that the Beatles have an online community with fans of all ages. And that that’s mostly where people are interacting right now, because for a lot of people in their inner circle, in real life, they might not have those connections. And the people who do are blessed, but a lot of people don’t. So they think, okay, all of these fans go online because they want to find fans. This is where everybody’s finding their community now. So I feel like they’ve picked up on that and that’s what helped them to create the forum. That’s what helped them to follow more fan accounts on social media, doing more retweeting, more replying. And I think, yeah, it’s all based around the fact that we’re all starting to move online now and that’s where primary discussion is happening.

I hope that MPL [Communications] picks up on it soon. I know that they’re not as interactive with the fans online. I feel like the George Estate might jump on it next. Ringo, I feel, he’s out here to entertain us. He’s doing his own thing, and we’re out here, we love it. But I feel like, over time, more and more of their estates will start to pick up on it and then they’ll realize, okay we have to follow this lead. Because this is the future, this is where we’re going.

AB: Yeah. I’m not sure if MPL had any fans on board when they were working on The Lyrics project, but I feel like it would have added a lot.

SM: Yeah, like even if they scout out a few accounts that they know are super passionate, and that they know would promote this and put their heart and soul into creating content about it — I feel like that’s what they all should be doing, with any major Beatles release. Recognizing those people that are out there in the community that want to talk about it and want to share this.

AB: And the fact is that with these people, it’s not just passion. They have this knowledge and insights that they can bring to the table. So it would just be adding a lot to whatever is happening.

SM: Exactly.

AB: So – I think we could do a quick rapid fire, if you’re up for it.

SM: Sure, let’s do it.

AB: So. Do you have a Beatles bucket list?

SM: Beatles bucket list. Right at the top is going to Liverpool, and I’m doing that next month.

AB: Yay! Congratulations! What are your plans?

SM: Finally, I’ll get to do Liverpool and then London. I’m going to walk Abbey Road. I’m going to do everything that I’ve wanted to do for the past decade.

AB: You know the stupidest thing I’ve done in my life is, I went to London a few years ago, but by that time I was not into the Beatles. I was introduced to the Beatles an year later. So when I went to London, I thought, oh, okay, Beatles. Everyone is talking about them in London, but I was like, I don’t care. I just don’t care.

SM: Noo! You gotta go back! You gotta go back!

AB: And the next year I get obsessed with the Beatles and I’m like, oh my god. How could I do this to myself.

SM: You gotta go back! That’s your excuse.

AB: I know man. It’s right at the top of my bucket list, I need to do that again. Is there a Beatles album that you would think is the soundtrack to your life or you would want to be the soundtrack to your life?

SM: I would say The White Album, just because that’s always been my favorite. That was the one that I first listened to in full when I became a fan. It’s the one that I most connected with. And if I had to pick a song from there, I would do “Long, Long, Long.” Especially now, just because of the lyrics, because “how can I ever misplace you? oh, I love you” that’s exactly how I feel about the Beatles.

AB: Aw. Do you have a favorite Beatles book or a podcast, like anything tangential to them, that you keep going back to?

SM: Not off the top of my head, no. I kind of just consume a little bit of everything. I don’t have one that I hold all high and mighty but a lot of my friends have podcasts, like Sam Whiles has Paul or Nothing. Allison Boron and Erika White, they have BC The Beatles. Those are just two off the top of my head. I hope that no one else thinks I’m forgetting them! But, you know, I really just listen to a lot of my friends’ content, what they put out there.

AB: Valid. Any city that you associate with the Beatles? Not London or Liverpool, if there’s any other city.

SM: New York City, because of John. And then that’s always been my city that I’ve grown up going into. So it’s associated with my life, and it’s associated with John. I consider that the Beatles happy place of America, like if you want to get as close to the Beatles as you can then New York is the place to be. Just because John lived there, that’s where they first flew into, that’s where Beatlemania really began in 1964, it’s where they were on Ed Sullivan—I feel like everything happened there, that was a big moment for them.

AB: Has the city done anything to preserve that history or put up any public institutions, or anything like that, for the fans to kind of converge?

SM: We have the Strawberry Fields Memorial, the Imagine Mosaic—that’s right across the street from the Dakota. I’ve heard that there’s talks of putting up a Beatles statue at John F. Kennedy Airport, but I don’t know how confirmed that is now, so don’t take my word for it, but I have heard rumors about it. And then obviously, the Ed Sullivan Theater – there’s nothing up there, in particular, but I feel like anyone who goes there knows that this is Beatles history. And sometimes when I walk around the city, I’ve seen murals before. I’ve seen one mural in the West Village that has John and Paul in it. And I feel like it’s just those little things that you got to look out for.

AB: Last question. If you could turn back time and meet the Beatles, what’s the first thing you would say to them?

SM: You have no idea the changes that you have made in so many people’s lives. And it’s all for the better. And so much is going to come out of the music and legacy that you are putting out there into the world.

AB: That’s so sweet. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time.

SM: And I love them!

Oh my god, that was a pun on a song and I didn’t even realize it until I said it! I keep doing that all the time! I keep just saying sentences and I don’t even realize I’m quoting a Beatles song until after I said it.

AB: It happens! They take over your mind and then you would be writing something, you’d be talking to someone — and the thing is their output was just so big, it was so grand and expansive that they just penetrate every single area of your life. You can’t escape it. It’s okay.

SM: Exactly.

---

Anushka Bidani is a cultural strategist by day, & a cricket enthusiast rest of the time. You can find her here.