IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

No one else in the entertainment industry has as many monuments, statues, shrines, murals, and memorials erected in their honor as do the Beatles. Some of these are in obvious locations, like in their hometown of Liverpool, where hundreds of thousands of visitors, eager for a glimpse into the early lives of their heroes, take selfies with statues of the band and embark on tours of Beatles-related sites. However, many others are found in countries where the Beatles never even set foot, including nations whose governments disapproved of the group in the 1960s and even banned them from entering. A park in Cuba, a mountaintop in Kazakhstan, a square in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, and a street in Lima, Peru, are not the most obvious places to find Beatles monuments. This presentation explores why these and many other Beatles monuments and memorials exist outside the United Kingdom and examines what these structures reveal about the countries that erected them and their perceptions of the Beatles. Rather than serving as symbols of cultural globalization or homogenization, these monuments reflect diverse local interpretations of the group and provide as much insight into the cultural heritage of the host countries as they do into the Beatles.