Communications Media faculty member Zack Stiegler recently published "We are a fly on the wall listening': Constructions of Musical Intimacy in the Beatles' Anthology" in the journalInterdisciplinary Literary Studies. Co-authored with IUP alumnus Todd Campbell, the project grew from work that the pair presented at Monmouth University's 2018 symposium on the rock group.
In the article, Stiegler and Campbell revisit the Beatles' 1995-96 Anthologyalbums to parse out how such archival releases (of which theAnthologywas one of the first) construct and exploit particular manifestations of musical intimacy. In doing so, the pair chart three main categories of musical intimacy on theAnthologyset, including aesthetic minimalism, sonic access to private spaces, and aural voyeurism.
Ultimately, the article argues that such meticulously constructed iterations of musical intimacy serve not simply to expose the Beatles' creative process, but to further cultivate the group's pop cultural mythos.
This initial collaboration has led Stiegler and Campbell to continue their work on musical intimacy via a larger, book-length project, under contract with Bloomsbury Academic.