a1 Austin, TX, USA E-mail: Marianne@illuin.org The Beatles’ film
Yellow Submarine (1968) reflects conflicts between conventional
society, represented by classical music, and rebellious youth
culture, represented by other musical types, such as folk and
pop (subsumed under the term ‘vernacular’). Taking their
inspiration from the song ‘Yellow Submarine’ (Revolver, 1966),
the filmmakers created a narrative for a psychedelic ‘hero’s
journey’ from existing Beatles songs. This article discusses how
the musical codes that symbolise different groups are used to
mediate between divergent elements in both the film and
contemporary society, by referring to such elements beyond the
film as the Beatles’ comprehensive body of songs (which in
itself forms a kind of mythology) and cultural events of the
time. In Yellow Submarine, the Blue Meanies imprison Pepperland
by immobilising all producers of music, whether ‘classical’ (the
string quartet led by the elderly Lord Mayor) or ‘vernacular’
(Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club