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The Beatles were a pop and rock group from Liverpool, Lancashire, England, consisting of George Harrison (1943-2001), John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney (born 1942) and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey – born 1940).
Of British-English origin, the noun Beatledom designates:
– the fact, or state, of being, or of resembling, a member of the Beatles;
– the world of the Beatles.
The noun Beatledom occurs, for example, in Ticket to London, by Chris Jordan, published in the Home News Tribune (Somerville, New Jersey, USA) of Friday 11th November 2016 [page E7, column 1]:
The Beatles-inspired Weeklings’ long and winding road of playing fab music led them to the mecca of Beatle-dom, Abbey Road Studios in London, this summer.
The noun Beatledom is composed of:
– the name Beatle;
– the suffix -dom, employed to form nouns with the sense of condition, state, also with that of domain, world.
—Cf. also the noun Beatlemania and the adjective grotty.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun Beatledom that I have found:
1-: From the column From our Window, by ‘Commentator’, published in the Northern Daily Mail (Hartlepool, County Durham, England) of Thursday 7th November 1963 [page 2, column 2]:
West Hartlepool can expect to be infested with “Beatles” any time now. The rather sinister, beetle-browed haircuts necessary have been appearing recently and now a local clothier has a windowful of “Beatle-suits,” distinctive and sparing as they are. The price of beatledom is reasonably low—5½ guineas, although you can become a “super-beatle” for 12 guineas.
2-: From The Beatle boom… Lynne Gladstone-Millar talks to parents about “Beatlemania”, published in The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland) of Thursday 14th November 1963 [page 14, columns 2, 3 & 5]:
Perhaps the most alarming thing about the new word which has jauntily strummed its way into our language recently—Beatlemania—is its near accuracy. With many of the all-night standing, often-fainting, compulsive-screaming youngsters, Beatle-following really is a mania. They can be addicts by the age of ten.
All parents of children under the age of 18 have, I suppose, potential Beatle-addicts in the family. How do they feel about it? A spot check revealed attitudes which bounced from upright indignation to downright tolerance. But whatever their views, the parents of Beatle-dom are clearly not indifferent to the Mersey Sound.
[…]
A natural manifestation of any teenage idolising is the collecting of pin-ups. It was, therefore, with good-humoured tolerance that a third Beatle-dom family spoke of the Beatle photographs which covered every inch of paint on the bedroom door of the 15-year-old daughter in the house. […]
[…]
The headmaster of a co-ed. school of 1400 pupils […] told me, he saw on two occasions this past week papers being sold at the school gate which plugged Beatle-dom, and he was rather impressed by the lack of interest that the pupils showed.
3-: From the Daily Herald (London, England) of Thursday 28th November 1963 [page 4, column 3]:
Sculptor Michael Murtha will wear a Beatledress on Saturday to marry John Freeman’s daughter Elizabeth. With his white carnation tucked into his tie—no lapels or buttonholes in Beatledom.
4-: From the following advertisement, published in The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland) of Friday 3rd January 1964 [page 8, column 5]:
The latest concession to Beatledom… a beetle-shaped jack. This one is designed to ease off your knee-high boots. Colour, gold. Price 14s 6d. Available at Saxone.
5-: From Echoes and Gossip of the Day, published in the Liverpool Echo and Evening Express (Liverpool, Lancashire, England) of Friday 10th January 1964 [page 12, column 3]:
Pop Go The Beatles?
To the components of the Mersey Sound (voice, guitars, drums) a Tottenham team added organ and saxophone and has this week ousted the Beatles, hitherto the hardly disputed sultans of pop, from the top of the Top Ten. Yet who would dare predict at this stage that the Mersey Sound will no longer be fortissimo and the decibels of the Dave Clark Five inexorably crescendo in teenage esteem? The next disc from Beatledom might well end the rallentando and bring a new affrettando movement. And this at least seems certain in the changing world of pop—the Mersey Sound will reach America first, via the Pacemakers, as well as the Beatles. At present Tottenham’s five have only Paris in their sights. But they are due for Blackpool and where better to stage a clash of the Sounds—in a tumult which would surely rival a Spurs v. Liverton meeting in gladiatorial glamour (not to mention volume)?
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