The Beatles land in Seoul 66 years on — why are they still capturing Generation Z?

London's Abbey Road — where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr once walked in a line — has come to Seoul. Fans from across generations and borders now trace the shadows of those four figures crossing the zebra crossing, with Seoul's skyline and Namsan Seoul Tower rising behind them: a limited-edition scene found nowhere else on earth.

"I'm John Lennon," said 19-year-old Kim Na-el, laughing, his hair falling in the same floppy style as the Beatle himself.

Kim, who lives in Vienna, Austria, said he had loved the Beatles since childhood but always listened alone because no one around him shared the passion. "Just knowing that a place like this exists — where Beatles fans can gather — makes me so happy," he said.

Formed in Liverpool in 1960, the Beatles were active for just a decade and never once performed in Korea. Now, 56 years after the band's breakup, they have finally arrived in Seoul. The Beatles Seoul Edition pop-up store opened Monday at a 330-square-meter event hall on the basement first floor of Hyundai Department Store's Trade Center branch in Gangnam-gu, across from the food hall. Universal Music Korea transformed the space into a living tribute to the Beatles' legacy.

It is the first time a Beatles pop-up store has opened in Korea. Far from the generic merchandise shops that typically accompany pop star promotions, the Seoul Edition is an immersive experience space — one that translates the band's history and music into something visitors can see, hear and take home.

By far the most striking feature is the dedicated listening lounge. Created in partnership with music streaming service Genie Music and audio brand Bowers & Wilkins, the space is equipped with gear that carries on the acoustic heritage of Abbey Road Studios, inviting visitors to experience the Beatles' greatest recordings in depth.

"We set it up so visitors can listen to every Beatles track on Abbey Road limited-edition speakers and headphones," a Universal Music official said. "People stay for different lengths of time, but some have spent more than an hour just sitting and listening."

The most expensive item in the store sits right there in the lounge: the Bowers & Wilkins 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition speaker. Only 140 sets — 240 individual speakers — were produced worldwide, engineered to reproduce sound as close to the original recording as possible. They are priced at 99 million won ($71,700). Visitors to the pop-up can receive an exclusive discount of 15 million won off that price.

The most inspired element of the Seoul pop-up, however, may be its merchandise. Rather than importing standard global products, the organizers created a "Seoul Beatles" line by weaving Korean and Seoul imagery into the designs — producing limited-edition T-shirts, caps and keyrings available nowhere else in the world.

A standout piece is a beanie that places the psychedelic logo of the Beatles album "Rubber Soul" alongside the words "Love Seoul" — a play on the album title that one visitor called a stroke of genius. "The 'Rubber Soul' logo is so psychedelic and distinctive — I've always loved it," said Yu Gwan-mo, who visited the store. "Connecting it to 'Love Seoul' on the hats was just beautiful."

T-shirts and tote bags featuring Abbey Road set against the backdrop of Namsan Seoul Tower, along with guitar picks and other accessories, are also on offer. An interactive event space where visitors receive stickers and small gifts, and a wall where fans can leave messages for the Beatles, drew steady crowds as well.

The exhibition space dedicated to the Beatles' music fed fans' appetite for discovery. Visitors could trace the band's recording history from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" — the opening salvo of the British Invasion — through "Let It Be," a track from their final album in 1970, taking in the story of the act that holds the all-time record of 20 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Albums from the Beatles' catalog, which has sold more than 600 million copies worldwide, were displayed together in one place — records certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at 178 million units sold in the United States alone, an unrivaled first place.

Kim Na-el, 19, who lives in Vienna, said visiting the store gave him a chance to see the American pressing of the albums. "I mainly speak German back in Vienna, and the US edition actually includes songs recorded in German, which makes it extra special," he said.

The Beatles did indeed record German-language versions of their songs in 1964 to break into the German market — "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" ("I Want to Hold Your Hand") and "Sie liebt dich" ("She Loves You"). The two tracks are the only sessions the Beatles recorded outside Britain, cut at Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris in January 1964. The German version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" appeared on the American album "Something New," produced entirely by analog methods in Nashville. The pop-up store carefully presents these rare exclusive recordings alongside the band's broader historical footprint.

The Beatles' fandom keeps growing across generations and national borders. On the pop-up store's opening day, visitors ranged widely in gender, nationality and age. The band's music has not faded since their active years ended — if anything, it has continued to find new audiences among the young.

According to data released by Spotify, the world's largest music streaming platform, Beatles songs were streamed about 1.7 billion times in 2019 alone, with more than 20 million monthly active listeners — roughly 10 percent of Spotify's total user base at the time. Of those listeners, 30 percent were between 18 and 24 years old, placing them squarely in Generation Z, while listeners under 35 accounted for as much as 67 percent of the total. The Beatles currently draw about 35.4 million monthly active listeners on Spotify.

Their top streaming cities span every continent — Mexico City, São Paulo, Sydney and Los Angeles among them. The most-streamed Beatles song on Spotify is "Here Comes the Sun," written by George Harrison and included on the 1969 album "Abbey Road."

The Beatlemaniacs who gathered at the pop-up store made clear that the Beatles remain a living legend, not a relic.

Lee Sang-gwon, 59, stumbled upon the pop-up store while changing subway lines. "I first came across the Beatles in middle school," he said. "By the 1980s, the Beatles were already long gone, so it wasn't easy to find anyone else who liked them."

"Coming here feels like time travel — a reunion with the musical idols of my youth," he said, smiling. "The Beatles were the gateway that opened my ears to British and American music — Pink Floyd, Electric Light Orchestra and beyond. They're the musicians who taught me what music really is."

Generation Z visitors, many of whom still think of the Beatles as somehow young, explored every corner of the store. A good number had fallen for the band after listening to records their parents had collected.

Park Sang-eun, 27, said she had loved the Beatles since elementary school, starting with well-known tracks. "At first I mostly listened to the famous ones — 'Let It Be,' 'Hey Jude,'" she said. "Now my favorite is 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.' The Beatles have a free-spirited energy in their music that no other band or singer has."

That sense of freedom is not the rebellious edge of a typical rock band but something more particular — a way of unleashing their own imagination. It is the feeling of liberation from genre and convention that draws fans in their 20s most deeply. "For a Generation Z audience worn out by the relentless stimulation of short-form media and rapid-fire content, the Beatles' vast album catalog and analog sound offer something fresh — a tool for deep listening, for total immersion," said an industry insider.

Yu Gwan-mo, 19, a self-described Beatlemaniac, said he got hooked after discovering his father's CD collection in sixth grade. "My favorite back then was 'Come Together,'" he said. "I started with the hits — 'Come Together,' 'Hey Jude,' 'Let It Be' — and gradually went looking for more, until one day I realized I couldn't live without them." At the pop-up, he identified the release year of album after album just from the cover art, pausing to remark with complete seriousness that even the visible aging in George Harrison's face between records, just a year apart, was "incredibly special and fascinating."

Yu and Kim Na-el were both born in 2007 and met through their shared love of the Beatles, going on to form a band together. Their group, One Day A Month, sits somewhere between amateur and professional. Kim handles vocals and electric guitar in the mold of John Lennon; Yu plays guitar in the style of George Harrison.

For both of them, the pop-up store was a place to experience the Beatles' music and share their stories about the band. "There aren't many people around us who like the Beatles, so we've always listened alone," they said. "Coming here makes us happy."

For the fans, what makes the Beatles special is simply that they are the Beatles. Asked why they love the band, Kim and Yu said, "Isn't it obvious? They just have this pull to them." Lee put it differently: "They get under your skin like a drug." For Kim, the music carries a message that serves as a guide for living. "The Beatles speak so many languages — folk, psychedelic, electronic, instruments and genres from all over the world," he said. "But all of those languages lead to one place, and that place is love. So wherever you listen to them, the room fills up with love."

The Beatles pop-up store runs at Hyundai Department Store in Samseong-dong through Sunday, before moving to The Hyundai — a pop-up destination in its own right — from Sept. 4 to Sept. 13, and then on to Kintex in Ilsan. A Universal Music official said 1,000 people visited on the first day alone, with 10,000 expected over the course of the week.