3 Changing popular culture Flashcards
1
Q
Buisiness interest in sport
sport before the 1970s
A
- sport reflected the ‘american way’
- equal opportunities for advancement and frequent success
2
Q
Buisiness interest in sport
By 1973, what had happened to sport, why?
A
- teams recieved vast sums from spectaotrs, corporate sponsors and TV rights
- increased further 1973-1980
3
Q
Buisiness interest in sport
amount recieved by the NFL for TV rights 1970-1973, to 1978-1982
A
- rose from $188m in the period 1970-1973
- to $646m in 1978-1982
4
Q
Buisiness interest in sport
why did corporate sponsorship increase dramatically?
A
- so much more sport on TV
- corporate advertisers targetted increasing number of armchair spectators
5
Q
Buisiness interest in sport
signs that sport was all about the money
oakland raiders
A
- football’s Oakland Raiders dumped their supporters and traditional homes and moved to another city, because the owner failed to get funding for stadium improvements.
5
Q
Buisiness interest in sport
New York City Marathon invasion
entrepeneur Fred Lebow
A
- Fred Lebow took control of the marathon in the 1970s
- changed the nature of the marathon from volunteering to a buisiness enterprise
6
Q
Athletes and profits
how did athletes react to this? specific examples?
john mackey
A
- resented restrictions on their ability to earn more money
- John Mackey sued the NFL to gain greater bargaining power over salries and movement from one club to another
- those who backed him led the fight and drew on the traditions of the civil rights and black power movements
7
Q
cheating and violence
what did players do partly as a result? how did we find out?
A
- investigative journalism increased, so much was exposed
- it was estimated 1/3 of the US Olympic team used steroirds in 1968 and 68% in 1972
- In 1980 University of New Mexico coaches found falsifying athletes grades to keep mediocre students who earned the uni gate-money
8
Q
cheating and violence
why did violence increase?
A
- due to the money at stake in the 1970s
9
Q
cheating and violence
what happened in a 1978 football game (violence)?
A
- a New England Patriot bumped into Oakland Raider Jack Tatum and suffered 2 fracturered vertebrae, which left him a quadriplegic
10
Q
fragmentation of pop music
what was the argument
A
what ‘pure’ musical form was
- mirrored societys division over materialism and conformity
11
Q
rocke, pop, and commercialisation
how was rock different from pop? what was it opposed to? how did this attitude manipulate buyers?
A
- rock rejected mass society and was anti-consumption
- it was ‘good’ serious and aware music, where pop was ‘bad’ trivial music
- manipulated buyers as it percieved itself as more authentic and original unlike pop.
12
Q
new genres and fragmentation
disco boom in 1974-1976
dischoteques by 1976
A
- by 1976 there were around 10,000 dischoteques
13
Q
new genres and fragmentation
disco examples
GG, DS
A
- gloria gaynor’s ‘never can say goodbye’ 1975 first disco hit to reach the charts
- Donna Summer’s ‘love to love you baby’ number 2 in 1976
14
Q
new genres and fragmentation
rock fans ops on disco music
A
- formulaic
- linked it’s ‘death’ by 1979 to record companies saturating markets with low-quality, standardised products
15
Q
heavy metal
most successful american heavy metal band in the 1970s
A
Grand Funk Railroad
16
Q
heavy metal
what was the press/radio’s reaction to it? what did heavy metal performers have to do as a result? what was it’s nickname as a result?
A
- the press and radio ignored it, it was given outsider status
- heavy metal performers focused on noisy live shows and guitar thrusts
- ‘cock rock’ (there were no female heavy metal artist)
17
Q
heavy metal
Alice Cooper: how did they demonstrate the occult? what did they do? By 1976? what was their 1973 album?
A
- wore makeup
- engaged in animal rituals
- by 1976 they had 8 gold or platinum albums
- Billion Dollar babies which reached number one in the charts
- challenged traditional gender roles
18
Q
punk
what was the aim of punk? what did it reject? eg.s? what did they believe about commercialisation?
A
- to shock
- rejected pretentious elements of dominant rock culture
- The Ramones ‘I Dont Care’ ‘I Dont Wanna be Tamed’
- commercialisation had ruined American music and biggest bands had sold out to money.
19
Q
punk
The Dead Kennedys: what was the meaning of their song? what did their name reflect? who did they appeal to?
A
- ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ - critical of well-meaning middle class students
- bands name reflected the death of Ameriacan idealism
- working class young people loved them
20
Q
punk
what did punk morph into?
A
no wave and new wave
21
Q
punk
no wave: wheer di it emerge? what was it’s aim? influential bands?
A
- underground clubs in New York
- the Contortions and DNA
- rejected commercialism
22
Q
punk
new wave: how was it different to punk? what was its sound? most famous band?
A
- took punk in a new commercial direction
- combined punk guitars and disco drum machines
- new wave band Blondie took the new sound into mainstream, with their song ‘Heart of Glass’ 1979
23
Q
Hip-Hop
how/where did it emerge? examples/sound?
A
- ghettos of harlem
- black urban youth culutre comprised of rapping, DJing, graffiti, beatboxing, and breakdancing
- roots in the black tradition of talking to music
- Last Poets 1968 put rhythmic, rhyming speech against funky sounds of Kool and theGang
24
# Hip-Hop
what do people consider to be the 'first' hip-hop record? what was the initial reaction? then, what was the eventual reaction? What did Purists think?
- The Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper Delight' **1979**'
- initially scraped into the top 40
- eventually sold over 2m copies
purists felt this alerted the mainstream media to hip-hops existence, and it lost character.
25
# Hip-Hop
Blondie's '*Rapture'*: what did purists think?
- lead singer Debby Harry tried to be respectful of hip hop
- but purists believed this was white exploitation of black tradition
26
# singer-songwriters
what did people think of singer-songwriters?
- good, because they were authentic and wrote from the heart
27
# singer-songwriters
examples
- carole king, carly simon (eg. 'nobody does it better' **1977**, and bruce springsteen
- simon's recordings suggested a feminist influence sometimes
28
# singer-songwriters
Springsteen: what did his music represent?
| -
- the forgotten man 'born down in a dead man's town' in the old, declining industrial areas with no job
- frequently refered to Rust Belt unemployment and other aspects of working-class life
29
# Contradictions in film and TV
what did film and TV offer? what did they explore
- escapism and exploration of social and political tensions during the **1970s**
- escapism usually more lucrative
30
# television and social consciousness
CBS: what did it cancel? what did it turn to?
- cancelled *The Beverly Hillibillies* about a family who found oil and therefore lots of money.
- turned instead to 'social consciousness' programems such as *All in the Family* **1971-1979**
31
# television and social consciousness
what was the premise of *All in the Family*? what did it cover? why was it groundbreaking?
- main character blue collar worker who ranted at black people, feminists, homosexuals, and hippies
- creators meant for him to be a ridiculosu bigot, though many in middle america agreed with him...
- covered abortion, sexuality, the vietnam war, racism and women's liberation
32
# television and social consciousness
two series on independent minded women?
- *Maude **1972-1978***
- *Mary Tyler Moore Show **1970-1977***
- both very popular
33
# television and social consciousness
pressure from organisation(s): what did they force tv networks to do? what was the product of it? (e.g.)
| AQOL (key hint inhalerxx)
- Gay Activist Alliance forced TV netwroks into more sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals
- **eg.** *A Question of Love* **1978** was about a lesbian mothers child custody case
34
# television and social consciousness
americas racial tensions: where were they explored? who was the writer? how many vieers did it attract?
- *Roots* **1977**
- black american writer Alex Haley's story of the enslavement of his ancestors
- attracted 100m viewers for the last episde
35
# blaxploitation movies
what were they a result of?
- black dismay about bland black characters in mainstream movies
- hollywoods awareness that black people made up 30% of the audience in city cinemas (££££)
- greater black awareness generated by black power
36
# blaxploitation movies
what were tehy? what did they depict? what did they arouse?
- characterised by black heroes overcoming white villains
- depiction of black and white women as sex objects
- aroused tensions between the black community
37
# blaxploitation movies
tensions over blaxploitation movies within the black community
- some black middle class rejected the violence drug dealing and gangsters of the 60 or so Blaxkploitation movies.
38
# movies and political issues
movie ab watergate: what did it explore? another movie that explored the exposure of it? who was the director? what was his other movie that explored the same theme?
-*the Conversation* **1974**
- *All the President's Men **1976***
- both very popular
- Alan J. Pakula director aslo covered themes of corruption in politics in *The Parallax View **1974***
39
# movies and political issues
what was *The China Syndrome* **1979** about? waht did it refelct?
- focused on the attempted cover up of the near meltdown of a nuclear plant
- current environmentalist debates were reflected
40
# movies and political issues
what was focused on to a smaller extent?
- vietnam
- racism
- rise of feminism
- gay subculture
41
# pure escapism?
examples of escapist movies
- *American Graffiti **1973***
- *Grease **1978***
- both looked back affectionately on teenage life in the **1950s** and were great box office hits.
42
# pure escapism?
escapism science fiction movies
*Star Wars **1977***
*Close Encounters of the Third Kind **1978***
43
# pure escapism?
downbeat sci-fi films: what were they concerend about? why were they popular?
- environmentalist concerns
- *Soylent Green **1973***
- *Logan's Run **1976***
- popular bc they reflected contemporary concerns
44
# pure escapism?
what did increasing sci-fi tv shows represent a tire of?
- *The Incredible Hulk **1978-1982***
- *Fantasy Land **1977-1984***
- people were tired of 'social consciousness' films and tv shows
45
# developments in news media
what initially developed in news media? why?
- investigative journalism increased as a result of the Vietnam war credibility gap and Watergate.
- it encouraged aspirational jouranlists to seek another career-making scandal
46
# developments in news media
evaluation of the role of news media in/after watergate?
- some thought journalists were assential in maintaining American democracy
- others feared Watergate encouraged jouranlists to make big scandals out of relatively trivial things
47
# developments in news media
what was the second development in news media? what was the unprecedented popular show?
- tv for broadcasting news
- CBS News Programme *60 Minutes* was fixed in 7pm Sunday Evening Slot from **1976** and viewing figures rocketd and it became the most successful programme in American history
- led the way in 'gotcha journalism'
48
# developments in news media
third development in news media? what was the reaction to it? what did it originate from?
'happy talk' - meaningless comments inserted into news programmes. Highly informal conversational style between journalists.
- originating from Al Primo's *Eyewitness News* format
- purists carped newsmen were becoming personalities
49
# developments in news media
last development: what was it? tennis match example? what did the NOW Campaign for? who was ther result of this?
- increased importance of women in the news
- '**1973** battle of the Sexes' between Bobby Riggs and Jean King
- NOW campaigned for more women in TV and increased opportunities for women
- **Eg. Barbara Walters** who joined *ABY Evening News* in **1976**
