Topic 3 - C3 - Changing Popular Culture

Question 1

What did sport reflect before the 1970s?

Answer 1

American Way - hard work, equal opportunities for advancement and frequent success. Believed that team games and team spirit = good citizenship and a sense of community that strengthened character.

Question 2

How much money did the National Football League yield from TV rights between 1970-1982?

Answer 2

Received $188 million from TV rights 1970-73 which rose to $646 million in 1978-82.

Question 3

Why did corporate sponsorships increase during the 1970s?

Answer 3

More sport on TV and corporate advertisers could target spectators from home. 90% of men watched sport on TV vs 75% women.

Question 4

What is an example of sport becoming more money oriented?

Answer 4

Oakland Raiders dumped their supporters and traditional homes and moved to LA due to their owner not financing stadium improvements

Question 5

What happened when Fred Lebow took control of the NYC marathon in the 1970s?

Answer 5

Called it the New York Runners Club - changed from a volunteer organisation to a business enterprise - increased attractiveness to corporate funding by raising the number of participants.

Question 6

What is an example of athletes demanding greater shares of profits?

Answer 6

John Mackey of Baltimore Colts sued the NFL to gain greater bargaining power over salaries and movement from one club to another. They won in 1976.

Question 7

What characterised 1970s sport?

Answer 7

Labour disputes, lawsuits, walkouts and strikes

Question 8

Why did cheating in sport and coverage of cheating increase during the 1970s?

Answer 8

Due to potential monetary gains. Rise in investigative journalism led to exposure of corruption. Players revealed corruption to make money.

Question 9

What are examples of cheating in sport in the 1970s?

Answer 9

• Estimated that ⅓ of US Olympic team used steroids in 1968 and 68% by 1972.
• 1980 - University of New Mexico coaches were found falsifying athlete’s grades in order to keep mediocre students who earned the uni gate money.

Question 10

What is an example of increased violence in sport?

Answer 10

• 1978 - New England patriot bumped into Oakland Raider Jack Tatum and suffered two fractured vertebrae - left him a quadriplegic
• They Call Me Assassin (1980) Tatum revealed he didn’t feel guilty in his book.

Question 11

The Disco boom began in 1974 with 10,000 discotheques by 1976, what are examples of disco songs?

Answer 11

• First disco hit to reach number 1 - Gloria Gaynor ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ (1975)
• Other popular songs included The Bee Gees’ ‘You Should Be Dancing’ (1976).

Question 12

Who was the most successful heavy metal band and what was heavy metal characterised by?

Answer 12

Grand Funk Railroad - ignored by radio and the press, gave it outsider status. Focused on live shows characterised by noise and phallic guitar thrust = nickname Cock Rock. No female artists in heavy metal.

Question 13

How popular was the heavy metal band Alice Cooper in the 1970s?

Answer 13

1976 - 8 gold or platinum albums including the 1973 album - Billion Dollar Babies - reached no.1 in the charts. Performed wearing makeup and high heeled boots which challenged gender roles

Question 14

What popular punk band aimed to shock using Nazi symbols?

Answer 14

The Ramones - rejected pretentious elements of mainstream rock. Used Nazi symbols and played songs such as ‘I Don’t Care’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Tamed’.

Question 15

What did Punk believe about commercialisation?

Answer 15

Believed commercialisation had destroyed US music, mostly liked by working class left wing people

Question 16

Who were the Dead Kennedys?

Answer 16

A punk band that rejected elaborate instrumentation and their songs were anti-establishment with a political message ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ critical of MC students

Question 17

What wave of Punk music emerged in underground clubs of NYC?

Answer 17

No Wave - included bands like DNA and Contortions. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks refused to perform songs lasting more than 30 seconds to reject a commercial sound

Question 18

How did New Wave change punk?

Answer 18

Took Punk more commercial - combined punk guitars with disco drum machines e.g Blondie - no.1 song ‘Heart of Glass’ 1979

Question 19

Where did Hip Hop come from?

Answer 19

Began in NYC Harlem ghettos in early 1970s from black urban youth culture of rapping, djing, graffiti, beatboxing and break dancing. Similar sounds existed from 1968 - Last Poets put rhyming speech to funky music

Question 20

What was Rappers Delight (1979)?

Answer 20

Considered the first Hip Hop record, eventually sold over 2 million copies

Question 21

What record was the first rap record to reach number 1?

Answer 21

Blondie’s’ ‘Rapture’ first rap record to reach number 1 - people saw it as white exploitation of black tradition

Question 22

What are examples of singer singwriters seen as authentic as they wrote their own music?

Answer 22

• Carly Simon had lyrics of a feminist influence. ‘Nobody Does It Better’ (1970) love song
• Bruce Springsteen - wrote and sang romantic songs ‘Heartland Rock’ represented the forgotten man, also wrote of declining industrial areas - born in New Jersey - manufacturing area

Question 23

What contradictions existed in film and TV?

Answer 23

Offered a mixture of escapism and exploration of social and political tensions in 1970s. Escapism did better at the box office but films documenting rising violence, racial conflict and political corruption also did well.

Question 24

What social consciousness programmes emerged in the 1970s?

Answer 24

All In The Family’ (1971-79) - about WW2 veteran and blue collar worker Archie Bunker who ranted that black people, feminists, homosexuals and hippies. SM agreed with his bigotry

Question 25

Which TV series’ had a central feminist character?

Answer 25

Maude (1972-78) feminist central character. Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77) single, intelligent working women facing less intelligent sexist males in the workplace.

Question 26

How were more sympathetic portrayals of gays depicted?

Answer 26

Gay Activist Alliance forced TV networks into more sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals - ‘A Question of Love’ (1978) was about a lesbian mother’s child custody case

Question 27

What popular programme explored racial tensions?

Answer 27

Roots (1977) explored the origins of racial tensions - 100 million viewers watched the last episode

Question 28

What were Blaxploitation movies 1969-1974?

Answer 28

Black casts and adventures in ghettos. Black heros overcame corrupt whites. Some MC black critics rejected the violence, drug dealing and gangsters.

Question 29

Why did Blaxploitation movies come about?

Answer 29

• Black dismay about the bland black characters in mainstream movies
• Hollywood’s awareness that black people constituted 30% of the audience = money
• Awareness from Black Power

Question 30

What did middle class black critics claim about the hit Superfly (1972)?

Answer 30

Contributed to a dramatic increase in cocaine use among ghetto youths. Thought it glamorized ghetto life and distracted from struggle.

Question 31

What did the ‘The Conversation’ (1974) explore?

Answer 31

Explored privacy and responsibility issues facing a surveillance expert. Released around the time of Watergate.

Question 32

What did ‘All the President’s Men’ (1976) explore?

Answer 32

Story of the Washington Post reporters who exposed the scandal

Question 33

What are examples of escapist films?

Answer 33

• American Graffiti (1973) and Grease (1978) looked back affectionately at teenage life of the 1950s
• SciFi films like Star Wars (1977) were also popular

Question 34

What is an example of contradictions in film and TV escapism?

Answer 34

• Starsky and Hutch (1975-79) TV series was a popular crime show.
• Little House on the Prairie (1974-83) series of an idealised family.

Question 35

What inspired the expansion in investigative journalism?

Answer 35

Inspired by Vietnam and the credibility gap of LBJ. The exposure of WG made Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein national heroes.

Question 36

What happened when CBS (1968) expanded?

Answer 36

Viewing figures rocketed - showed hidden camera and gotcha journalism. Critics attacked the programme as breeding a cynical attitude to national life and politics.

Question 37

Why was Happy Talk in news media criticised?

Answer 37

Meaningless comments inserted into news programmes - people thought newsmen were becoming personalities and chosen for their looks and banter rather than news ability

Question 38

How did women become more prominant in news media?

Answer 38

NOW campaigned for more women on TV - Barbara Walters joined ABC Evening News in 1976