Back to the Fifties: Nostalgia, Hollywood Film, and Popular Music of the Seventies and Eighties (Oxford Music / Media)

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Hollywood studios and record companies churned out films, albums, music videos and promotional materials that sought to recapture, revise, and re-imagine the 1950s. Breaking from dominant wisdom that casts the trend as wholly defined by Ronald Reagan's politics or the rise of postmodernism, Back to the Fifties reveals how Fifties nostalgia from 1973 to 1988 was utilized by a range of audiences for diverse and often competing agendas. Films from American Graffiti to Hairspray and popular music from Sha Na Na to Michael Jackson shaped - and were shaped by - the complex social, political and cultural conditions of the Reagan Era. By closely examining the ways that "the Fifties" was remade and recalled, Back to the Fifties explores how cultural memories were fostered for a generation of teenagers trained by popular culture to rewind, record, recycle and replay. 'back To The Fifties' Examines The Explosion Of Fifties Nostalgia In Hollywood Film And Popular Music From The Early 1970s To The Late 1980s. It Both Complicates And Transcends Standard Diagnoses Of The Political Function Of Nostalgia In Popular Media, And Sheds New Light On A Crucial And Underexamined Period In American Politics And Culture. By Closely Examining The Ways That 'the Fifties' Were Remade And Recalled In Films And In Pop Music, The Book Notes The Importance Of 'the Fifties' To A Generation Of Americans And Explores The Ways Popular Culture Facilitates Cultural Memory. Chapter One -- Fixing The Fifties: Reaganism, Nostalgia, And Back To The Future Chapter Two: Re-reading American Graffiti Chapter Three: Old Time Rock And Roll On Re-generation Soundtracks Chapter Four: Michael Jackson, Mtv, And Crossover Nostalgia Chapter Five: Star Legacies: James Dean And Sandra Dee In The Re-generation Epilogue: The Futures Of Nostalgia. Michael D. Dwyer. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Hollywood studios and record companies churned out films, albums, music videos and promotional materials that sought to recapture, revise, and re-imagine the 1950s. Breaking from the dominant wisdom that casts the trend as wholly defined by Ronald Reagan's politics or the rise of postmodernism, Back to the Fifties reveals how Fifties nostalgia from 1973 to 1988 was utilized by a range of audiences for diverse and often competing agendas. Films from American Graffiti to Hairspray and popular music from Sha Na Na to Michael Jackson shaped-and was shaped by-the complex social, political and cultural conditions of the Reagan Era. By closely examining the ways that "the Fifties" were remade and recalled, Back to the Fifties explores how cultural memory is shaped for a generation of teenagers trained by popular culture to rewind, record, recycle and replay.-- Provided by publisher Through close attention to films like Back to the Future and popular music of artists like Michael Jackson, Back to the Fifties explores how Fifties nostalgia was shaped for a generation of teenagers trained by popular culture to rewind, record, recycle and replay.