Browsing by Subject "1980s"
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Item Selling the beat, visualizing the rhythm : MTV, propaganda films, and convergent media in the 1980s(2015-05) Montes, Christopher Daniel; Schatz, Thomas, 1948-; Scott, SuzanneIn the early 1980s, American media industries were changing at a rapid pace. New technologies and corporate structures influenced a new crop of media content indicative of an ever-diversifying mediascape. Influenced by this continuing evolution, the Warner-Amex corporation developed a platform to showcase a new kind of content form, music videos, that sought to mix the flow of radio broadcast with filmed popular music entertainment: MTV, music television. MTV stood as the go-to source for music videos in the United States and became a cultural touchstone in itself. The cable, recording, and advertising industries all had a hand in the channel's development and had to overcome the industrial tensions such an initiative would bring. How would profits be earned? Who produces what? And where will the money come from? Despite its successful premiere on August 1 1981, MTV still underwent a number of transformations, both industrially and culturally, to become the media giant it still is today. One result of this platform's rise in prominence was a need to produce content that would fit well on this new-look channel. Seeing this opportunity, a group of filmmakers formed Propaganda Films in 1986 in order to produce music videos and television advertisements for MTV and other broadcast platforms. These filmmakers, including Hollywood auteurs Steve Golin, Nigel Dick, Dominic Sena, and David Fincher, would have a profound influence on music videos and television advertisements, bringing a distinctive style and authorial vision to non-feature film Hollywood productions. My research details the formation of MTV, the founding of Propaganda Films, and the formal components of Propaganda’s music videos and television advertisements as a means to engage the convergent trends of American media industries during this period. Propaganda Films, a prolific and repeatedly well-regarded organization in the entertainment industry, has yet to have a comprehensive scholarly analysis of its involvement in American media history. My aim is to simultaneously detail a previously underrepresented historical case while providing an interdisciplinary means in which to engage various content forms that are an important component of our media-making cultures and traditions.Item Teen films of the 1980s : genre, new Hollywood, and generation X(2011-05) Nelson, Elissa Helen; Schatz, Thomas, 1948-; Wilkins, Karin G.; Ramirez Berg, Charles; Buhler, James; Kearney, Mary C.; Kackman, MichaelTeen films from the 1980s are a part of the zeitgeist, but there is very little we actually understand about how they can be qualified and defined, and about the phenomenon of their prolific production, box office success, and cultural relevance. Gaining greater insights about these issues is essential for recognizing the significance of a specific group of films and the ways they address concerns of how teens come of age, but is also important for learning about the films’ historical and industrial contexts of production. Asking the questions why these kinds of films, why at this time, and what do they mean, leads to an awareness and identification of the phenomenon, but additionally, these lines of inquiry explore how the films and their success are tied to changing Hollywood industrial conditions, and to the shifting political, economic, social, and cultural climate of the U.S. in the 1980s. While previous scholars have studied the industrial context of production of teen films in the 1950s, and some have looked at the different types of films produced in the 1980s, the matter remains as to whether teen films actually constitute their own genre. Examining this question of genre is necessary for clarifying a number of issues: how the films relate to the culture at large; how representations of youth on screen can help us understand and reevaluate Generation X, the demographic group coming of age at the time; and how an assessment of these films contributes to a re-conceptualization of the ways films are produced, marketed, and categorized in the New Hollywood. Using primary data consisting of textual analysis and contextual analysis, and applying both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the study builds on and adds to previous approaches to genre. The contributions of this research are multifaceted. By gaining insights about these films, we can begin to appreciate more fully a maligned generation, the changing landscape of the entertainment industry, and a cultural phenomenon.