Welcome,
You are about to embark on a journey through the various periods of United States history to explore and understand just how drastically culture changed. From the long gowns of the Puritan women to the short dresses of the Flapper girls, and from the era of transcendentalist literature to the age of existentialist literature, the change in American culture not only gave rise to new movements, but also altered the attitudes of the American people. Take a look at what we have.
You are about to embark on a journey through the various periods of United States history to explore and understand just how drastically culture changed. From the long gowns of the Puritan women to the short dresses of the Flapper girls, and from the era of transcendentalist literature to the age of existentialist literature, the change in American culture not only gave rise to new movements, but also altered the attitudes of the American people. Take a look at what we have.
1600-1700
Culture varied greatly across the seventeenth century. Architecture, music and art began transition from Renaissance to Baroque styles. Architecture became more natural looking and curvaceous, often inspired by leaves, shells, etc., sometimes with geometric shapes to provide the overall structure. the model system began to fall out of use in music, and, by the end of the century, major and minor chords and scales began to take off, even if they only reached their full potential in the Classical period. the makings of the modern orchestra began to form. art appeared more realistic, with sculptures and paintings often reflecting Classical forms. Theatre, however, was possibly the most widely enjoyed of the arts, open to both rich and poor alike.
America, at this point still mostly controlled by natives, had not yet diverged into its own styles of architecture but adopted the classical forms of Palladianism as its "official" architecture in the 1700s. Overall, the 1600s can be seen as a time of transition in the arts, opening new doors in almost every field, paving the way for classicism to take over in the next century.
America, at this point still mostly controlled by natives, had not yet diverged into its own styles of architecture but adopted the classical forms of Palladianism as its "official" architecture in the 1700s. Overall, the 1600s can be seen as a time of transition in the arts, opening new doors in almost every field, paving the way for classicism to take over in the next century.
Clothing of the colonists
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Clothing of the natives
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1801-1900
Laws were passed giving married women the right to retain their own property, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon, Nat Turner's slave revolt failed, and Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature, the bible of Transcendental philosophy. George Pullman designed the railroad car, Abner Doubleday laid out the first baseball field and the first ballgame was played in Cooperstown, and Robin Carver wrote the first American book on baseball The Whig party was established Texas won its independence from Mexico. Late in the decade, the United States suffered an economic depression resulting in the closing of businesses and banks, AND, marathon walker E.P. Weston, 70 years old, walked from New York to San Francisco (3,895 miles).
Transcendentalist Writers
-Walden: Or Life in the Woods (1854): -His two year life on the edge of Walden Pond. It epitomized the romantic quest for isolation from society’s corruptions. -His essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” (1849) -His writing influenced Mahatma Gandhi to resist British rule in India -And also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.’s thinking about nonviolence.
-Her series of “Conversations” were to promote scholarly dialogue among local elite women. -Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845) a powerful critique of gender roles and an iconic statement of he budding feminist movement.
-He located divinity in commonplace natural objects as well as the human body. Individualists
-He excelled in the short story, especially Gothic horror type -He was fascinated by the ghostly and ghastly, as in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” -Two writers reflected the continuing Calvinist obsession with original sin and with the never-ending struggle between good and evil:
-In The Marble Faun he explores the concepts of the omnipresence of evil
-It had to wait until the twentieth century for readers and for proper recognition |
Literary Lights
-Some of his most admired narrative poems—Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858) -He was the first American to be enshrined in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.
-He was vastly more important in influencing social action -Helped arouse a callous America on the slavery issue.
-He was also a distinguished essayist, literary critic, and diplomat as well as editor -He is remembered as a political satirist in his Biglow Papers (1846-1848).
-In deceptive spare language and simple rhyme schemes she explored universal theses of nature, love, death, and immortality -She hesitated to publish her poems, but after her death nearly 2000 were found and published.
-82 books flowed from his pen, winning the title: “the Cooper of the South” -His favorite themes, captured in titles like The Yamasee (1835) and The Cassique of Kiawah (1859) dealing with the South during the Revolutionary War. -His national and international reputation suffered after the Civil War, no doubt due to his overt proslavery and secessionist sentiments. |
1901-1919
Art & Architecture
The early twentieth century marked an era of beginnings and endings. Americans had yet to make their mark on the art scene. Many American artists went to Europe to paint. Realism and Impressionism artists of this period included Eakins, Prendergast, and the famous portraitist Sargent. Painters like Winslow Homer, Charles Russell, and Frederic Remington painted America's life and landscape.
Early modernists included Max Weber and Arthur Dove. The Ash Can School or Gritty City Art (urban realism) made its way onto the scene in works like George Luks "Hester Street", John Sloan's "The Wake of the Ferry", Edward Hopper's "The El Station," and George Bellows' "Penn Station". Charles Dana Gibson designed the Gibson Girls and these were published in McCall's and Ladies Home Journal. Many of these pictures were framed and hung in homes throughout the country. George Eastman developed the lightweight, easy to use Kodak box and Alfred Stieglitz became the most renowned photographer of the period.
Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned his beautiful low and straight lined homes. Pennsylvania Station and the Biltmore Estate and Vanderbilt 50-room New York City dwelling were designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead, and White in New York. This decade marked the ending of Art Nouveau (1851 - 1914) and Modern Architecture (check out Craftsman style) . Americans began to recognize their past. The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorized the president to declare national monuments to be historic landmarks. New and popular Arts and Crafts Movement was created and gained enormous success during this decade. Late in the decade, people could buy homes from Sears Catalog of Modern Homes .
Literature
During this decade newspapers changed to the four-column, tabloid style paper in 1900. Two newspaper magnates, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, turned producing newspapers into a war when they began adding special sections including sports and multiple frame cartoon strips. The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908.
Many of the novelists produced 'happiness novels' because the women were the greater readers of fiction. Best selling authors produced many fine books we still enjoy; L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful World of Oz, Mary Johnson's To Have and To Hold, Jack London's Call of the Wild, Alice Hegan Rice's Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, and Owen Wister's The Virginian. Willa Cather, Zane Grey, William Dean Howells, and Carl Sandberg were publishing. As in other decades, books reflected the times in which people lived. Notable books covered topics like big business, urban problems, racism, women's issues and worker's problems.
The early twentieth century marked an era of beginnings and endings. Americans had yet to make their mark on the art scene. Many American artists went to Europe to paint. Realism and Impressionism artists of this period included Eakins, Prendergast, and the famous portraitist Sargent. Painters like Winslow Homer, Charles Russell, and Frederic Remington painted America's life and landscape.
Early modernists included Max Weber and Arthur Dove. The Ash Can School or Gritty City Art (urban realism) made its way onto the scene in works like George Luks "Hester Street", John Sloan's "The Wake of the Ferry", Edward Hopper's "The El Station," and George Bellows' "Penn Station". Charles Dana Gibson designed the Gibson Girls and these were published in McCall's and Ladies Home Journal. Many of these pictures were framed and hung in homes throughout the country. George Eastman developed the lightweight, easy to use Kodak box and Alfred Stieglitz became the most renowned photographer of the period.
Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned his beautiful low and straight lined homes. Pennsylvania Station and the Biltmore Estate and Vanderbilt 50-room New York City dwelling were designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead, and White in New York. This decade marked the ending of Art Nouveau (1851 - 1914) and Modern Architecture (check out Craftsman style) . Americans began to recognize their past. The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorized the president to declare national monuments to be historic landmarks. New and popular Arts and Crafts Movement was created and gained enormous success during this decade. Late in the decade, people could buy homes from Sears Catalog of Modern Homes .
Literature
During this decade newspapers changed to the four-column, tabloid style paper in 1900. Two newspaper magnates, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, turned producing newspapers into a war when they began adding special sections including sports and multiple frame cartoon strips. The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908.
Many of the novelists produced 'happiness novels' because the women were the greater readers of fiction. Best selling authors produced many fine books we still enjoy; L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful World of Oz, Mary Johnson's To Have and To Hold, Jack London's Call of the Wild, Alice Hegan Rice's Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, and Owen Wister's The Virginian. Willa Cather, Zane Grey, William Dean Howells, and Carl Sandberg were publishing. As in other decades, books reflected the times in which people lived. Notable books covered topics like big business, urban problems, racism, women's issues and worker's problems.
Music
Leisure time during the first decade of the twentieth century was spent at family get-togethers, baseball, picnics, long Sunday drives in the horse and carriage (or the new family car). In the evenings families gathered around the piano for a sing-along. Sheet music to popular songs sold over a million copies. Song pluggers carried pianos on their horse-drawn carts and performed for crowds who bought this music from these vendors or dime stores. Barbershop Quartets harmonized on Saturday nights. Sweet Adeline was one of the most popular songs of the decade. Nickelodeon was new hottest rage beginning in 1905. The films were often naughty and men frequented these penny arcades. Nickel arcades came along soon where you paid a nickel to enjoy a short moving picture projected onto a screen. These were enormously popular. There were 10,000 in operation within 3 years.
Music reflected the events changing in the world outside. In My Merry Oldsmobile, Come Josephine in My Flying Machine, and Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis announced the changes brought about by automobiles and airplanes. Songs like Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home and The Darktown Strutters Ball echoed the racial prejudices of the period.
During this decade, radios brought music to the country and in 1903, the hand-cranked victrola went on the market and many Americans listened to recordings of opera stars. Broadway musicals flourished. Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan opened on Broadway. The Ziegfeld Follies (later, but still Ziegfeld) began in 1907. The waltz was replaced with ballroom dancing (Take time to watch the finale, too). And my favorite, the beer songs like Under the Anheuser Bush. Many memorable Vaudeville songs were performed at this time, including She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage. By the 1900s, Scott Joplin (Maple Leaf Rag) had made ragtime popular by bringing it out of the red-light district onto the legitimate stage. Also, don't forget the silent films.
Leisure time during the first decade of the twentieth century was spent at family get-togethers, baseball, picnics, long Sunday drives in the horse and carriage (or the new family car). In the evenings families gathered around the piano for a sing-along. Sheet music to popular songs sold over a million copies. Song pluggers carried pianos on their horse-drawn carts and performed for crowds who bought this music from these vendors or dime stores. Barbershop Quartets harmonized on Saturday nights. Sweet Adeline was one of the most popular songs of the decade. Nickelodeon was new hottest rage beginning in 1905. The films were often naughty and men frequented these penny arcades. Nickel arcades came along soon where you paid a nickel to enjoy a short moving picture projected onto a screen. These were enormously popular. There were 10,000 in operation within 3 years.
Music reflected the events changing in the world outside. In My Merry Oldsmobile, Come Josephine in My Flying Machine, and Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis announced the changes brought about by automobiles and airplanes. Songs like Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home and The Darktown Strutters Ball echoed the racial prejudices of the period.
During this decade, radios brought music to the country and in 1903, the hand-cranked victrola went on the market and many Americans listened to recordings of opera stars. Broadway musicals flourished. Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan opened on Broadway. The Ziegfeld Follies (later, but still Ziegfeld) began in 1907. The waltz was replaced with ballroom dancing (Take time to watch the finale, too). And my favorite, the beer songs like Under the Anheuser Bush. Many memorable Vaudeville songs were performed at this time, including She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage. By the 1900s, Scott Joplin (Maple Leaf Rag) had made ragtime popular by bringing it out of the red-light district onto the legitimate stage. Also, don't forget the silent films.
the Jazz age: 1920s
Jazz developed in the 1920s as a mesh of African American traditions and white middle class ideals, and represented a vast cultural shift. The Jazz Age was a post World War I movement in the 1920's, from which jazz music and dance emerged. Although the era ended with the beginning of The Great Depression in the 1930's, jazz has lived on in American pop culture. The birth of jazz music is often accredited to African Americans, but both black and white Americans alike are responsible for its immense rise in popularity. The rise of jazz coincided with the rise of radio broadcast and recording technology, with the most popular radio show being "potter palms" concert and big-band jazz performances. Female musicians such as Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday emerged during this period of post-war equality and free sexuality, paving the way for future female artists.
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Common Terms:
- Charleston
- Potter palm
- Flapper
The Charleston
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Flapper clothing
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Also known as the Roaring Twenties, this movement coincided with both the equally phenomenal introduction of mainstream radio and the conclusion of World War I. Although the era ended when the Great Depression victimized america in the 1930s, jazz has lived on in American pop culture. The birth of jazz music is often accredited to African Americans, though it soon expanded to America's white middle class. Jazz, therefore, was characterized by a meshing of African American traditions and ideals with white middle class society. Cities like New York and Chicago were hotbeds for jazz, especially for black artists. African American jazz was played more frequently on urban radio stations than on its suburban counterparts. The youth of the 1920's was influenced by jazz to rebel against the traditional culture of previous generations. This youth rebellion went hand-in-hand with fads such as bold fashion statements (flappers) and new radio concerts. As jazz flourished, American elites, who preferred classical music and sought to expand its popularity, hoped that jazz wouldn't become mainstream.
As the 1920's wore on, jazz, despite competition from classical music, rose in popularity and helped to generate a cultural shift . Dances like the Charleston, developed by blacks, instantly became popular among younger demographics. With the introduction of large-scale radio broadcasts in 1922, Americans were able to experience different styles of music without physically visiting a jazz club. Through its broadcasts and concerts, the radio provided Americans with a trendy new avenue for essentially exploring the world from the comfort of their living room.
The most popular type of radio show was a "potter palm," an amateur concert and big-band jazz performance broadcast from cities like New York and Chicago. Due to the racial prejudice prevalent at most radio stations, white American jazz artists received much more air time than black jazz artists. Big-band jazz, like that of James Reese in Europe and Fletcher Henderson in New York, was also popular on the radio. This style represented African Americans in the predominantly white cultural scene.
As the 1920's wore on, jazz, despite competition from classical music, rose in popularity and helped to generate a cultural shift . Dances like the Charleston, developed by blacks, instantly became popular among younger demographics. With the introduction of large-scale radio broadcasts in 1922, Americans were able to experience different styles of music without physically visiting a jazz club. Through its broadcasts and concerts, the radio provided Americans with a trendy new avenue for essentially exploring the world from the comfort of their living room.
The most popular type of radio show was a "potter palm," an amateur concert and big-band jazz performance broadcast from cities like New York and Chicago. Due to the racial prejudice prevalent at most radio stations, white American jazz artists received much more air time than black jazz artists. Big-band jazz, like that of James Reese in Europe and Fletcher Henderson in New York, was also popular on the radio. This style represented African Americans in the predominantly white cultural scene.
1930-1960
Art & Architecture
The arts, like everything else in the 30's, were dominated by the Great Depression. In the 1930's this discipline was supported by government programs such as the Public Works of Art Project and later the Federal Art Project. The artists employed by these projects (over 5,000 at one period of time) chose themes based on American culture and history. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was able to complete his Mount Rushmore Memorial with funds supplied by the WPA. Other "starving artists" were able to survive the hard times by painting murals on the lobby walls of government buildings. There were some of these individuals who became artists of note, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
This decade saw the beginning of the American regionalist style with Grant Wood's famous work, "American Gothic". Artists that adopted this style include John Steuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O'Keeffe with her southwestern themes, and Edward Hopper with his realistic scenes from city life.
Many of the nation's most memorable skyscrapers (the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center) were completed in the early 30's. In 1937 the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece of home design, "Falling Water", was built. In 1932 the word "mobile" was coined to describe the kinetic sculpture created by Alexander Calder. In 1935 Andrew Mellon gave his $25 million dollar art collection to the American people and contributed $10 million to the construction of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Literature
Many of America's most distinguished writers produced works of fiction during the thirties. The list includes such names as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thornton Wilder Some of the novels of this period explored what was happening in the country during the Great Depression. John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath chronicled the life of a displaced Oklahoma family who had lost its farm to the drought of the Dust Bowl. James T. Farrell wrote a trilogy of novels about an Irish-American named Studs Lonigan and his attempt to rise above his poor beginnings. Richard Wright took on the issue of racial prejudice and the plight of blacks in Native Son. Erskine Caldwell's novel Tobacco Road described the life of poor whites in the rural South.
The arts, like everything else in the 30's, were dominated by the Great Depression. In the 1930's this discipline was supported by government programs such as the Public Works of Art Project and later the Federal Art Project. The artists employed by these projects (over 5,000 at one period of time) chose themes based on American culture and history. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was able to complete his Mount Rushmore Memorial with funds supplied by the WPA. Other "starving artists" were able to survive the hard times by painting murals on the lobby walls of government buildings. There were some of these individuals who became artists of note, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
This decade saw the beginning of the American regionalist style with Grant Wood's famous work, "American Gothic". Artists that adopted this style include John Steuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O'Keeffe with her southwestern themes, and Edward Hopper with his realistic scenes from city life.
Many of the nation's most memorable skyscrapers (the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center) were completed in the early 30's. In 1937 the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece of home design, "Falling Water", was built. In 1932 the word "mobile" was coined to describe the kinetic sculpture created by Alexander Calder. In 1935 Andrew Mellon gave his $25 million dollar art collection to the American people and contributed $10 million to the construction of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Literature
Many of America's most distinguished writers produced works of fiction during the thirties. The list includes such names as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thornton Wilder Some of the novels of this period explored what was happening in the country during the Great Depression. John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath chronicled the life of a displaced Oklahoma family who had lost its farm to the drought of the Dust Bowl. James T. Farrell wrote a trilogy of novels about an Irish-American named Studs Lonigan and his attempt to rise above his poor beginnings. Richard Wright took on the issue of racial prejudice and the plight of blacks in Native Son. Erskine Caldwell's novel Tobacco Road described the life of poor whites in the rural South.
Music & Entertainment
Like art, music reflected American enthusiasm tempered with European disillusionment. While the European emigres George Szell, Bela Bartok, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill, and Nadia Boulanger introduced classical dissonance, American born composers remained more traditional, with Aaron Copland's Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian Spring (1944). William Schuman wrote his symphonies #3(1941) through #7(1949).
At the beginning of the decade, Big Bands dominated popular music. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman led some of the more famous bands. Eventually, many of the singers with the Big Bands struck out on their own. Bing Crosby's smooth voice made him one of the most popular singers, vying with Frank Sinatra. Dinah Shore, Kate Smith and Perry Como also led the hit parade. Be-Bop and Rhythm and Blues, grew out of the big band era toward the end of the decade. Although these were distinctly black sounds, epitomized by Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Billy Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman also performed blues and jazz.
Radio was the lifeline for Americans in the 1940's, providing news, music and entertainment, much like television today. Programming included soap operas, quiz shows, children's hours, mystery stories, fine drama, and sports. Kate Smith and Arthur Godfrey were popular radio hosts. The government relied heavily on radio for propaganda. Like the movies, radio faded in popularity as television became prominent. Many of the most popular radio shows continued on in television, including Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Truth or Consequences.
In popular dancing, the Jitterbug made its appearance at the beginning of the decade. It was the first dance in two centuries that allowed individual expression. GI's took the dance overseas when they to war, dancing with local girls, barmaids, or even each other if necessary. Rosie the Riveter was the symbol of the working woman, as the men went off to war and the women were needed to work in the factories. GI's, however, preferred another symbol, the pin-up girl, such as Rita Hayworth or Betty Grable.
Like art, music reflected American enthusiasm tempered with European disillusionment. While the European emigres George Szell, Bela Bartok, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill, and Nadia Boulanger introduced classical dissonance, American born composers remained more traditional, with Aaron Copland's Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian Spring (1944). William Schuman wrote his symphonies #3(1941) through #7(1949).
At the beginning of the decade, Big Bands dominated popular music. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman led some of the more famous bands. Eventually, many of the singers with the Big Bands struck out on their own. Bing Crosby's smooth voice made him one of the most popular singers, vying with Frank Sinatra. Dinah Shore, Kate Smith and Perry Como also led the hit parade. Be-Bop and Rhythm and Blues, grew out of the big band era toward the end of the decade. Although these were distinctly black sounds, epitomized by Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Billy Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman also performed blues and jazz.
Radio was the lifeline for Americans in the 1940's, providing news, music and entertainment, much like television today. Programming included soap operas, quiz shows, children's hours, mystery stories, fine drama, and sports. Kate Smith and Arthur Godfrey were popular radio hosts. The government relied heavily on radio for propaganda. Like the movies, radio faded in popularity as television became prominent. Many of the most popular radio shows continued on in television, including Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Truth or Consequences.
In popular dancing, the Jitterbug made its appearance at the beginning of the decade. It was the first dance in two centuries that allowed individual expression. GI's took the dance overseas when they to war, dancing with local girls, barmaids, or even each other if necessary. Rosie the Riveter was the symbol of the working woman, as the men went off to war and the women were needed to work in the factories. GI's, however, preferred another symbol, the pin-up girl, such as Rita Hayworth or Betty Grable.
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When the 1950s are mentioned, the first type of music to come to most people's minds is rock 'n roll. Developed from a blend of Southern blues and gospel music with an added strong back beat, this type of music was popular with teenagers who were trying to break out of the mainstream, conservative, American middle class mold. Popular artists such as Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis were promoted on radio by just as popular disc-jockeys (DJ's) like Alan Freed and the Big Bopper. The deaths of Lubbock singer Buddy Holly , Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper is still lamented by fans. The influence of these early rockers has been felt in popular music worldwide.
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1961-1980
Literature
Literature also reflected what was happening in the political arenas and social issues of America in the sixties. A book which described some of the turmoil of race relations as they affected people in America, Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a small southern town and social distinctions between races. Writing about race and gender, women of color like Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou and Margaret Walker Alexander helped create new insights on feminism as it developed in America. Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar), and Mary McCarthy (The Group) spoke of women in roles outside those of the happy wife and mother of the fifties. Women like Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique , and Gloria Steinem , led the way for many women. Disillusionment with the system was the theme of books like Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Marshall McLuhan, author of books on communications and the scope of the "global village," popularized his belief that mass communications were a driving force in the development of modern society in works like The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media. The Peter Principle, by Laurence Peter, came to epitomize incompetence. In 1963, Maurice Sendak published Where the Wild Things Are, about a boy named Max who must face some of his childhood fears. This controversial book with its illustrations, also by Sendak, won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 and has become a classic in children's literature.
Art & Architecture
Architecture in the sixties was undergoing a refinement of Modernism and a move to an even more streamlined contemporary look. Tall buildings or skyscrapers created a distinctly American structural type. Architects such as Philip Johnson, and John Burgee, of Johnson & Burgee (Kline Biological Tower), are some of the architects who designed office buildings which helped create a different look for the skylines of large cities. Architects used light and space, for example the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei, to create buildings which were adapted for the activities which took place in them. The influence of space and futuristic design was apparent in some public buildings like the NASA complex at Houston, Texas. Eero Saarinen created the Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri in 1965. Walter Gropius designed the Pan Am Building (now called the Met Life Building) in 1963 with Pietro Belluschi and Emery Rothe & Sons. Louis I. Kahn in his Kimbell Art Museum of Ft. Worth and other buildings brought a feeling of austerity to American architecture. Robert Venturi wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966 and called for a change in the reductive simplicity of Modernism, beginning a protest in the late 60's. Perhaps one of the most well known and influential architects whose career began to rise in the sixties is I. M. Pei. Peter Eisenman and Frank O. Gehry are architects who have become world famous for their distinctive designs and who began making names for themselves during this time. Designers like Herman Miller left their mark on furnishings. Sleek contemporary styles like those by Verner Panton have translated well into future decades of furniture.
As in the fifties, art in America of the sixties was influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future which the space age seemed to forecast. Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and sculpture) or Helen Frankenthaler (non-representational art) showed a desire to escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own way. A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol, a leading name in pop art. Other forms evolving during this time were assemblage art, op art (or optical art) (ex. Vasarely), or kinetic abstraction (ex. Marcel Duchamp ), environmental art (ex. Robert Smithson), and pop art, (ex. David Hockney).
Music
In 1960, Elvis returned to the music scene from the US Army, joining the other white male vocalists at the top of the charts; Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, = Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Del Shannon and Frankie Avalon. America, however, was ready for a change. The Tamla Motown Record Company came on the scene, specializing in black rhythm and blues, aided in the emergence of female groups such as Gladys Knight and the Pips, Martha and the Vandellas, the Supremes, and Aretha Franklin, as well as some black men, including Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations. Bob Dylan helped bring about a folk music revival, along with Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary. The Beach Boys began recording music that appealed to high schoolers. The Beatles, from England, burst into popularity with innovative rock music that appealed to all ages. The Righteous Brothers were a popular white duo who used African American styling to create a distinctive sound.
There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960's, caused in part by the drug scene. Acid Rock, highly amplified and improvisational, and the more mellow psychedelic rock gained prominence. When the Beatles turned to acid rock, their audience narrowed to the young. Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead grew out of the counterculture in 1967. The musical phenomena of the decade was Woodstock, a three day music festival that drew 400,000 hippies and featured peace, love, and happiness...and LSD. Folk music contributed to the counterculture.
The modular synthesizer (aka moog synthesizer), developed in 1960 by Robert Moog and Donald Buchla, marked a major change in serious music. Innovative composers were already experimenting with electro-acoustic music. Now they were able to go further with John Cage's 0'0 (Zero Silence) to be performed by anyone in anyway; Morton Subotnik's Silver Apples of the Moon; Robert Ashley's Wolfman. In 1967, Alvin Lucier, one of the co-founders of the Sonic Arts Union, created "Music for a Solo Performer," in which electrodes were attached to the performer's scalp. His alpha waves, controlled by his concentration, resonated from loudspeakers, accompanied by occasional percussion. Computers were used in music composition and sound synthesis, notably Max Mathews' Music IV and Music V. By the end of the decade, popular music was also using synthesizers and other electronic devices.
Literature also reflected what was happening in the political arenas and social issues of America in the sixties. A book which described some of the turmoil of race relations as they affected people in America, Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a small southern town and social distinctions between races. Writing about race and gender, women of color like Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou and Margaret Walker Alexander helped create new insights on feminism as it developed in America. Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar), and Mary McCarthy (The Group) spoke of women in roles outside those of the happy wife and mother of the fifties. Women like Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique , and Gloria Steinem , led the way for many women. Disillusionment with the system was the theme of books like Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Marshall McLuhan, author of books on communications and the scope of the "global village," popularized his belief that mass communications were a driving force in the development of modern society in works like The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media. The Peter Principle, by Laurence Peter, came to epitomize incompetence. In 1963, Maurice Sendak published Where the Wild Things Are, about a boy named Max who must face some of his childhood fears. This controversial book with its illustrations, also by Sendak, won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 and has become a classic in children's literature.
Art & Architecture
Architecture in the sixties was undergoing a refinement of Modernism and a move to an even more streamlined contemporary look. Tall buildings or skyscrapers created a distinctly American structural type. Architects such as Philip Johnson, and John Burgee, of Johnson & Burgee (Kline Biological Tower), are some of the architects who designed office buildings which helped create a different look for the skylines of large cities. Architects used light and space, for example the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei, to create buildings which were adapted for the activities which took place in them. The influence of space and futuristic design was apparent in some public buildings like the NASA complex at Houston, Texas. Eero Saarinen created the Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri in 1965. Walter Gropius designed the Pan Am Building (now called the Met Life Building) in 1963 with Pietro Belluschi and Emery Rothe & Sons. Louis I. Kahn in his Kimbell Art Museum of Ft. Worth and other buildings brought a feeling of austerity to American architecture. Robert Venturi wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966 and called for a change in the reductive simplicity of Modernism, beginning a protest in the late 60's. Perhaps one of the most well known and influential architects whose career began to rise in the sixties is I. M. Pei. Peter Eisenman and Frank O. Gehry are architects who have become world famous for their distinctive designs and who began making names for themselves during this time. Designers like Herman Miller left their mark on furnishings. Sleek contemporary styles like those by Verner Panton have translated well into future decades of furniture.
As in the fifties, art in America of the sixties was influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future which the space age seemed to forecast. Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and sculpture) or Helen Frankenthaler (non-representational art) showed a desire to escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own way. A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol, a leading name in pop art. Other forms evolving during this time were assemblage art, op art (or optical art) (ex. Vasarely), or kinetic abstraction (ex. Marcel Duchamp ), environmental art (ex. Robert Smithson), and pop art, (ex. David Hockney).
Music
In 1960, Elvis returned to the music scene from the US Army, joining the other white male vocalists at the top of the charts; Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, = Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Del Shannon and Frankie Avalon. America, however, was ready for a change. The Tamla Motown Record Company came on the scene, specializing in black rhythm and blues, aided in the emergence of female groups such as Gladys Knight and the Pips, Martha and the Vandellas, the Supremes, and Aretha Franklin, as well as some black men, including Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations. Bob Dylan helped bring about a folk music revival, along with Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary. The Beach Boys began recording music that appealed to high schoolers. The Beatles, from England, burst into popularity with innovative rock music that appealed to all ages. The Righteous Brothers were a popular white duo who used African American styling to create a distinctive sound.
There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960's, caused in part by the drug scene. Acid Rock, highly amplified and improvisational, and the more mellow psychedelic rock gained prominence. When the Beatles turned to acid rock, their audience narrowed to the young. Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead grew out of the counterculture in 1967. The musical phenomena of the decade was Woodstock, a three day music festival that drew 400,000 hippies and featured peace, love, and happiness...and LSD. Folk music contributed to the counterculture.
The modular synthesizer (aka moog synthesizer), developed in 1960 by Robert Moog and Donald Buchla, marked a major change in serious music. Innovative composers were already experimenting with electro-acoustic music. Now they were able to go further with John Cage's 0'0 (Zero Silence) to be performed by anyone in anyway; Morton Subotnik's Silver Apples of the Moon; Robert Ashley's Wolfman. In 1967, Alvin Lucier, one of the co-founders of the Sonic Arts Union, created "Music for a Solo Performer," in which electrodes were attached to the performer's scalp. His alpha waves, controlled by his concentration, resonated from loudspeakers, accompanied by occasional percussion. Computers were used in music composition and sound synthesis, notably Max Mathews' Music IV and Music V. By the end of the decade, popular music was also using synthesizers and other electronic devices.
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By the 1970's, the term "rock & roll" had become nearly meaningless. This decade saw the breakup of the Beatles and the death of Elvis Presley, robbing rock of two major influences. Pop music splintered into a multitude of styles: soft rock, hard rock, country rock, folk rock, punk rock, shock rock - and the dance craze of the decade, disco! But whatever sub-genre(s) you preferred, rock music was big business.
Among the top names in popular music were Aerosmith, the Bee Gees, David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Alice Cooper, Eagles, Electric Light Orchestra, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart,Three Dog Night, and The Who. "Easy listening" regained popularity with groups such as the Carpenters, and Bob Marley gained a huge core of fans in the U.S. performing Jamaican reggae music. Even though Michael Jackson was only 12 years old in 1970, his career as a solo performer skyrocketed during this decade.
Among the top names in popular music were Aerosmith, the Bee Gees, David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Alice Cooper, Eagles, Electric Light Orchestra, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart,Three Dog Night, and The Who. "Easy listening" regained popularity with groups such as the Carpenters, and Bob Marley gained a huge core of fans in the U.S. performing Jamaican reggae music. Even though Michael Jackson was only 12 years old in 1970, his career as a solo performer skyrocketed during this decade.
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Film & Television
The Seventies was the decade of the big comeback for the movies. After years of box office erosion caused by the popularity of television, a combination of blockbuster movies and new technologies such as Panavision and Dolby sound brought the masses back to the movies. The sci-fi adventure and spectacular special effects of George Lucas's Star Wars made it one of the highest grossing films ever. Other memorable movies were the disaster movies, Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Poseidon Adventure, and Airport. Sylvester Stallone's Rocky reaffirmed the American dream and gave people a hero with a "little guy comes out on top" plot.
The Godfather, based on the book by by Mario Puzo, spawned multiple sequels. There also was the terror of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, the chilling Exorcist, and the moving Kramer vs. Kramer. There was a definite public yearning for simpler, more innocent times as evidenced by the popularity of the movies, American Graffiti and Grease, both of which presented a romanticized view of the Fifties. Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta fueled the "disco fever" already sweeping the music and dance club scenes; and the nation's experience in the Vietnam War and its aftermath influenced the themes of several movies, including Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, and Apocalypse Now.
Television came of age in the Seventies as topics once considered taboo were broached on the airwaves for the first time. Leading the way was the humorous social satire of All in the Family, which had plots on many controversial issues such as abortion, race, and homosexuality. Saturday Night Live also satirized topics and people once thought of as off limits for such treatment, such as sex and religion. Nothing was considered sacred. Television satellite news broadcasts from the frontlines of the conflict in Vietnam continued to bring the horrors of war into the homes of millions of Americans and intensified anti-war sentiment in the country.
The immensely popular TV miniseries Roots fostered an interest in genealogy, a greater appreciation of whites for the plight of blacks, and an increased interest in African American history. Happy Days, which followed the lives of a group of fifties-era teenagers, was TV's primary nod to nostalgia, while The Brady Bunch comically presented the contemporary family. The relatively new publicly funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting gained viewers and stature with such fare as Sesame Street for children, and live broadcasts of the Senate Watergate hearings.
The Seventies was the decade of the big comeback for the movies. After years of box office erosion caused by the popularity of television, a combination of blockbuster movies and new technologies such as Panavision and Dolby sound brought the masses back to the movies. The sci-fi adventure and spectacular special effects of George Lucas's Star Wars made it one of the highest grossing films ever. Other memorable movies were the disaster movies, Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Poseidon Adventure, and Airport. Sylvester Stallone's Rocky reaffirmed the American dream and gave people a hero with a "little guy comes out on top" plot.
The Godfather, based on the book by by Mario Puzo, spawned multiple sequels. There also was the terror of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, the chilling Exorcist, and the moving Kramer vs. Kramer. There was a definite public yearning for simpler, more innocent times as evidenced by the popularity of the movies, American Graffiti and Grease, both of which presented a romanticized view of the Fifties. Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta fueled the "disco fever" already sweeping the music and dance club scenes; and the nation's experience in the Vietnam War and its aftermath influenced the themes of several movies, including Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, and Apocalypse Now.
Television came of age in the Seventies as topics once considered taboo were broached on the airwaves for the first time. Leading the way was the humorous social satire of All in the Family, which had plots on many controversial issues such as abortion, race, and homosexuality. Saturday Night Live also satirized topics and people once thought of as off limits for such treatment, such as sex and religion. Nothing was considered sacred. Television satellite news broadcasts from the frontlines of the conflict in Vietnam continued to bring the horrors of war into the homes of millions of Americans and intensified anti-war sentiment in the country.
The immensely popular TV miniseries Roots fostered an interest in genealogy, a greater appreciation of whites for the plight of blacks, and an increased interest in African American history. Happy Days, which followed the lives of a group of fifties-era teenagers, was TV's primary nod to nostalgia, while The Brady Bunch comically presented the contemporary family. The relatively new publicly funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting gained viewers and stature with such fare as Sesame Street for children, and live broadcasts of the Senate Watergate hearings.
1981-2000
Art & Architecture
Eighties was a huge decade for art, art museums, and artists. Artists included mostly moderns i.e, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Andy Warhol did a few ads. Artists were trying new arenas and pushing the envelop. During the decade, huge numbers of people protested the Mapplethorpe exhibit at the Corcoran then at the Wadsworth Atheneum. Veterans protested a Chicago Art Institute exhibit that had the flag draped on the floor, Richard Serra's Tilted Arc was removed from NYC's Federal plaza, and Andrew Wyeth's Helga pictures were refused by some museums but in 1987, the Helga paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, the gallery's first exhibition of works by a living artist.
Auctions of famous art works brought record prices. Early in the decade Picasso's 'Yo' brought 5.4 million. By 1987, Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' brought $39.9 million while 'Irises" brought $53.9 million dollars! The Museum of Modern Art reopened twice as large as before, Joseph Hirshhorn left his works to the Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian), and places like San Antonio built multi-million dollar museums. In March, 1990, in a nighttime art theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, thieves made off with 12 works of art, including paintings by Degas, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Vermeer, valued at $100,000,000 (now estimated $300,000,000). Never recovered.
A few famous architectural feats of the 80s were the Menil Collection in Houston by Renzo Piano, Trump Tower, High Museum in Atlanta, Union Station in Washington, and Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersberg. I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, and Richard Meier were among the most renowned architects of the period.
Eighties was a huge decade for art, art museums, and artists. Artists included mostly moderns i.e, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Andy Warhol did a few ads. Artists were trying new arenas and pushing the envelop. During the decade, huge numbers of people protested the Mapplethorpe exhibit at the Corcoran then at the Wadsworth Atheneum. Veterans protested a Chicago Art Institute exhibit that had the flag draped on the floor, Richard Serra's Tilted Arc was removed from NYC's Federal plaza, and Andrew Wyeth's Helga pictures were refused by some museums but in 1987, the Helga paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, the gallery's first exhibition of works by a living artist.
Auctions of famous art works brought record prices. Early in the decade Picasso's 'Yo' brought 5.4 million. By 1987, Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' brought $39.9 million while 'Irises" brought $53.9 million dollars! The Museum of Modern Art reopened twice as large as before, Joseph Hirshhorn left his works to the Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian), and places like San Antonio built multi-million dollar museums. In March, 1990, in a nighttime art theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, thieves made off with 12 works of art, including paintings by Degas, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Vermeer, valued at $100,000,000 (now estimated $300,000,000). Never recovered.
A few famous architectural feats of the 80s were the Menil Collection in Houston by Renzo Piano, Trump Tower, High Museum in Atlanta, Union Station in Washington, and Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersberg. I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, and Richard Meier were among the most renowned architects of the period.
Music & Media
Cable was born and MTV, orginally intended to be promos for albums, had an enormous impact on music and young people. The digital compact disc (cd) revolutionized the music industry. Dances learned on MTV included slam dancing, lambada, and break dancing. Harlem's gay, black, and Latino males imitated the beautiful jet set with their (then underground) Vogueing, a 'pose' dance popularized by Madonna incorporating the struts and stances of high fashion models.
Pop, rock, new wave, punk, country, and especially rap or hip hop became popular in the 80s. Rap had started at block parties in New York City with a DC remixing the music and an MC calling out complex rhymes. It was a lighthearted style but as the decade wore on, it became more abrasive and laced with hostility. Early important groups are Milli Vanilli, M. C. Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Queen Latifah and L.L. Cool J. Michael Jackson's album Thriller became the best selling album of all time. Here are a very few favorites from the top hits of the decade:
Cable was born and MTV, orginally intended to be promos for albums, had an enormous impact on music and young people. The digital compact disc (cd) revolutionized the music industry. Dances learned on MTV included slam dancing, lambada, and break dancing. Harlem's gay, black, and Latino males imitated the beautiful jet set with their (then underground) Vogueing, a 'pose' dance popularized by Madonna incorporating the struts and stances of high fashion models.
Pop, rock, new wave, punk, country, and especially rap or hip hop became popular in the 80s. Rap had started at block parties in New York City with a DC remixing the music and an MC calling out complex rhymes. It was a lighthearted style but as the decade wore on, it became more abrasive and laced with hostility. Early important groups are Milli Vanilli, M. C. Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Queen Latifah and L.L. Cool J. Michael Jackson's album Thriller became the best selling album of all time. Here are a very few favorites from the top hits of the decade:
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Film & Television
In 1981, VCR sales rose 72% in 12 months. By 1989, 60 percent of American households with televisions received cable service. Huge or memorable movies of the decade included On Golden Pond, Tootsie, Arthur, Stephen Spielberg Movies like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, The Big Chill, Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Out of Africa, Back to the Future, Cocoon, The Breakfast Club, Platoon, Star Trek, Good Morning Vietnam, Fatal Attraction, Rain Man, and Driving Miss Daisy.
Broadway revivals were important during the 80s. Revival musicals like West Side Story, The Music Man, Anything Goes, Me and My Gal, Brigadoon, Grand Hotel, Gypsy, and The King and I all did well at the box office. Sell-out musicals were ahead for La Cage aux Folles, Sunday in the Park with George, Andrew Lloyd Webber's mega hits Cats, Starlight Express, Les Miserables, and The Phantom of the Opera. Dramas included M. Butterfly, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and Walk in the Woods. In 1980, the American Ballet Theater turned 40 and Mikhail Baryshnikov became director.
TV innovations and trends included anti-family sitcoms like Roseanne and Married...with Children; tabloid tv with Geraldo, Phil, Sally, and Oprah; stand-up comics included Gary Shandling, Jane Curtin, George Carlin, Jackie Mason, Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, and Tracy Ullman; info-tainment included Nightline with Ted Koppel, CNN Cable News, and 20/20 with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. 60 Minutes which had first aired in 1968 was bigger than ever. It was a media decade with superstars. The decade of the sitcom, here is a list of the top ten TV shows of 1989.
Best Sellers of the Period
Reading entire books online became available through such sites as Project Gutenberg. Audio books became the rage. Taking a trip? Listen to a book in the car. The biggest trend in book selling during the 1990s included online bookstores and publishers like amazon.com Mega-bookstores like Borders or Barnes and Noble drove the small specialized bookstores out of business. The price of books sky-rocketed and half-priced books (used books) became popular. Specialty book stores (Mysteries, Science Fiction, etc.) featured specialists, unique collections, and author visits. Oprah Winfrey's picks encouraged a new readership and culminated in Oprah's Book Club.
Big money authors rushed to the web with reviews, bios, etc. and included Sue Grafton, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton. Other best selling authors include Tony Morrison, Amy Tan, Sara Paretsky, Tony Hillerman, Danielle Steele, and Tom Clancy. Top selling books included The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Memoirs of a Geisha by Authur S. Golden, and Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. Non-fiction self help books continued to sell (Chicken Soup for the Soul).
In 1981, VCR sales rose 72% in 12 months. By 1989, 60 percent of American households with televisions received cable service. Huge or memorable movies of the decade included On Golden Pond, Tootsie, Arthur, Stephen Spielberg Movies like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, The Big Chill, Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Out of Africa, Back to the Future, Cocoon, The Breakfast Club, Platoon, Star Trek, Good Morning Vietnam, Fatal Attraction, Rain Man, and Driving Miss Daisy.
Broadway revivals were important during the 80s. Revival musicals like West Side Story, The Music Man, Anything Goes, Me and My Gal, Brigadoon, Grand Hotel, Gypsy, and The King and I all did well at the box office. Sell-out musicals were ahead for La Cage aux Folles, Sunday in the Park with George, Andrew Lloyd Webber's mega hits Cats, Starlight Express, Les Miserables, and The Phantom of the Opera. Dramas included M. Butterfly, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and Walk in the Woods. In 1980, the American Ballet Theater turned 40 and Mikhail Baryshnikov became director.
TV innovations and trends included anti-family sitcoms like Roseanne and Married...with Children; tabloid tv with Geraldo, Phil, Sally, and Oprah; stand-up comics included Gary Shandling, Jane Curtin, George Carlin, Jackie Mason, Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, and Tracy Ullman; info-tainment included Nightline with Ted Koppel, CNN Cable News, and 20/20 with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. 60 Minutes which had first aired in 1968 was bigger than ever. It was a media decade with superstars. The decade of the sitcom, here is a list of the top ten TV shows of 1989.
- The Cosby Show
- Golden Girls
- Cheers
- The Wonder Years
- Roseanne
- Empty Nest
- A Different World
- 60 Minutes
- America's Funniest Home Videos
- Unsolved Mysteries
Best Sellers of the Period
Reading entire books online became available through such sites as Project Gutenberg. Audio books became the rage. Taking a trip? Listen to a book in the car. The biggest trend in book selling during the 1990s included online bookstores and publishers like amazon.com Mega-bookstores like Borders or Barnes and Noble drove the small specialized bookstores out of business. The price of books sky-rocketed and half-priced books (used books) became popular. Specialty book stores (Mysteries, Science Fiction, etc.) featured specialists, unique collections, and author visits. Oprah Winfrey's picks encouraged a new readership and culminated in Oprah's Book Club.
Big money authors rushed to the web with reviews, bios, etc. and included Sue Grafton, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton. Other best selling authors include Tony Morrison, Amy Tan, Sara Paretsky, Tony Hillerman, Danielle Steele, and Tom Clancy. Top selling books included The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Memoirs of a Geisha by Authur S. Golden, and Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. Non-fiction self help books continued to sell (Chicken Soup for the Soul).
2001-2014
Film
Television
One of the biggest fads of the early 2000s, if not the entire decade, was a television phenomenon called Reality TV. A large amount of Reality shows spawned in the early 2000s such as Survivor, Fear Factor, and many reality dating shows leading to a Reality TV boom during this time period. In 2002, a new style of reality shows based on talent searches became popular such as American Idol and would become a dominant form of reality TV throughout the 2000s decade. Dr.Phil also gained in popularity as a successful spin-off series from Oprah.
Japanese anime, a popular subcategory of animated shows, continued to gain in popularity among teens and preteens. Dragonball Z, Hamtaro, Cardcaptors, Zoids, and Beyblade all were popular anime among children and were some of the most popular shows on Toonami, a television block program that was featured on Cartoon Network. These shows released lots of merchandise including action figures, card games, and launching video game franchises. Beyblade was popular with spawning its spinning tops in 2002 as a fad. Pokémon, the popular 1990s card game and television series was still emencely popular in the early-2000s even though its rival series Yu-Gi-Oh took some of its teen market. Yu-Gi-Oh also had a popular card game.
Children's programming included hit shows that revolved around common issues of the family such as friendship, adolescence, and the "play vs. work" ideology in kids. The Disney Channel started to begin airing more live action shows such as Lizzie McGuire that grew Hilary Duff's popularity to become the status of "Preteen Queen". Nickelodeon after the success of the Spongebob Squarepants series continued by airing yet more hit shows including Jimmy Neutron and the Fairly Oddparents. Nickelodeon also tried to gain an interest from teenagers by launching its TEENick block eventually replacing SNICK. Invader Zim, while a canceled series, gained a cult following amongst the Hot Topic crowd. Ed, Edd, and Eddy and its related merchandise was a popular cartoon during the early 2000s.
Adult Cartoons, while only a handful existed in the 1990s (such as The Simpsons and South Park) expanded to become a full blown trend in animation in the early 2000s. Cartoon Network aired its Adult Swim nighttime block exclusively for adult cartoons. The block became so popular that it revivied Family Guy in 2005 and also Futurama in 2008.
Popular crime investigation shows were a dominant force on television early in the 2000s like CSI:Crime Scene Investigation, and action-drama's like Alias, and 24 were popular as well.
Music
Popular artists of the era:
- Scary Movies (2000 - present)
- The Lord of the Rings and related merchandise (2001 – 2004) (the books have actually existed since the 1950s)
- Import Scene, grew tremendously, partly due to The Fast and the Furious movie (2001 – 2005)
- Marvel Comic Book films
- film adaptations of Harry Potter
Television
One of the biggest fads of the early 2000s, if not the entire decade, was a television phenomenon called Reality TV. A large amount of Reality shows spawned in the early 2000s such as Survivor, Fear Factor, and many reality dating shows leading to a Reality TV boom during this time period. In 2002, a new style of reality shows based on talent searches became popular such as American Idol and would become a dominant form of reality TV throughout the 2000s decade. Dr.Phil also gained in popularity as a successful spin-off series from Oprah.
Japanese anime, a popular subcategory of animated shows, continued to gain in popularity among teens and preteens. Dragonball Z, Hamtaro, Cardcaptors, Zoids, and Beyblade all were popular anime among children and were some of the most popular shows on Toonami, a television block program that was featured on Cartoon Network. These shows released lots of merchandise including action figures, card games, and launching video game franchises. Beyblade was popular with spawning its spinning tops in 2002 as a fad. Pokémon, the popular 1990s card game and television series was still emencely popular in the early-2000s even though its rival series Yu-Gi-Oh took some of its teen market. Yu-Gi-Oh also had a popular card game.
Children's programming included hit shows that revolved around common issues of the family such as friendship, adolescence, and the "play vs. work" ideology in kids. The Disney Channel started to begin airing more live action shows such as Lizzie McGuire that grew Hilary Duff's popularity to become the status of "Preteen Queen". Nickelodeon after the success of the Spongebob Squarepants series continued by airing yet more hit shows including Jimmy Neutron and the Fairly Oddparents. Nickelodeon also tried to gain an interest from teenagers by launching its TEENick block eventually replacing SNICK. Invader Zim, while a canceled series, gained a cult following amongst the Hot Topic crowd. Ed, Edd, and Eddy and its related merchandise was a popular cartoon during the early 2000s.
Adult Cartoons, while only a handful existed in the 1990s (such as The Simpsons and South Park) expanded to become a full blown trend in animation in the early 2000s. Cartoon Network aired its Adult Swim nighttime block exclusively for adult cartoons. The block became so popular that it revivied Family Guy in 2005 and also Futurama in 2008.
Popular crime investigation shows were a dominant force on television early in the 2000s like CSI:Crime Scene Investigation, and action-drama's like Alias, and 24 were popular as well.
Music
Popular artists of the era:
- Eminem
- Usher
- Nelly
- Beyonce
- Alicia Keys
- 50 Cent
- Nickelback
- Britney Spears
- Destiny's Child
- Jay-Z
- Mariah Carey
- The Black Eyed Peas
- Pink
- Kelly Clarkson
- Kanye West
- Ludacris
- Rihanna
- Timbaland
- Linkin Park
- Christina Aguilera
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