1990s Movies

There is a big difference between the movies of the 1960s and the movies of the 1990s. One of the differences is the use of CGI. CGI did not exist in the 1960s. But, the new technology improved the production of movies and allowed for directors to fully get their vision across on screen. Both movies we watched in class, Titanic and Forrest Gump, make use of CGI in some way. Titanic uses it to recreate most of the exterior of the ship, and some of the inside as well. It allowed the ship to appear much grander than the set that was built. Forrest Gump also uses CGI technology. The film makers were able to remove Lieutenant Dan's legs, even though the actor who portrays him has legs. The movies of the 1960s would never be able to show many of the scenes in both of these movies simply because the technology was not available at the time. Another difference is the production value of the movies. Titanic and Forrest Gump were both big budget movies. The film makers spent a lot of money making the movies. In the 1960s, the budgets for movies was much smaller. Movies did not spend nearly as much to be made. I think CGI is something that is much better about the movies of the 1990s compared to 60s movies. It allows movies to create something that otherwise would not exist. On the other hand, the movies of the 60s represent a much simpler time in film making. Everything that was in the movie had to be filmed. There could be nothing digital added later. Because of that, the movies of the 60s are definitely simpler. The movies are also more natural because nothing digital could be added later and the movies had to be filmed in their entirety with all the pieces in place beforehand. I liked the movies of the 90s better than the older movies. In today's world, the 1960s movies seem extremely outdated. Even the1990s movies are becoming outdated because the technology has improved so much, but those movies are closer to a movie that would be released today.

1990s TV

The TV of the 1990s definitely changes from previous decades and is connected to the events of the decade. The sitcoms we watched in class have dirtier jokes than seen in previous decades. In the episode of Seinfeld, one of the plots of the episode revolves around Jerry swearing in front of a child. The word is bleeped out, but it is still clear to the audience which word was said. This language would not have been allowed previously, especially in a show from the 1960s or 1970s, which were all more family oriented shows. Seinfeld and Friends are both about a group of single friends living in the city. Sitcoms of previous decades were more focused on the entire family. This change definitely reflects the cultural changes of the decade. Young people especially are more willing to watch TV that includes sexual content. Also, the subject matter of President Clinton's impeachment made Americans more open to sexual content on TV. The Simpsons included lots of pop culture references throughout the episode, which was interesting to watch. Law and Order was one of the main crime shows of the decade. It is the first series to show both the investigation of a crime and the court process. One thing I noticed about the show is that of the main characters, none of them are female. Both the team of cops and lawyers were all male. Most shows today include female characters, so it speaks to the nature of the television industry that still in the 90s there are shows without female characters.

Bill Clinton

I don't think Bill Clinton should have been impeached. He was not guilty of a crime. I also don't think he should have been found guilty. He technically did not commit a crime or lie under oath. His affair with Monica Lewinsky was not against the law. America seemed to be more open to sexual jokes on TV because of the nature of Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky. The event definitely had an impact on America.

1990s Music 2

I really like the music of the 1990s. One of my favorite bands is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I was glad to see two of their songs on the playlist. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is another of my favorites, and almost single-handedly made grunge popular. The varying genres of music appealed to every type of American. No matter who a person was, they could find a genre that they liked. Americans definitely seemed to like variety in the 90s, which still seems true today. Songs by Tim McGraw appealed to the country fans, and Vanilla Ice showed that white guys could be hip hop superstars. This variety is reflective of the different tastes of the American people.

1990s Music 1

The music changed a lot from the 1960s to the 1990s. The music of the 1960s was mostly happy and upbeat. There were few sexual references used in the music and it was all pretty clean. The music of the 1990s is more provocative and explicit than the 1960s music. Rap is also a popular genre of the 90s, and it did not exist in the 60s. America is much more comfortable with the sexual content in the music by the time the 90s roll around. This type of content in the 60s would have been frowned upon and thought of extremely scandalous. Songs like "I'm too Sexy" and "You Oughta Know" would never have been hits in the 1960s. People in the 1960s seemed more conservative than the Americans of the 90s.

1990s Overview

For the 1990s, I'd like to look at Columbine, the OJ trial, and the Oklahoma City bombing.

1980s Movies

I enjoyed all three of the movies we watched in class. The first movie we watched was The Breakfast Club. This movie paved the way for all movies about teenagers from this point on. It finally portrayed teenagers as real people, unlike movies in the past. It was well received at the time because of this new portrayal of teenagers. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is also a movie about teenagers. This movie portrayed any high school student's ideal day off. In a way, every student wants to be like Ferris Bueller, even though he is not the best role model. Finally, we watched the Vietnam War movie Platoon. Platoon gave a different interpretation of the Vietnam War. Apocalypse Now from the 1970s portrayed the Vietnam War as being fought by a bunch of kids who only cared about drugs and that did not want to be there. But, Platoon gives the impression that the kids fighting in the war were truly impacted by what they saw. This portrayal is controversial, but is brand new to the Vietnam War genre.

1980s TV

The shows we watched from the 1980s were pretty different from the shows that we watched from previous decades. The Cosby Show was fun to watch and I enjoyed it. The situation in the episode seemed realistic and I actually laughed at the jokes. Americans at the time were probably more open to seeing an all African-American family portrayed in a positive way on TV. Americans were becoming more open to this idea, and The Cosby Show played that out perfectly. Full House was the other sitcom we watched. I also enjoyed Full House, but I did not think it was as funny as The Cosby Show. The show addressed that the mother figure died, unlike in The Brady Bunch, which never addressed why both parents were remarried. People in the 80s were more open to overtly talking about a situation like that. We also watched an episode of Miami Vice. I did not really like this episode. I found it a little hard to follow and some of the stuff that happened seemed kind of random. I guess people of the 80s wanted to see cops shoot their guns and beat people up, which is different from the TV of the past. Finally, we watched The A-Team. I liked this show least of all. From the half hour we watched of it, I was not that impressed. I did not understand the plot fully and I still do not really know what the show is about, but Mr. T was cool.

80s Music 2

The music of the 1980s reflects the events of the decade. A song like Material Girl exemplifies the mentality of the people of the 80s. People spent a lot of money during this decade and were very interested in material things. The songs on the playlist by U2 both talk about deeper topics. Pride talks about pride for one's country, which is a big theme of the 80s, especially with the USA and the USSR and the threat of nuclear war. Sunday Bloody Sunday is of a past event that ended in fighting and blood. This speaks to what may happen if a country sets off a nuclear weapon. Songs such as Like a Virgin and Talk Dirty to Me are more sexually explicit than songs of previous decades, and builds off of the themes set in the 1970s disco era. People are just as open to hearing about and talking about sex as they were in the 70s

80s Music 1

There are some aspects of the music of the 1980s which is different from the music of the 1970s. The main thing I noticed is that the songs seem to have a much cleaner production, mostly in the rock genre. The rock of the 1970s, like punk, seemed more interested in making noise. The focus on punk was more on the sound and the instruments. But bands like Bon Jovi and Guns N' Roses focus more on the whole package of the song, from the lyrics to the instruments to the sound. I enjoyed both the rock and pop of this decade. A lot of the songs are timeless and I enjoyed listening to them. A lot of the songs touch upon subjects that are sung about today, like sex. The pop songs of the 80s were less explicit than the pop songs of today, though. Rock seems to be less popular today, so it is nice to listen to some of the classic rock of the 80s. I did not enjoy the country music on the playlist. This is more of a personal preference because country is my least favorite genre of music, even today's songs.

1980s Overview

I'd like to talk about Challenger, the assassination attempts, HIV, and Mount St. Helens.

1970s Movies

The movies we watched in class definitely seem to represent the 1970s in one way or another. Jaws is an all around great movie and one of my personal favorites. The movie reveals that people at the time wanted a little horror, but also wanted to be able to rally behind a hero. The main characters in the film are perfect characters to root for, and the mayor and the shark are the perfect characters to dislike. People at the time definitely wanted to be able to root for a hero, which is also seen in Star Wars. Star Wars creates Luke Skywalker is the ultimate underdog, which makes him a great character to rally behind. The theme of one powerful being trying to rule over an entire galaxy almost parallels Americans' fear of Communism. The Cold War and fear of the USSR was present in the minds of most, and the Vietnam War only served to trigger the fear of a Communist revolution all over the world. Finally, a movie like Apocalypse Now plays up the lingering impacts of Vietnam. This movie came out pretty quickly after the war ended. Vietnam was still fresh in the minds of Americans. The movie was received well, though, so the country must have liked the inside look the film provided, even if it did criticize the war.

1970s TV

Overall, I had mixed feelings about the TV shows we watched in class. I enjoyed The Brady Bunch, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and MASH, and the beginning of Hawaii Five-O. I did not like Little House on the Prairie or All in the Family. I liked The Brady Bunch because it depicts the idea of the perfect family. This is something that some shows today try to do, like The Middle and Modern Family, but the humor in The Brady Bunch is much more wholesome and the family is more willing to work as a team. With The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the women are portrayed as very strong characters. As a woman, and a self-labeled feminist, I appreciate this portrayal. Many Tyler Moore and Betty White are able to hold their own against the men on the show. MASH was also fun to watch. I liked the plot and that it was centered at a war camp in the 1950s. Most shows today do not take place in the middle of wars. The beginning of Hawaii Five-O was really intriguing. Finding out who the murderer is at the beginning of the episode was completely opposite of most shows today, but a welcome change. It made me interested in how the investigators were going to catch the killer. The Little House on the Prairie was too religion-oriented for me to fully enjoy it. The lessons were much too in your face, even more so than The Brady Bunch. I also did not like All in the Family. I found Archie Bunker to be far too obnoxious and offensive. The character I liked the best was Archie's wife, and even she was annoying. All these shows embody the 1970s in some way. The clothes and furniture in the shows scream 70s. The Brady Bunch's idea of the ideal family was carried over from some of the shows from the 1960s. All the characters get along most of the time and are able to resolve all their issues. It also depicted a blended family, though the blend is ideal because it is implied that both the parents were widowed. All in the Family was completely opposite. It talked about many topics that were almost considered taboo in the years before, like politics. The Mary Tyler Moore Show showed a progressive view of women, and MASH had sex, violence, and alcohol. The Little House on the Prairie still held on to the traditional views of religion, which many people were still very invested in. These shows were popular because each one had something that a particular group wanted to see. All in the Family played out ideas from the average middle class family, while The Brady Bunch portrayed the ideal family. MASH is funny and the characters are likable. Each of these shows had something for everyone, and many are still popular in syndication today.

1970s Overview

Some words to describe the pictures are pollution and carefree. A lot of the pictures seemed to depict the pollution happening around New York. There was an oil spill, illegal dumping, and parts of a car in the ocean. There also seemed to be many carefree kids. A lot of pictures showed kids playing in the streets. They were all smiling and laughing and seemed to be having a good time.

1970s Music: Differences to the 60s and Why It Was Popular

The music of the 70s is pretty different from the 60s music. Disco was something that didn't become popular until the 70s. This music was happy, much like some of the music in the early 60s. Also, Disco got people to dance, a lot like the popular music from the 60s. But, Disco music focused on sex, which is something that was never done with the happy music of the 60s. America was becoming more free in terms of sex, and Disco embodied the new ideas. The Rock music of the 70s was able to evolve past what started in the 60s. Southern rock began with groups like the Allman Brothers, and heavy metal formed with bands like Black Sabbath. The Beatles were the biggest Rock band of the 1960s (and possibly ever), but their sound was much more mellow on occasions, and happy in their early days. The Rock of the 70s had a completely different sound. Comparing Led Zeppelin to the early Beatles is almost like comparing Bruno Mars to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They can go well together for a few songs at the Super Bowl, but have completely different audiences and sounds. Punk created rebels in teenage boys, and no sound in the 1960s came close to the sound that the Punk bands made. New Wave and soft rock are both completely new to the decade, but both become popular in their own right. The popular music does connect to the decade. Minorities and women loved the happy sound of Disco because they were getting equal rights. Punk was popular to the rebellious teenage boys because they felt left out and ignored and needed to sing about their anger. The music I liked best Disco and some of the Rock. I like the happy sound of Disco. I really like the New Wave stuff because of the use of the synthesizer. Punk was my least favorite because a lot of the songs were really angry. But, I listened to The Ramones with my dad when I was a kid, so I'll always have a soft spot for them.

1970s Music Styles

There were tons of different styles of music during the 1970s. Disco and Punk were really popular for several years, and other genres were also able to become popular. With Disco, the songs were all happy. The BeeGees became very popular, and their song "Stayin' Alive" is still played on the radio today. Songs like this made people want to dance. The main focus in the music were the instruments, and most of the songs did not have deep meanings. Brass instruments were the main instruments used in Disco. Minorities and women were the main audience of Disco. With Punk, brass instruments were not used, and the guitar was one of the main focuses. White male teenagers were the main audience of Punk, and a lot of the music talked about rebelling and anarchy. "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols pretty much embodies the genre. The song talks about anarchy, and the lead singer's voice is not necessarily pleasing to the ear. The Punk bands never signed with record labels, unfortunately, and were never able to make money. The entire genre was spread through word of mouth. Another genre that became prevalent was New Wave. New Wave took the place of Punk. There was the same amount of rebellion in the bands' look, but the bands signed with record labels and were actually able to make money, which allowed this style to become popular and stay popular. Rock also expanded and began to include hard rock artists like Kiss in "Rock and Roll All Night". Lynyrd Skynyrd helped southern rock, and Led Zeppelin helped heavy metal. The sounds in songs like these are pretty much the same as today, though today's Rock does not appear to be as popular as the Rock of the 70s. The Singer/Songwriter genre also became popular, and artist like Carly Simon with "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" defined this genre.

1960s Movies

The movies we watched in class all represent the 1960s well. The emergence of the buddy movie with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid became extremely popular, and this type of movie is still popular today. People of the 1960s wanted to see a friendship like Butch and Sundance played out on the screen. The humor in The Pink Panther also represents the 1960s. The comedy was mostly slapstick, which seemed to be popular during this decade, but is less popular today. The audiences also seemed to like characters that were a little bad. Butch Cassidy and Sundance rob trains and banks, and Inspector Clouseau is convicted of a crime at the end of The Pink Panther. The audience did not necessarily want to see a happy ending to a movie and also seemed to enjoy bad things happening to the main characters.

1960s TV

The television shows from the 1960s is very different from the television today. The shows accurately represented the decade, I think. The show Gomar Pyle took place on a Marine Corps base. It was expected that the audience would be familiar with the Marines, as many young men were in the military during the 1960s. Much of the humor in Laugh-In was based around political and social events that were happening at the time. This is a lot like what Saturday Night Live does today. I didn't really like the shows we watched. The best was the Twilight Zone, but even that is not as scary or creepy as many of the shows that are on today, such as American Horror Story or other shows that try to thrill the audience. Sitcoms have stayed pretty much the same since the 1960s except for some of the humor. Shows now get away with dirtier jokes and language than the sitcoms we watched from the 60s. Also,  many sitcoms now no longer use a laugh track.

Music of the 60s

I mostly enjoyed the music of the 60s. I liked the variety and the different sounds of Rock. The music sounds very different from the music of today. There was much less technology in the recordings and the recordings sound less put together and more raw. The main instrument seems to be the guitar, especially toward the end of the decade. There were also a lot of brass instruments like trumpets during the beginning of the 60s.

Are the Beatles a Boy Band?

The Beatles were the world's first boy band. They reached a stage of immense popularity that has not existed since. Much like the boy bands of today, their fans were rabid. Many would go to any length to meet or touch a Beatle. The Beatles paved the way for modern day boy bands. Without them, New Kids on the Block, the Backstreet Boys, and One Direction would not exist. The world did not know that there was a market for boy bands until the Beatles came along.

Overview of the 1960's

One thing I'd love to learn about are the assassinations that happened in the 60s. Each of those seemed to provide a major turning point in society. I noticed that there was only one slide on the moon landing in the slideshow, and that sort of stuff has always interested me, along with the Apollo missions. The Vietnam War and its impact on the economy is also interesting.

Pop Culture

Pop culture is the stuff in society that people find popular. This stuff could be anything from music and movies to Internet sensations. Pop culture is present in nearly every facet of life. It exists every time a person opens a newspaper (if anyone does that anymore...), turns on the TV, or even talks to their coworkers. Without pop culture, life would be way more boring. Without pop culture, "did you see the game last night?" and "how about Lindsay Lohan?" don't exist. Without pop culture, humans would walk around all day talking about the weather and how much they're dreading their mother-in-law's visit this coming weekend. And, without pop culture, there would be no distraction from those things. Basically, pop culture has become so ingrained in our society that Americans would quite literally cease function without it.

Pop Culture: Reflecting America or Shaping It?

Pop culture reflects current events happening in our society. Pop culture is the main way we entertain ourselves. The things that become popular are only popular because mass amounts of people like them. Through the decades, fads have come and gone, celebrities have faltered, and genres of music and movies have been built up and torn down. The people will entertain themselves with what they want, and always find new ways to do it. Pop culture reflects what is happening in society because people need both distractions from bad things that are happening, and reminders that the good things are there.