Back to the Fifties

Nostalgia, Hollywood Film, and Popular Music of the Seventies and Eighties

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by Michael D. Dwyer

Type

Studies

Subject

Technique > Music

Keywords

music, 1970s, 1980s

Publishing date

2015

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Collection

Oxford Music / Media

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 240 pages
6 x 9 inches (15.5 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-0-19-935684-3

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Book Presentation:
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Hollywood studios and record companies churned out films, albums, music videos and promotional materials that sought to recapture, revise, and re-imagine the 1950s.

Breaking from dominant wisdom that casts the trend as wholly defined by Ronald Reagan's politics or the rise of postmodernism, Back to the Fifties reveals how Fifties nostalgia from 1973 to 1988 was utilized by a range of audiences for diverse and often competing agendas. Films from American Graffiti to Hairspray and popular music from Sha Na Na to Michael Jackson shaped - and were shaped by - the complex social, political and cultural conditions of the Reagan Era. By closely examining the ways that "the Fifties" was remade and recalled, Back to the Fifties explores how cultural memories were fostered for a generation of teenagers trained by popular culture to rewind, record, recycle and replay.

About the Author:
Michael D. Dwyer is an Assistant Professor of Media and Communication at Arcadia University, teaching courses in film, writing, and media studies. In various outlets, he writes about fandom, DIY culture and politics, pop music, memory, Hollywood film, cultural geography, American soccer and the Internet. He lives in Philadelphia with his partner Rachel.

Press Reviews:
"A vital and innovative book that accomplishes the critical task of evolving our conceptions of nostalgia, the Fifties, and the Reagan Era itself through richly detailed analyses of landmark films, soundtracks, music videos, performers, and star legacies. Dwyer's text is accessible, thoroughly compelling, and deftly attuned to the complexities of popular culture and the nuances of our relationship with its history and expressions."--Christine Sprengler, author of Screening Nostalgia, Western University

"Dwyer's examination of the '70s and '80s re-appropriation of an idealized Fifties proves a fascinating read, one which finds a number of parallels between the political climate of the era and the pop cultural landscape."--PopMatters

See the publisher website: Oxford University Press