David Simonelli, associate professor of history at Youngstown State University, must have plundered archive after archive, at least the ones of the NME, Melody Maker, Billboard and the BBC as well. At the center of his study is the approach to the shifting image of a young generation of musicians and their fans, by then […]
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Category: B. R. PopCulture
The Silver Age of DC Comics by Paul Levitz (2013)
If this is your first book of Taschen’s DC chronicles of the comic ages you may feel comfortably transported back in time. To the years between 1956 and 1970 to be exact, when after some stagnation in the Super Hero “business” new impulses started a fresh age. And with another BANG! this hardcover book continues […]
Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962… by Chris and Rafiel York (eds.) (2012)
The comic books of the post WWII years differ in many respects from their predecessors. For one reason, they (generally) invented new dangers, new villains and new challenges for the keepers of the peace, fighters for freedom and justice, aka the Superheroes and the Federal Agents, the T-Men, a moniker for government agents of the […]
Sex, Politics, and Religion in Star Wars by Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka (eds.) (2012)
Director George Lucas must have sensed something of the future success of his space saga when in 1977, he presented the first episode to the public; wisely, he established a deal with 20th Century Fox, which would grant him full rights to licensing and merchandising. Reproductions of his characters could be found on almost any […]
The Starday Story. The House That Country Music Built by Nathan D. Gibson (2011)
Starday Records, one of the most influential, if not the American ‘roots’ label has a long and detailed story to tell. It took Nathan D. Gibson, a scholar, musician and country music fan, to collect all the details, numbers, personal histories, legends and private accounts of the many artists and the few executives at Starday […]
Dian Hanson’s History of Pin-up Magazines Vols. 1-3 (2013)
Just like many other popular forms of entertainment the pin-up magazine, or men’s magazine, did not just appear at the newsstand overnight, but had a long way to go from secretly sold and distributed smut and photographic sheet collections (like the “French postcards”) to the now very common form of glossy magazine centered on naked […]
Ragged But Right. Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs,” and … by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff (2012)
For several decades, a very distinctive form of African American minstrel show was the most popular form of entertainment for black audiences in the South, its fame covering almost the entire country by and by. The beginning of this art form (that was in parts of the country available until the late 1940s) and its […]
Siegfried Kracauer’s American Writings by J. von Molke (2012)
When Siegfried Kracauer and his wife Lili in 1941 finally could escape the Nazi regime and left for New York fleeing Marseilles via Portugal the future of film criticism would have a fresh start … or have its initial start, depending on your point of view. Sharing the fate of many of today’s intellectuals and […]
The Golden Age of DC Comics 1935-1956 by Paul Levitz (2013)
Shazzamm! Phew!! This is one absolutely stunning edition of the early days of DC Comics. That is, if you are interested in the history, the concepts, the authors, the many inventors and most of all the legacy of the great comic artists at DC Comics. Then the heavy volume may just be what you have […]