I enjoyed this piece a lot. I would add, on American Graffiti, you got period specific music too. The Beach Boys feature rather heavily, and were just getting big in 1962. Funnily enough, the movie (with its use of "All Summer Long" at the closing credits) helped sparked a revival in interest for the band, and sent a greatest hits album to no. 1
Yes. In the end they play "All Summer Long." When they are played in the car, Paul Lemat's character sneers at them. But yeah there is a sprinkling of early 60s culture
The breaking point has been just how scolding and moralizing Hollywood has become. We can take their debauchery (and even admire them for it), we can take their out-of-touchness (hey, it can be pretty funny), and we can take their elitism (we like looking at the beautiful and the wealthy). But what many of us cannot take is these people who live lifestyles that are the modern-day equivalent of royalty acting like principals and schoolmarms to the rest of the unwashed masses.
Hollywood's long had this inflated sense of self. Growing up, I always thought it was weird how in Asia, you'd see top celebrities happily and gratefully endorsing everything from refrigerators to booze to chain restaurants. But in America, even a B list star would think themselves too good to do any commercials (or they'd go to non-Western parts of the world to slum it up, endorsements-wise). Hey, you're not some noble artist; you're a glorified jester!
And even worse, these glorified jesters think they're the moral vanguard whose astounding works of genius ought to be consumed and celebrated by the idiot audience. And if the audiences hate these works, then it's not the works and their creators that need to change; it's the audience. It's an inversion of the entertainer-audience relationship, and with all the more audience-friendly forms of entertainment out there, why should people pay more for less?
I enjoyed this piece a lot. I would add, on American Graffiti, you got period specific music too. The Beach Boys feature rather heavily, and were just getting big in 1962. Funnily enough, the movie (with its use of "All Summer Long" at the closing credits) helped sparked a revival in interest for the band, and sent a greatest hits album to no. 1
Yes. In the end they play "All Summer Long." When they are played in the car, Paul Lemat's character sneers at them. But yeah there is a sprinkling of early 60s culture
The breaking point has been just how scolding and moralizing Hollywood has become. We can take their debauchery (and even admire them for it), we can take their out-of-touchness (hey, it can be pretty funny), and we can take their elitism (we like looking at the beautiful and the wealthy). But what many of us cannot take is these people who live lifestyles that are the modern-day equivalent of royalty acting like principals and schoolmarms to the rest of the unwashed masses.
Hollywood's long had this inflated sense of self. Growing up, I always thought it was weird how in Asia, you'd see top celebrities happily and gratefully endorsing everything from refrigerators to booze to chain restaurants. But in America, even a B list star would think themselves too good to do any commercials (or they'd go to non-Western parts of the world to slum it up, endorsements-wise). Hey, you're not some noble artist; you're a glorified jester!
And even worse, these glorified jesters think they're the moral vanguard whose astounding works of genius ought to be consumed and celebrated by the idiot audience. And if the audiences hate these works, then it's not the works and their creators that need to change; it's the audience. It's an inversion of the entertainer-audience relationship, and with all the more audience-friendly forms of entertainment out there, why should people pay more for less?