Know Your Shelf Better: Thomas's Pandemic Diaries: The Decade Trend-Lines of Our Media Journeys (through 2019)

Oh, the joy of grafting media trends onto neat, little decade timelines. When it comes to entertainment history told through media, trends take a natural form. Producers share techniques and fans share recommendations all in line with the mores of the zeitgeist. Media is a creative, organic ecosystem where many play their part. Media history often mistakenly relies on a "Great Man Theory" explanation of innovation. We should give credit to some tenacious individuals like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Steve Jobs at Apple who goose others along. Let's not forget, however, that the values of a given age shape and mold the great men. The times define and shape us as much as we define and shape our times.

"Bette Davis cor 60" by Luiz Fernando Reis MMF is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Decades, in particular, have their own shape-making ways. I finally saw this year's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," on Amazon Prime. Although I find Tarantino a bit too violent -- what upset me was one of the advertised descriptions. Its setting in 1969 Los Angeles is described as the "Golden Age of the Hollywood," but I argue that that crown really belongs to both the 1930s and the 1940s and to stars like Bette, Joan, and Humphrey. The title rightfully belongs to those earlier decades when we retrospectively consider star power and ticket sales. But it's more about what people were craving during the Great Depression. Moviegoers desired escapism -- from the ravages of the tough times and World War II. And the best way to escape was through "the pictures."

"Electric Cinema Portobello" by Fred Bigio is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Granted 1969 may have well been the start of Hollywood's second Golden Age, a time when method acting met up with bigger budgets and an increasing appetite for shock and violence. But the 1930s reigns supreme. You never forget your first Golden Age.

Hollywood Sign: Public Domain

So oftentimes with these great pronouncements, the slipper doesn't fit but we pretend otherwise. What I've learned in my postgraduate journey in library and information science, is that these mediums shape our behaviour and society much more than we give them credit for. The wizard behind this media philosophy curtain is Canadian-born, 1960s Information Philosopher, Marshall McLuhan. Hailing from "The Toronto School," McLuhan's most famous work and idea is that "the medium is the message." Later on he went even further, publishing a slim, psychedelic-tinged primer in 1967 called "The Medium is the Massage." The latter title paints the reality that the mediums we choose for entertainment and communication shape human behaviour far more than we give them credit for. The "Massage" part (however an icky or desirous image) is that if we get into the media too much, it can act as a near hypnotic, and can (roughly paraphrasing) "work us over completely." McLuhan's ultimate point is that it's not so much the content of the news that is shaping our habits and world-views but the way in which it is delivered and consumed that leaves a lasting impression.

"Marshall McLuhan Speaks" by Cea. is licensed under CC BY 2.0

When thinking about McLuhan and his theory, we can start to discern the invisible hand of the mode or the format and its role in human history. For my point about media trends, picture (no pun intended) those old stories from your grandparents, who all went to catch a film on the big screen on Saturday during the Great Depression. Kids and adults alike, a nickel for each viewing. These films were a true escape from the despair, or at least, discomfort, of those lean years.

Certain decades gave us certain technologies which instilled certain behaviours. Here are a few of the peaks or least the popular waves of when the medium has met the moment:

🎧🎉

The 1960's, for instance, was Peak Music: a flourishing made possible by the British invasion as well as the festive and gospel-tinged anthems coming out of the Civil Rights Era, the Women's Movement, the optimism of the young Boomers. Think: jazz, pop, folk-rock, soul, and northern soul.

🎞 👊

1970's, arguably, saw the peak of the big-budget film. Think The Godfather, Jaws, several James Bond movie franchises, the gritty Taxi Driver as well as quiet hits like Love Story and the critically-acclaimed Ordinary People.

"Jaws" by kevin dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0

🎮

The 1980s saw the rise of video games and music videos. The era, along with the late 70s, was considered another golden age of music as a diverse number of genres came to the fore: punk-rock lead by the Sex Pistols in the UK, disco pop by Abba in Sweden as well as the rise of post-punk, new wave, EDM, garage rock, rap and hip-hop out of both the US and UK.

💥📻

The 1990s saw a mix of a diverse forms of new music (grunge from Seattle, riot grrrl movement in Olympia and the Pacific Northwest, more hip-hop and rap including gangsta rap coming out NYC, Philly and L.A., indie-rock from all over and EDM (Electronic Dance Music) spearheaded by African-American DJ's and producers in Chicago and Detroit. The era also saw the rise of power pop, brit-pop, twee pop and indie rock coming out of the UK.

In the 90s, we also saw a new phenomenon: talk and/or "shock" radio and the 24/7 televised news cycle brought to you by Fox News and CNN. Tabloid news was also huge as were scandalous stories that seemed to drag on for years.

"Best HD Game of thrones facebook cover" by Tatiana_0000 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

📺

The first decade of the 2000s (which many refer to as the aughts or naughts or naughties) gave birth to the undisputed age of Peak TV starting roughly with gritty and dark melodramas like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. This peak continued with the Twenty-Teens with the global fantasy phenomenon, Game of Thrones, whose last episode aired in May of 2019. All three shows I should mention were HBO productions. The Twenty-Teens also saw a diversity in small screen viewing options. Hit shows were not relegated to network TV or pay-for-extra cable. Amazon, Netflix and Hulu were now in the game: pushing streamable content. More recently they started to produce their own phenomenal content.h (Starting in 2015, the three behemoths even started to snag a few Primetime Emmy awards.)