Light Entertainment

Author : Rohan McWilliam
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2020-09-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9780192556400

Get Book

London's West End by Rohan McWilliam Pdf

How did the West End of London become the world's leading pleasure district? What is the source of its magnetic appeal? How did the centre of London become Theatreland? London's West End, 1800-1914 is the first ever history of the area which has enthralled millions. The reader will discover the growth of theatres, opera houses, galleries, restaurants, department stores, casinos, exhibition centres, night clubs, street life, and the sex industry. The area from the Strand to Oxford Street came to stand for sensation and vulgarity but also the promotion of high culture. The West End produced shows and fashions whose impact rippled outwards around the globe. During the nineteenth century, an area that serviced the needs of the aristocracy was opened up to a wider public whilst retaining the imprint of luxury and prestige. Rohan McWilliam tells the story of the great artists, actors and entrepreneurs who made the West End: figures such as Gilbert and Sullivan, the playwright Dion Boucicault, the music hall artiste Jenny Hill, and the American Harry Gordon Selfridge who wanted to create the best shop in the world. At the same time, McWilliam explores the distinctive spaces created in the West End, from the glamour of Drury Lane and Covent Garden, through to low life bars and taverns. We encounter the origins of the modern star system and celebrity culture. London's West End, 1800-1914 moves from the creation of Regent Street to the glory days of the Edwardian period when the West End was the heart of empire and the entertainment industry. Much of modern culture and consumer society was shaped by a relatively small area in the middle of London. This pioneering study establishes why that was.

Author : Björn Heile,Peter Elsdon,Jenny Doctor
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2016-05-31
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780190456825

Get Book

Watching Jazz by Björn Heile,Peter Elsdon,Jenny Doctor Pdf

Watching Jazz: Encounters with Jazz Performance on Screen is the first systematic study of jazz on screen media. Where earlier studies have focused almost entirely on the role and portrayal of jazz in Hollywood film, the present book engages with a plethora of technologies and media from early film and soundies through television to recent developments in digital technologies and online media. Likewise, the authors discuss jazz in the widest sense, ranging from Duke Ellington and Jimmy Dorsey through the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus to Pat Metheny. Much of this rich and fascinating material has never been studied in depth before, and what emerges most clearly are the manifold connections between the music and the media on which it was and is being recorded. Its long association with film and television has left its trace in jazz, just as online and social media are subtly shaping it now. Vice versa, visual media have always benefited from focusing on music and this significantly affected their development. The book follows these interrelations, showing how jazz was presented and represented on screen and what this tells us about the music, the people who made it and their audiences. The result is a new approach to jazz and the media, which will be required reading for students of both fields.

Author : Dick Schram,Gerard J. Steen
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 478 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2001-12-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9789027297181

Get Book

The Psychology and Sociology of Literature by Dick Schram,Gerard J. Steen Pdf

The Psychology and Sociology of Literature is a collection of 25 chapters on literature by some of the leading psychologists, sociologists, and literary scholars in the field of the empirical study of literature. Contributors include Ziva Ben-Porat, Gerry Cupchik, Art Graesser, Rachel Giora, Norbert Groeben, Colin Martindale, David Miall, Willie van Peer, Kees van Rees, Siegfried Schmidt, Hugo Verdaasdonk, and Rolf Zwaan. Topics include literature and the reading process; the role of poetic language, metaphor, and irony; cathartic and Freudian effects; literature and creativity; the career of the literary author; literature and culture; literature and multicultural society, literature and the mass media; literature and the internet; and literature and history. An introduction by the editors situates the empirical study of literature within an academic context. The chapters are all invited and refereed contributions, collected to honor the scholarship and retirement of professor Elrud Ibsch, of the Free University of Amsterdam. Together they represent the state of the art in the empirical study of literature, a movement in literary studies which aims to produce reliable and valid scientific knowledge about literature as a means of verbal communication in its cultural context. Elrud Ibsch was one of the pioneers in Europe to promote this approach to literature some 25 years ago, and this volume takes stock of what has happened since. The Psychology and Sociology of Literature presents an invaluable overview of the results, promises, gaps, and needs of the empirical study of literature. It addresses social scientists as well as scholars in the humanities who are interested in literature as discourse.

Author : Gareth Palmer
Publisher : Manchester University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Documentary television programs
ISBN : 071906693X

Get Book

Discipline and Liberty by Gareth Palmer Pdf

"Taking Foucault's notion of Governance - the conduct of conduct - the author applies it to a range of television formats which have loosely been described as 'reality TV.'" ... "Big Brother, Video Diaries, Judge TV, Ricki Lake, and Stupid Behaviour Caught on Tape use a technology of discipline to produce confessions, revelations and transformations which render citizens more transparent than ever and can punish those of who dare to be different. Looking at how various agencies of the state have exhorted us to report crime - such as tax evasion, street crime, even benefit fraud - the author shows how constant surveillance is now integral to the process of citizenship".--Back cover.

Author : Jeremy Potter
Publisher : Springer
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2016-07-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781349099078

Get Book

Independent Television in Britain by Jeremy Potter Pdf

The ITV network was designed as a federation of companies, different in size and character, jointly and severally constructing programme schedules in which strands of entertainment were interwoven with news bulletins, drama with sport, feature films with documentaries, church services with broadcasting for schools. The purpose of this volume is to convey some impression of diversity by illustrating and illuminating the rich assortment of companies and programmes making up ITV's overall service to the public in the operation of a plural system on a single television channel during a peak period in British broadcasting.

Author : James Bennett
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2010-10-04
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781136907470

Get Book

Television Personalities by James Bennett Pdf

Television Personalities offers an exciting, engaging approach to studying and understanding the most prominent and popular performers in television and celebrity culture. It is an original, indispensable guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students of media, television and celebrity studies, as well as those interested in digital culture more widely.

Author : Frances Bonner
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2016-05-06
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781317081821

Get Book

Personality Presenters by Frances Bonner Pdf

Television presenters are key to the sociability of the medium, speaking directly to viewers as intermediaries between audiences and those who are interviewed, perform or compete on screen. As targets of both great affection and derision from viewers and the subjects of radio, internet, magazine and newspaper coverage, many have careers that have lasted almost as long as post-war television itself. Nevertheless, as a profession, television presenting has received little scholarly attention. Personality Presenters explores the role of the television presenter, analysing the distinct skills possessed by different categories of host and the expectations and difficulties that exist with regard to the promotion of the various films, books, consumer and cultural products with which they are associated. The close involvement of presenters with the content that they present is examined, while the impact of the presenters' own celebrity on the tasks that they perform is scrutinised. With a focus on non-fiction entertainment shows such as game shows, lifestyle and reality shows, chat, daytime and talk shows, this book explores issues of consumer culture, advertising and celebrity, as well as the connection of presenters with ethical issues. Offering detailed case studies of internationally recognised presenters, as well comparisons between national presenters from the UK and Australia, Personality Presenters provides a rich discussion of television presenters as significant conduits in the movement of ideas. As such, it will appeal to sociologists as well as those working in the fields of popular culture, cultural and media studies and cultural theory.

Author : T. Burns
Publisher : Springer
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2016-04-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781349636723

Get Book

The BBC by T. Burns Pdf

Author : Oliver Castendyk,E. J. Dommering,Alexander Scheuer
Publisher : Kluwer Law International B.V.
Page : 1428 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2008-01-01
Category : Law
ISBN : 9789041123473

Get Book

European Media Law by Oliver Castendyk,E. J. Dommering,Alexander Scheuer Pdf

Supplies an in-depth commentary on EU media law, with detailed analysis of all important legislation and court decisions. It leads European lawyers with vast knowledge and practical experience of media law provide detailed expert commentary.

Author : Mascha K. Brichta
Publisher : transcript Verlag
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2014-03-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783839418857

Get Book

»Love it or Loathe it« by Mascha K. Brichta Pdf

Popular newspapers like the British »The Sun« and the German »Bild« regularly invite controversy over their morals and methods, power and responsibility, political and social impact. At best, their reporting is rejected as trivial, vulgar and tasteless; at worst, it is deemed hazardous to the workings of democratic society. Yet, the papers are able to attract large audiences, and contribute significantly to the daily lives of millions of readers. This book looks at popular newspapers from an audience point of view. Examining the crucial relationship between news and entertainment, it provides timely empirical evidence for the values tabloids really have for readers and modern day Britain and Germany. Contradicting common myths and stereotypes, the book calls for fresh perspectives on the popular media and their audiences. With a foreword by Peter Dahlgren, Lund University, Sweden.

Author : G. Wedell,B. Luckham
Publisher : Springer
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2001-06-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780230286108

Get Book

Television at the Crossroads by G. Wedell,B. Luckham Pdf

Television had, until recently, a social and cultural purpose. The BBC, and to a lesser extent ITV and Channel 4, were committed by the legal instruments establishing them to develop and maintain these purposes. With the enlargement of the range of choices for viewers by digital television and the provision of access to cable and satellite TV and the Internet, the role of the terrestrial television channels is being diluted. The authors examine the effects of this and consider whether anything can be done to maintain the standards and quality of television at a time of unlimited competition.

Author : Sarah Hill
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : Music
ISBN : 9781351573450

Get Book

'Blerwytirhwng?' The Place of Welsh Pop Music by Sarah Hill Pdf

In the 1960s, Welsh-language popular music emerged as a vehicle for mobilizing a geographically dispersed community into political action. As the decades progressed, Welsh popular music developed beyond its acoustic folk roots, adopting the various styles of contemporary popular music, and ultimately gaining the cultural self-confidence to compete in the Anglo-American mainstream market. The resulting tensions, between Welsh and English, amateur and professional, rural and urban, the local and the international, necessitate the understanding of Welsh pop as part of a much larger cultural process. Not merely a 'Celtic' issue, the cultural struggles faced by Welsh speakers in a predominantly Anglophone environment are similar to those faced by innumerable other minority communities enduring political, social or linguistic domination. The aim of 'Blerwytirhwng?' The Place of Welsh Pop Music is to explore the popular music which accompanied those struggles, to connect Wales to the larger Anglo-American popular culture, and to consider the shift in power from the dominant to the minority, the centre to the periphery. By surveying the development of Welsh-language popular music from 1945-2000, 'Blerwytirhwng?' The Place of Welsh Pop examines those moments of crisis in Welsh cultural life which signalled a burgeoning sense of national identity, which challenged paradigms of linguistic belonging, and out of which emerged new expressions of Welshness.

Author : Graham McCann
Publisher : Quarto Publishing Group USA
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2014-10-16
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781781313220

Get Book

A Very Courageous Decision by Graham McCann Pdf

A behind-the-scenes history of one of the most successful and admired British sitcoms of the 1980s. In 1977 the BBC commissioned a new satirical sitcom set in Whitehall. Production of its first series was stalled, however, by the death throes of Jim Callaghan’s Labour government and the ‘Winter of Discontent’; Auntie being unwilling to broadcast such an overtly political comedy until after the general election of 1979. That Yes Minister should have been delayed by the very events that helped bring Margaret Thatcher to power is, perhaps, fitting. Over three series from 1980—and two more as Yes, Prime Minister until 1988—the show mercilessly lampooned the vanity, self-interest and incompetence of our so-called public servants, making its hapless minister Jim Hacker and his scheming Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey two of the most memorable characters British comedy has ever produced. The new prime minister professed it her favourite television programme—a ‘textbook’ on the State in inaction—and millions of British viewers agreed. In the years since Yes Minister has become a national treasure: Sir Humphrey’s slippery circumlocutions have entered the lexicon, regularly quoted by political commentators, and the series’ cynical vision of government seems as credible now as it did thirty years ago. Much of this success can be credited to its writers, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, who drew on their contacts in Westminster to rework genuine political folly as situation comedy. Storylines that seemed absurd to the public were often rooted in actual events—so much so that they occasionally attracted the scrutiny of Whitehall mandarins. In A Very Courageous Decision acclaimed entertainment historian Graham McCann goes in search of the real political fiascos that inspired Yes Minister. Drawing on fresh interviews with cast, crew, politicians and admirers, he reveals how a subversive satire captured the mood of its time to become one of the most cherished sitcoms of Thatcher’s Britain.

Author : Andy Hamilton
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2021-01-14
Category : Music
ISBN : 9781501366468

Get Book

Pianos, Toys, Music and Noise by Andy Hamilton Pdf

Steve Beresford's polymathic activities have formed a prism for the UK improv scene since the 1970s. He is internationally known as a free improviser on piano, toy piano and electronics, composer for film and TV, and raconteur and Dadaist visionary. His résumé is filled with collaborations with hundreds of musicians and other artists, including such leading improvisers as Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and John Zorn, and he has given performances of works by John Cage and Christian Marclay. In this book, Beresford is heard in his own words through first-hand interviews with the author. Beresford provides compelling insight into an extensive range of topics, displaying the broad cultural context in which music is embedded. The volume combines chronological and thematic chapters, with topics covering improvisation and composition in jazz and free music; the connections between art, entertainment and popular culture; the audience for free improvisation; writing music for films; recording improvised music in the studio; and teaching improvisation. It places Beresford in the context of improvised and related musics – jazz, free jazz, free improvisation – in which there is growing interest. The linear narrative is broken up by 'interventions' or short pieces by collaborators and commentators.

Author : Corey Ross
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2008-08-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199278213

Get Book

Media and the Making of Modern Germany by Corey Ross Pdf

Media and the Making of Modern Germany provides the first full account of the expansion of the mass media in Germany up to the Second World War, examining how the rise of film, radio, recorded music, popular press, and advertising fitted into the wider development of social, political, and cultural life.