Product Description

ABBA, Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody', Wayne's World I and II . David Bowie. Blaxploitation. Platform shoes. Bathhouses. The Brady Bunch . The Brady Bunch Movie . Boogie Nights . Not only were the '70s filled with cultural icons and phenomena galore, but today we are increasingly seeing a resurgence of styles and elements of that wacky era in between the decade of the left and the decade of the right. The Seventies delves into these themes and reveals what they meant at the time and what their recurrence means for us today. Liberally illustrated with photographs, the book is divided into five sections: Re/Defining the Seventies , Identifying Genres , Fashioning the Body , Queering the Seventies , and Talking Music . The contributors take you on a fascinating journey that looks at the Black Panthers, Jonestown, glam rock, black action films and gay male subcultures as well as including queer rereadings of cultural phenomena, examinations of clothing and seventies bodies, and an esssay on the meaning of sound in the seventies. The Seventies is must reading for anyone who wants to revisit that glam decade and the contributions it made to our culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #819604 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 328 pages

Review
""The Seventies offers fascinating insight into the significance of a truly weird era using the critical tools of late-'90s cultural theory. But fear not-this is academic in scope, but far from stodgy in execution. With essays taking on the Black Panthers, glam rock, porno chic, suburbia, Jonestown, blaxploitation flicks, '70s body types and more, these scholars boldly straddle the highs and lows of American culture, unafraid to wallow in a little "trash."
Refreshingly, "The Seventies steers clear of the shallow waters typically traveled by most purveyors of retro-hell, allowing Eldridge Cleaver, David Cassidy and Patty Hearst to bump booties with Karl Marx, Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze."
-"Tucson Weekly
"If examinations of the "subversive, democratizing" effects of polyester leisure suits, the "trisexual self-reflexivity" of glam rockers The New York Dolls, or the "queer heroine" status of black action queen Cleopatra Jones strike you as intriguingly offbeat, this collection is for you."
-"Tucson Weekly
..."daring...."
-"Cultural Polemics
"Waldrep has collected 14 essays that aim to contest the romanticizing impulse by exploring the contemporary political and cultural meaning in such icongraphic cultural and artistic artifacts as the rock band New York Dolls, the TV show Bewitched, the movie Shaft and disco music. . . . illuminating essays show that the decade was rich with cultural meaning."
-"Publisher's Weekly, November 15, 1999
"The strongest essays... combine a close attention to specific textual detail with a broad sense of cultural signifigance and a willingness to scrap vague generalizations about "the seventies" for more incisive culturalcritcism. These essays manage to avoid the banality of nostalgic fascination..." Daniel Wickberg, University of Texas."

From the Back Cover
ABBA, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", Wayne's World I and II. David Bowie. Blaxploitation. Platform shoes. Bathhouses. The Brady Bunch. The Brady Bunch Movie. Boogie Nights.
Not only were the '70s filled with cultural icons and phenomena galore, but today we are increasingly seeing a resurgence of styles and elements of that wacky era in between the decade of the left and the decade of the right. The Seventies delves into these themes and reveals what they meant at the time and what their recurrence means for us today.
Liberally illustrated with photographs, the book is divided into five sections: Re/Defining the Seventies, Identifying Genres, Fashioning the Body, Queering the Seventies, and Talking Music. The contributors take you on a fascinating journey that looks at the Black Panthers, Jonestown, glam rock, black action films and gay male subcultures as well as including queer rereadings of cultural phenomena, examinations of clothing and seventies bodies, and an essay on the meaning of sound in the seventies.
The Seventies is must reading for anyone who wants to revisit that glam decade and the contributions it made to our culture.
Contributors: Vince Aletti, Jennifer DeVere Brody, Van M. Cagle, David Allen Case, Christopher Castiglia, Anne-Lise Francois, Randolph Heard, Charles Kronengold, Greil Marcus, Cindy Patton, Stephen Rachman, Sohnya Sayres, Michael E. Staub, Amber Vogel and Shelton Waldrep.

About the Author
Shelton Waldrep is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine. He is co-author of Inside the Mouse (1995).