Examining work by novelists, filmmakers, TV producers and songwriters, this book uncovers the manner in which the radio – and the act of listening – has been written about for the past 100 years. Ever since the first public wireless broadcasts, people have been writing about the radio: often negatively, sometimes full of praise, but always with an eye and an ear to explain and offer an opinion about what they think they have heard. Novelists including Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Evelyn Waugh, and James Joyce wrote about characters listening to this new medium with mixtures of delight, frustration, and despair. Clint Eastwood frightened moviegoers half to death in Play Misty for Me, but Lou Reed's 'Rock & Roll' said listening to a New York station had saved Jenny's life. Frasier showed the urbane side of broadcasting, whilst Good Morning, Vietnam exploded from the cinema screen with a raw energy all of its own. Queen thought that all the audience heard was 'ga ga', even as The Buggles said video had killed the radio star and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers lamented 'The Last DJ'. This book explores the cultural fascination with radio; the act of listening as a cultural expression – focusing on fiction, films and songs about radio. Martin Cooper, a broadcaster and academic, uses these movies, TV shows, songs, novels and more to tell a story of listening to the radio – as created by these contemporary writers, filmmakers, and musicians.

Publisher description

This unique, abundantly illustrated set features essay-length chapters on the many forms, genres, and themes of popular culture.

This three-volume work tells the story of how Jewish Americans overcame anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant biases, and poverty to shape American film, television, music, sports, literature, food, and humor.

Popular culture tends to simultaneously lose and gain in the era of globalization. The singularity and internal self-reproduction of popular cultures have dwindled, but at the same time their vibrancy and dynamics have thrived and multiplied. This volume covers subjects ranging from the relations between Indians and Spaniards in Colonial Mexico, through the contemporary statures of popular cultures of the Chilean urban poor, the Brazilian traditionalists, and the Bahian black youth, to the fate of commercialized Mexican handicraft.

An encyclopedia describes all aspects of world culture, broken down into six regional categories, discussing the art, dance, fashion, food, pastimes, periodicals, recreation, and transportation of each region.