Category: Extra Credit

Morris Dickstein stated in his article “How Song, Dance, and Movies Bailed us out of the Great Depression” that arts programs create employment in downtown neighborhoods, and thus can stimulate business and attract tourists. ¹ According to a study conducted with information from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending between 2008 and 2009 remained steadily the same in all targeted areas besides “retail trade” and “leisure and hospitality”. This leads me to believe that overall, Americans did not seek out forms of entertainment during the Great Recession as much as they may have in the 1930s, and instead allocated necessary spending to areas such as housing, employment costs, and education. ²

               In terms of tackling political and social trends, I believe that professionals in the popular culture industries who spearhead this would largely be musicians. A part of the lecture last week was about how musicians use their platforms to deliver messages as well as directly protest injustice within the country (i.e. Woody Guthrie and Billie Holiday), and today, with the success of music streaming, this concept has only evolved. For example, A Tribe Called Quest, in their song “We the People” criticize political and racial injustice from the 2016 campaign of the current administration. They demonize current political leaders by speaking to the racially charged opinions that circulate and how legislation targets specific groups of people in their decisions. With artists releasing music directly linked to their beliefs about specific issues, I feel that this mimics Dickstein’s idea that music in the 1930s were “degrees of direct or oblique reactions to dire social circumstances.” I also feel that with the surge of popularity following music streaming platforms, artists are now able to reach significantly wider audiences than they once could when it was expected that each song would need to be purchased in order to be heard. This closely resembles the groundbreaking technology with the radio, and how that technology meant music could reach new heights in its time. ³

Everyone in the US wants to have the best of the best. The best car, the bet house, the best job, the best everything. Once someone hears that there is a better life somewhere else the world will spread and everyone else will follow.  An Example of this is during the Dust Bowl when every farmer started moving to California. They did this because they heard there was more and better farmland plus more jobs. They all migrated there even though they saw signs saying not to come because there being to many people coming at once. There later became camps made for the people who were migrating because of the abundance of them. In these camps they sang songs, did chores and random odds and ends to take their mind off of their poor situation. Because of the lack of jobs people demanded that the immigrants in the county give up some of the jobs since they weren’t actually Americans.⁴ This related to today because immigration is still an issue in the United States. There are songs written, articles written, and many discussions being had about it. People are still being split form their families and everything they have worked for in the US only because of the process of a Visa takes forever. The United states still has employment problems, but instead of more jobs becoming available they still tend to blame it on the immigrates that are in the US. It is even required by many employers for you to be a citizen to even be considered for a job. I have a feeling this isint going to end any time soon whether a wall is built or not. Although it is at a higher extent than it was back in the 1930’s it still effecting our culture, our economic, and political problems today. 

One of the most common human phenomena is the fact that we are social creatures, and the idea that sociality is often a diversion or an escape from reality, is not an idea that has been shy to many cultures. Undoubtedly, using movies, music, and the arts in all it’s various forms has been one of the most effective refuges in American history. The art of metaphorical escapism in the Great Depression 1930’s was largely the most important that art had ever been to that date.  New Deal programs for the arts were some of the most morally-geared and uplifting facets implemented, and “Never before or since have the arts served such a much-needed social function, not even when helping to mobilize the nation in times of war” (Dickstein, 2009). While nothing quite as devastating has occurred in U.S. economic history since the Great Depression, the same can somewhat be said for the implementation and effect of the arts in the same circumstances. The use of the arts in the 1930s paralleled to the 2008 use of movies as an escapist venture is rather similar, in both the federal employment as an economic tactic to boost jobs and, and method to provide the American public with the brief positive environment they so desperately needed. The kinds of arts, particularly movies being produced to serve as a diversion, didn’t begin to noticeably shift until after the 2008 recession. Many movies highlighted during the 1930’s depression highlighted dance, song, and romantic themes, particularly works like It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby, Top Hat which emphasized idealistic stories. A parallel is seen in the development of action-driven movies which were released in the midst of the 2008 crisis, such as the beginning of the Iron Man series, in many of which we see a trend of hyper-fictionalized storytelling. The political and economic expose theme of movies had long since been developing since around the time of the Great Depression, with gems such as Ducksoup, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but the trend of the arts becoming a platform for real discussion on the political movements of the time did not begin to take off until very recently, with some of the biggest hits being born not long after the 2008 recession. The ability of the arts to be a multifunctional space for both an escape from the pains of reality, to a forum to bring no-frills issues to light was a door that was cracked open, in a slight but important capacity during the New Deal arts projects years prior.

Bibliography

“Facing the Music.” The American Scholar, September 1, 2009. https://theamericanscholar.org/facing-the-music/#.XZ1kaOdKhZ2.

Guerrasio, Jason. “The 22 Best Political Movies Ever, Ranked.” Business Insider. Business Insider, April 4, 2016. https://www.businessinsider.com/22-best-political-movies-ranked-2016-3#13-frostnixon-2008-10.

Dickstein was half right. As the culture reacted to the collapse by creating an instigation of fast fame it didn’t just have a phenomenon in escapism. Escapism in the scope of coveted money and fame aspirations is centered on the pop-culture phenomenon. The Kardashians are a huge part of “The current recession has speeded up changes in American life that were long in motion.” 5There popularity has only grown, even with controversial family issues and political ties their names and money grow. They illicit the idea of who everyone wants to be, beautiful and wealthy. 6 Everyone wants to be paid to have no talent, but in a reaction against this coveted ideal there’s another side of how fast fame creates celebrities. 

Greta Thunberg, the famed young girl against climate change, became a household name in a short amount of time. One day she was only known by a small number of people, then the next she’s giving speeches at the UN climate change summit. This social trend is both dependent and beyond the fast fame phenomenon. Without the internet and the idea of overnight fame Greta would not be famous and influential in politics, but she has become famous for an incredibly different reason than the Kardashians. The pop culture fast fame phenomenon has gone beyond skin deep fame. Ideas, political fervor, and activism can now give a famed name to a person. 

Dickstein has a point when he addresses the modern phenomenon of fast fame, but politics and activism are so deeply ingrained in American culture that fast fame is now more than it used to be. It has transformed. People now see that fame is a platform for change, and use that platform for their political beliefs.7  Even the Kardashians have used their platforms to advocate for the release of unjustly incarcerated people. There is still a remnant of what fast fame was, but in the modern age is becoming more political and belief driven.