Thursday, October 23, 2014
"Low Brow" Genres
How does Horace Newcomb's essay complicate Newton Minow’s assessment of television as a “vast wasteland”? Why does he believe that 'low brow' genres such as the western can be more complicated than they seem? Do you agree? Perhaps give an example of a contemporary 'low brow' show and explain why it might or might not have social relevance.
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ReplyDeleteIn Newton Minow’s “Vast Wasteland” speech he lists all of the reasons why television is a vast wasteland of low brow entertainment. Among his reasoning, he lists “western badmen, and western good men.” He points out that there is a problem with society when more people would choose watching a western over going to the symphony.
ReplyDeleteHorace Newcomb’s “Old Frontier, New Frontier” article counteracts Minow’s speech because he digs deeper into the western genre to uncover it’s true meaning and reason for it’s popularity. He justifies the western’s popularity because it “spoke well the language of Cold War America” and it created a sense of nationalism.
There are many examples contemporary low brow shows, most reality shows are considered “low brow” entertainment. One that immediately comes to mind is “The Bachelor(ette).” Millions of viewers tune in to these shows every week to see who the bachelor/bachelorette will pick to stay with at the end of the show. This show is clearly staged and unrealistic, the relationships formed rarely last longer than a month. Although viewers gain nothing from watching this show, it is still widely popular because viewers (mostly female) love romance and living vicareously through other people on TV. Surely, Newton Minow is not a fan of this series.
FCC Chairman Newton Minow presented his Vast Wasteland speech in 1961 in order to enumerate the many reasons as to why television had become a "vast wasteland" of lowbrow programs and loud chattery commercials. He called out murderous westerns in his list of programs that were part of this terrible television landscape.
ReplyDeleteNewcomb's article "Old Frontier, New Frontier" directly challenges the idea that the western was part of the lowbrow entertainment Minow had such an issue with. Newcomb examines the nuances within the western genre. He argues that the Western was a form of entertainment that was socially relevant to the times. America was going through the Cold War, and the continuation of a quintessentially "American" genre spoke to the people, as well as allowed a venue to play out stories with a semi-allegorical significance to the then modern times. The Western genre's ability to take those situations and put them in an entertaining context demonstrates that these programs were far more complex than Minow believed.
As Alison noted above, reality television is the fist modern example of "lowbrow" television most people would think of, especially because it is a phenomenon that has come more to prominence in modern times. But many of the genres Minow listed as part of his "vast wasteland" are still represented on television today, such as game shows, family comedies, violent shows, and cartoons. Something like Boardwalk Empire on HBO is definitely not seen as lowbrow by the general public, but would fall under a category Newton Minow eloquently stated as "gangsters." Cartoons, too now, would probably be even more offensive to him than they were in 1961. There are many adult cartoons airing on channels such as Fox, Comedy Central, and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. While they may be overwhelmingly "lowbrow" entertainment, shows such as The Simpsons and Family Guy have had many episodes that satirized and commented on social issues. Shows like these are what Minow may have been talking about, but certainly have a relevance in our culture.
Horace Newcomb argues that the western as a genre has historically been a form in which “…the public experience… of nationalism and citizenship” has been represented (289). In the late 1950s and early 1960s (Minow’s speech being in 1961), this sense of nationalism was clearly reflected in western dramas. In response to critics who believed that “[the “hero’s”] stalwart positions – physical, moral, ethical, and at times political – were the rocks against which outlandish and troubled individuals crashed” (296) Newcomb argues that the so-called “predictability” of the western dramas, or over simplification is a misconception of the text.
ReplyDeleteFirst, he points out that the return and repetition of the central character or “hero” was in fact due to industrial circumstances as opposed to the intentional creation of a relatively dull character that finds himself over and over in undesirable situations. Newcomb also points out that even though westerns seemed to always end with a predictable shoot-out or the like, that the true final beats often featured unresolved mental anguish as a result of complex dilemmas or situations. Newcomb’s belief was that westerns offered a forum within which cultural dilemmas could be viewed and negotiated.
In the same way, there are currently “low brow” shows that create forums for cultural negotiation. The quintessential “low brow” genre of our time is probably reality TV. Shows like "Honey Boo Boo" (most TLC shows, really), the Real World on MTV, and in general shows that aim to show people in their habitats without the technical professionalism but still stick to some kind of satirical script.