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I was born in 1960. I grew up hearing the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, and what I call the Psychedelic rock bands, which includes Cream, the Byrds, Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, etc., etc. Live concerts were on Burt Sugarman's or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. I grew up with Star Trek, Dark Shadows, Saturday Night Live, Monster Movie nights, Elvis movies, Beatles' movies, Night of the Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
In '73, it was a *huge* deal that Paul McCartney & Wings did the theme to the Bond film, "Live and Let Die". Had to wait two years before it got on TV. I didn't care for the film since I didn't really get on with Roger Moore, but I always had to watch the beginning just to hear a Beatle sing a Bond Theme Song on TV. It was SO cool. "McCartney's music is on TV!" American Bandstand was a lame ass program. They weren't playing cool music anymore. All of a sudden it was disco, disco, disco. Casey Kasem did the weekly Top 40 on Sunday mornings, so that was cool for a while, including all the anecdotes he'd slip in for every song.
In 1980, along came MTV, and that was just THE coolest goddamn thing. Our music was put to music videos. And suddenly, rock music was a mainstay on TV. But it was still a huge deal when Metallica sang "Enter Sandman" on the Grammy's.
Over the years, as rock music became almost normal on TV, it was still relegated to MTV. The live concert programs on TV had disappeared, so MTV was it. In 1985, I was glued to the Today show because I was waiting for Pat Benatar to come on and sing. But she was pre-empted because the Challenger space shuttle had blown up.
I can't remember when a rock song was first used as a "jingle" for a commercial product aired on TV. But now, they're commonplace. Zeppelin was used for Cadillac a few years ago. It's still totally bizarre. Then T-Rex showed up in a car commercial and it was like, that broke the mold or something.
A few years ago, it was a huge, secret thrill to have hackers get a hold of electronic traffic signs and display "Watch for Zombies!" during the morning rush hour. Now, Zombies are "the" thing. How in the hell did that happen? One moment "Night of the Living Dead" was a political statement-slash-shock-horror film. The next, "World War Z" is a big deal production with Brad Pitt. AMC has "The Walking Dead", the Byrds are being used as backdrop music for a Zombie video game TV ad, my generation's comic book stash is a series of hit movies, with Iron Man's Tony Stark wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt and playing AC/DC on loud speakers.
When did my generation start running the culture show?
In '73, it was a *huge* deal that Paul McCartney & Wings did the theme to the Bond film, "Live and Let Die". Had to wait two years before it got on TV. I didn't care for the film since I didn't really get on with Roger Moore, but I always had to watch the beginning just to hear a Beatle sing a Bond Theme Song on TV. It was SO cool. "McCartney's music is on TV!" American Bandstand was a lame ass program. They weren't playing cool music anymore. All of a sudden it was disco, disco, disco. Casey Kasem did the weekly Top 40 on Sunday mornings, so that was cool for a while, including all the anecdotes he'd slip in for every song.
In 1980, along came MTV, and that was just THE coolest goddamn thing. Our music was put to music videos. And suddenly, rock music was a mainstay on TV. But it was still a huge deal when Metallica sang "Enter Sandman" on the Grammy's.
Over the years, as rock music became almost normal on TV, it was still relegated to MTV. The live concert programs on TV had disappeared, so MTV was it. In 1985, I was glued to the Today show because I was waiting for Pat Benatar to come on and sing. But she was pre-empted because the Challenger space shuttle had blown up.
I can't remember when a rock song was first used as a "jingle" for a commercial product aired on TV. But now, they're commonplace. Zeppelin was used for Cadillac a few years ago. It's still totally bizarre. Then T-Rex showed up in a car commercial and it was like, that broke the mold or something.
A few years ago, it was a huge, secret thrill to have hackers get a hold of electronic traffic signs and display "Watch for Zombies!" during the morning rush hour. Now, Zombies are "the" thing. How in the hell did that happen? One moment "Night of the Living Dead" was a political statement-slash-shock-horror film. The next, "World War Z" is a big deal production with Brad Pitt. AMC has "The Walking Dead", the Byrds are being used as backdrop music for a Zombie video game TV ad, my generation's comic book stash is a series of hit movies, with Iron Man's Tony Stark wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt and playing AC/DC on loud speakers.
When did my generation start running the culture show?
