Using periodicals for investigating postwar popular culture of the 1960s-1970s rock/counterculture era

Author / Creator

Sacks, Adam J., author

Available as

Online

Summary

This case study provides concepts and methods for research and critical examination of periodicals. A periodical is a category of publication, which appears at a regularly set interval, the most co...

This case study provides concepts and methods for research and critical examination of periodicals. A periodical is a category of publication, which appears at a regularly set interval, the most common of which are newspapers and magazines. As an abundant media genre among predigital sources, periodicals may appear both familiar and strange to contemporary observers. Periodicals contain a wealth of sources: art and design, advertising, photography, cultural commentary, reporting, and first-person testimonials. Students may find multiple forms of evidence for social and technological trends and can be used to illustrate and bolster arguments. Stretching back to the coffee houses of the enlightenment era, periodicals offer a critical record of history. They served as a "first-stop" vehicle for the forming of community, communication between and among observers, critics, and participants wishing to interface with a broad public sphere. I model here how careful analysis of a periodical bears insightful information, in this case, for the historical understanding of popular culture. The periodical ROCK, discussed here, is a window onto changes in musical experience, as well as changing technological, economic, and social trends stirred and advanced by the postwar "generation gap." This gap refers to divisions between youth and their elders, especially regarding changing values. (The postwar "baby boom" generation remains a paradigmatic case as for the first time, youth was consolidated as a distinct economic and cultural demographic.) As with any artifact of popular media, periodicals had to balance bias and self-interested economic concerns alongside the identification and support of new directions in music, style, and the consumption thereof. Periodicals, thus, can serve as a platform not only for reporting new trends but also for the innovative use of photojournalism, fashioning culture of celebrity, new understandings of sexuality, the advance of civil rights, creative advertising, and new trends in graphic design. Periodicals are particularly valuable for granular studies of incremental changes in a compressed time period, as well as research questions that tackle overarching changes and transitions on a generational scale. This guide will present the kinds of questions to address periodicals and will provide what responses this source provides.

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