Friday, March 2, 2007

The 1950s

Here's a twist for AudioLinks101, a link to a video slideshow, Take Me Back to the Fifties.

Baby-boomers, now turning sixty, grew up in the 1950s, and this slideshow reveals some of the intense nostalgia some people have for the period.

Musings
  1. What are some of the aspects of life in the 1950s that seem most attractive to the creator of the slideshow? What, if any aspects, seem attractive to you?

  2. The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture says that the 1950s "continues to be perceived as the ultra-American decade." (You can read the full article here, where this assertion is, in part, challenged.) Part of the assertion that the 1950s represent some sort of ultra-America has to do with the perceived conformity of the decade--a widely felt pressure for people to look and act "normal." Do you see any of these pressures in the slideshow? What are some of the negative aspects of such pressures? What's are some potential problems with too much concern with being normal?