USA The Arts

It did not take long for hearty American individualism to make its mark on the global canon, previously dominated by age-old European traditions. From the 19th- century Transcendentalist literature of New England to the unique musical stylings of bluegrass and jazz, America has established itself time and again as an innovator in the world of creative arts.

The First Few Pages. The first best-seller printed in America, the Bay Psalm Book, was published in Cambridge, MA, in 1640. Very few enduring classics were created until the early 1800s, when artists began to explore the unique American experience in their writing. James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans (1826), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850), and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851)—American classics that have stood the test of time—all feature strong individualists who navigate the rugged American landscape. By the mid-19th century, the work of New England Transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau (Walden, 1854) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature, 1836) embodied a spirit of anti-materialism by focusing on self-reflection and a retreat into nature. Walt Whitman promoted an innovative style of poetry with his revolutionary free verse expressing both his distaste for the conditions of the 19th century and his idealistic views about American democracy. Later in the century, Mark Twain became one of America’s most beloved storytellers with his homespun tales out of Hannibal, MO. His novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) uses a young boy’s journey to express social criticism and glorify the human spirit.

Literature also provided 19th-century American women the opportunity to express themselves and to comment critically on contemporary society. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a depiction of slavery that, according to some scholars, contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War and the abolitionist movement. Poet Emily Dickinson secretly scribbled away in her native Amherst, MA, home; unfortunately, her untitled and unpunctuated verses weren’t discovered until after her death in 1886.

Early 20th-Century Explorations. Amidst the economic prosperity of the 1920s, a reflective, self-centered movement fomented in American literature in response to changing cultural values. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s works (The Great Gatsby) portray restless individuals who are financially secure but unfulfilled by their conspicuous consumption. Scarred by the massive destruction caused by WWI mechanization, many American writers of the Lost Generation—including Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea), T.S. Eliot (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”), Ezra Pound, and e.e. cummings—moved abroad. This group’s sophisticated works were enlightened by their expat status, which gave them a platform from which to convey an increasing disillusionment with the contemporary American experience. The Harlem Renaissance, a convergence of African-American artistic and political action in New York City, was spurred by the Great Migration, a large-scale African-American migration from the rural South to the urban North, and it fed off the excitement of the Jazz Age. Langston Hughes (Montage of a Dream Deferred), Nella Larsen (Quicksand), and Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God) brought an awareness of black talent and creativity to a broader audience as they struggled to define African-American identity and the black experience in America. The Harlem Renaissance also saw the rise of more radical black intellectualism led by Marcus Garvey, champion of the Pan-African movement, and Alain Locke, who wrote the essay “The New Negro.”

In the 1930s and 40s, as America struggled to recover from the Great Depression, the plight of decaying agricultural life and faltering industry of the Deep South and West began to infiltrate literature. William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury) juxtaposed avant-garde stream-of-consciousness techniques with stories rooted in the social decay of the rural South. Nobel Prize recipient John Steinbeck is best known for his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, which depicts the condition of migrant laborers heading from the Great Plains to California in the wake of the Great Depression. The plays of Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire) portray family dynamics within uprooted lower-class Southern families. Clifford Odets’s play Waiting for Lefty (1935), detailing the plight of frustrated factory workers, was a grassroots hit, and audiences often joined with the actors in chanting the play’s final lines, “Strike! Strike!” In his remarkable autobiography, Black Boy (1945), Richard Wright recounts growing up in the Jim Crow South.

Post-War Malaise. In the conformist 1950s, literature provided an outlet for commentary on America’s underlying social problems. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, published in 1952, confronted the division between white and black identities in America. In 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian émigré, redefined literary style for a whole generation of writers with his controversial story about unconventional love between a gnarly old man and his prepubescent young protegé, Lolita. Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, published intense poetry highlighting social problems like abortion, gangs, and juvenile delinquency. Members of the Beat Generation, led by cult heroes Jack Kerouac (On the Road) and Allen Ginsberg (Howl), lived wildly and espoused a free-thinking attitude. Playwright Arthur Miller delved into the American psyche with Death of a Salesman (1949), in which he explored the frailty of the American dream. He later wrote The Crucible, a play detailing the Salem witch-hunts, as a critique of Sen. McCarthy’s communist “witch-hunts” .

As Americans increasingly questioned social conventions in the 1960s, writers began to explore more unorthodox material. Anne Sexton revealed the depths of her own mental breakdown in Live or Die (1966), while Sylvia Plath paved the way for feminist authors, exposed her psychological deterioration, and foreshadowed her own suicide in The Bell Jar (1963). The essays and stories of James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time) warned both white and black Americans about the self-destructive implications of racial hatred. Flannery O’Connor exposed the eerie, grotesque underbelly of the contemporary South in short stories such as “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1953).

The search for identity and the attempt to reconcile artistic and social agendas continued into the 1970s and 80s. E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime (1975) evokes vibrant images of turn-of-the-century America, weaving together historical and fictional figures. Toni Morrison (Beloved) won the Nobel Prize for her visceral interpretations of the tension between gender, ethnic, and cultural identities. Don DeLillo’s White Noise (1985) continues the American absurdist tradition and, using both humor and uncanny insight, delves into America’s obsession with mortality. Many stories have also focused on the fast pace and commercialism of modern society. In American Psycho (1991), Bret Easton Ellis exposes the conspicuous consumption of New York City in the 1980s, while the plays of David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) are known for confronting the gritty underside of American business. Among more recent authors, the prolific Philip Roth (American Pastoral) continues to disassemble the American dream. David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day) draws raves for his hilarious, self-deprecating columns and essays about his childhood, family life, and his experience as an American living in France. Distressingly young Jonathan Safran Foer’s newest novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, explores the post-9/11 world and a young person’s place in it.

Music

The United States have given birth to a plethora of musical genres, whose styles and songs have intermingled to produce the many distinct styles that can be heard today. Scott Joplin meshed African-American harmony and rhythm with classical European style to develop the first American piano form, ragtime. From this rich, upbeat, piano-banging dance music of the 19th century to the Deep South’s mournful blues, early African-American music defined soul. The 1950s saw a new, “edgy” style of music arise from America’s youth: rock ’n’ roll. Soul and gospel music evolved into R&B, jazz, funk, and later, hip-hop, while rock exploded in the 60s and 70s into today’s genre of “classic rock.” Recent decades have ushered in new styles of rap, metal, grunge alternative, and teeny-bopper “bubblegum” pop.

Singin’ The Blues. As with ragtime, black Southerners were primarily responsible for the blues, which was originally a blend of Northwest African slave calls and Native American song and verse forms. Blues songs were popularized by legendary “father of the blues” W.C. Handy. His “St. Louis Blues” remains one of the most recorded songs ever. As Southern blacks migrated to industrial centers during the early 20th century, the blues, augmented by the contributions of women like Mamie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith, found an audience in the North. The blues heavily influenced the development of other popular American musical styles, most notably jazz and rock ’n’ roll.

And All That Jazz. Ragtime, blues, and military brass combined in New Orleans in the early 20th century to create America’s classical music, jazz. Its emphasis on improvisation and unique tonal and harmonic rules distinguished it from previous genres. The work of all-time jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ella Fitzgerald influenced the work of later classical composers; Leonard Bernstein’s classical orchestrations and George Gershwin’s theatrical style can both trace their roots and distinctly American sound to the jazz tradition. Early jazz also led to the era of big band music, during which the legendary Duke Ellington and the swing orchestra of Glenn Miller reigned supreme.

Country Roads, Take Me Home. Country music has its roots in the Appalachian Mountains, among a poor rural white population that put a new spin on its ancestral European folk traditions. Sentimental, often spiritual lyrics were combined with simple melodies to create a characteristically honest American sound. The genre owes much of its attitude and sound to classic heroes: Hank Williams cultivated an air of tragic, honky-tonk mystique, while Johnny Cash left his mark with brazen, devil-may-care honesty. Commercially, country didn’t catch on until it was given a boost by radio and Nashville’s famous 1930s program the Grand Ole Opry, which allowed country artists like Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris to capture both Southern and Northern audiences. Recently, country artists like Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, and LeAnn Rimes, as well as country-pop crossovers like the Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill, have combined to bring modern country into the mainstream.

Folk music, a related genre, has often embraced political and social activism through its lyrics and spirit. Woody Guthrie’s music touched upon issues of patriotism amidst the Great Depression (“This Land is Your Land”). Thanks to artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, folk music became more popular in the 1960s, speaking to social protesters across the nation. During the hippie generation, people used songs like “We Shall Overcome” and “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” to express their opinions about relevant issues and to unify their protests. Folk survives today in coffee shops, on street corners, and in musicians like Dar Williams.

Put Another Dime In The Jukebox, Baby. No one can say exactly how rock ’n’ roll was started, but it grew out of an attempt to reconcile African-American rhythm and blues with the traditionally white country western music. Elvis Presley was the crowned “King,” after he became the first artist to cross the racial barrier in music, uniting country and R&B. His rock kingdom, Graceland , is a popular attraction for Memphis tourists. During the 1950s and 60s rock ’n’ roll’s driving, danceable rhythms, rebellious attitude, and fascination with electric instruments dominated the popular music charts. As teenagers looked for something more exciting and daring to express their style, rock ’n’ roll reflected the new post-WWII optimism and innocence throughout America. The genre has produced most of America’s more famous music icons—before Elvis, there was Chuck Berry and then Jerry Lee Lewis, who ushered in a new era of poodle skirts and slicked-back hair. In the 60s and 70s, rock used bluegrass melodies, classic beats, and the wailing guitar solos made famous by Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin to create classic rock, a genre that lives on with artists like Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith.

Mo’ Music. In 1961 Berry Gordy, Jr. started a little company in Detroit that revolutionized American music. Motown was an all-black record label that produced hit artists like The Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and The Jackson Five, which provided Michael Jackson’s first entry into the music world. Descended from gospel and the blues, the unmistakable “Motown sound” combined smooth lyrics with funk backing, sparking a new genre of soul music. Unlike previous African-American musical acts, Motown artists did not strive to integrate their sound into the white music world. Rather, Motown singers were the first African-American musicians to infuse their music with a socio-political message. Listeners changed Martha and the Vandellas’ song “Dancing in the Street” from a party song into a theme song for civil rights riots in 1967 Detroit. James Brown’s song “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1968) espoused black power and black pride. Today’s R&B, however, has drifted far from its roots and is often inseparable from hip-hop. Artists like R. Kelly and Beyoncé have led R&B’s charge toward hip-hop and the mainstream pop music. R&B’s links to Motown are now barely visible.

Disco Balls, Hair Bands, And Gangsta Rap. The 1970s will be forever remembered as the era of disco. Disco divas like Gloria Gaynor (“I Will Survive”) and funk bands like The Bee-Gees dominated American nightlife and fostered a culture that celebrated dancing, drugs, and excess. The 1980s witnessed a rap revolution, spawned by East Coast stars Public Enemy, Run-DMC, and the Beastie Boys. The 80s also ushered in the popularity of “hair bands” like Poison and punk rockers like The Ramones, not to mention that little entertainer named Madonna. In the early 90s, grunge music escaped from the garage and broke into the national spotlight largely because of Seattle’s Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The West Coast birthed the “gangsta rap” movement (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg) in the 90s, prompting much debate over the promotion of violence and excessive misogyny in its lyrics. The legendary East Coast-West Coast feud between NYC’s Notorious B.I.G. and L.A.’s Tupac Shakur split the rap community and ended with both rappers’ deaths six months apart in 1996-97. Eminem rocketed to international stardom with provocative lyrics and outlandish persona, 50 Cent stormed onto the scene as a tough-talking, big-selling bully, and Jay-Z cemented a place in the up-and-coming world of contemporary rap.

Dirty Pop. Pop-Punk broke into the mainstream during the 1990s with Green Day’s rise to fame. With the help of artists like Blink-182 and Good Charlotte, this toned-down and upbeat version of the 80’s heavy punk has continued to have a major presence in young America’s iPod. But the late 90s and the new millennium have been primarily dominated by a resurgence of bubblegum pop and dance tunes. Barely 16 years old when their first album was released, the New Kids on the Block spearheaded the boy-band phenomenon. The MTV generation of consumer teens has sustained the popularity of young superstars like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Although some purists criticize the genre for lacking real musical substance, pop’s prominence on the Billboard charts indicates that young fans couldn’t care less. Kelly Clarkson, winner of the first season of the reality TV competition American Idol, exemplifies pop’s stronghold in American culture.

Great American Composers. It may lag behind some European countries in famous orchestral composers per capita, but the US has had its fair share of musical heavy-hitters. One of the earliest American composers was William Billings, a Boston-born composer of patriotic hymns such as Chester (1778). The 19th century played host to the “March King,” John Philip Sousa, whose work includes the US’s official march, The Stars and Stripes Forever, which is a favorite at Fourth of July celebrations. Charles Ives moonlighted as a composer, winning the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Third Symphony. George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue) made his mark in classical composition during the early 20th century before extending his talents to Broadway and Hollywood. He later teamed up with his brother, Ira Gershwin, to write and compose classics like the operetta Porgy and Bess. Born in 1900, when the music world had not yet fully recognized Americans as great composers, Aaron Copland is considered by many to be the pioneer of American classical music. He is best known for his concert (Appalachian Spring) and ballet (Billy the Kid) works, but he also composed jazz and movie soundtracks. Perhaps the most influential classical composer of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein is best known for his scores for Broadway musicals West Side Story and On the Town. He also played an important role in the increased popular acceptance of classical music. Stephen Sondheim learned his craft from a legend, Oscar Hammerstein II, and has since set the standard for Broadway musical composition. Winner of seven Tony Awards for his work on Broadway, Sondheim has also received acclaim for his big-screen compositions, and won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Original Song for Sooner or Later.

Film

Silent Cinema And Pre-Code Talkies. Before sound was wedded to image in the first “talkie”—1927’s The Jazz Singer—silent films ruled the screen. Silent films quickly went out of fashion once sound entered the picture, and aspiring filmmakers were lured to the West Coast by incentives from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, with the lure of sunshine, a potentially cheap labor force, inexpensive land for studio construction, and varied landscapes for all genres of film. By these virtues, Hollywood, CA quickly became the center of the movie business. In the 1920s, movie stars such as comedians Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the swashbuckling daredevil Douglas Fairbanks, and the hopeless romantic Clara Bow emerged as bankable celebrities. Films such as Sunrise (1927) and The Crowd (1928) combined innovative cinematography and compelling narratives that remain popular to this day. Early films did not ignore socially charged topics. D.W. Griffith’s first American epic feature, The Birth of a Nation, chronicled the Civil War and its aftermath during Reconstruction. The iconoclastic film argued for white supremacy, a racist message that was met with considerable controversy and protest. In conjunction with public’s visceral reaction to The Birth of a Nation, critics began wondering publicly about the moral value of movies and their power as a medium. In an effort to prevent what seemed like imminent federal regulation, filmmakers created the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), a self-regulating board that would address these pertinent concerns internally.

Classically Cool. The film industry’s success led to the expansion of the studio system. Giant Hollywood production houses like Paramount, MGM, 20th Century Fox, and Warner exerted their influence over selected films, budgets, scripts, actors, writers, and directors, editing, scoring and publicity. American film’s golden age took place during the height of the studio era, when Hollywood’s four major studios standardized and dominated films. Victor Fleming’s Gone with the Wind (1939), a Civil War epic, was the first large-scale movie extravaganza, redefining the bounds of cinematic scope. Frank Capra, who explored American values in films like It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), brought a conscience to entertainment. Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942), starring Humphrey Bogart, was a classic cinematic romance with a patriotic and politicized background. In 1941, Orson Welles unveiled his intricate masterpiece, Citizen Kane, a landmark work that revolutionized the potential of narrative structure. Fantasy dominated ticket sales: Walt Disney’s animated Snow White (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz (1939) kept producers well-fed, while Frankenstein (1931) and King Kong (1933) were wildly successful as well.

Epics, Horror, And The Celebrity. Heightened tensions with the Soviet Union led to paranoid witch-hunt investigations conducted by the House of Representatives’ Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which aimed to root out suspected communists in Hollywood but ended up repressing liberal themes in films. The resulting communist anxiety manifested itself in films concerning invading armies of evil aliens such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The War of the Worlds (1953). Competition from television prompted innovations and gimmicks such as cine-rama, 3-D, Smell-O-Vision, and CinemaScope to bring audiences back to the cinema. The revival of epic films like The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), and Spartacus (1960) took advantage of the new big-screen format. Meanwhile, Alfred Hitchcock created horror films like Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960) that still evoke jumps and screams from viewers.

The 1950s also saw the emergence of a cult of glamour surrounding the most luminous celebrities and creating the star system. Cloaked in glitz and scandal, sex symbols Marilyn Monroe, James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause), Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson drew audiences to movies by name recognition alone. These stars, along with actors Marlon Brando (A Streetcar Named Desire) and Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), brought their own mystique to the screen, and cemented cinema’s omnipresence in America’s consciousness. The phenomenon of the Hollywood celebrity is alive and well today.

The New Classics. The 1960s and early 70s saw widespread social upheaval involving political, sexual, social tensions. Adapting to the demands of younger, more liberal audiences, studios enlisted directors influenced by the French New Wave as well as artists from other media to direct features. With studios more willing to gamble, and a new movie ratings board—the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)—to replace censorship, the work of a number of innovative filmmakers began to enter the mainstream. Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and A Clockwork Orange (1971) brought a literary importance to filmmaking. Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969) depicted counter-cultural youth rebellion and disillusionment with the American dream, while acclaimed To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962) established film as a means of expressing social and political criticism. Blaxploitation, a new genre that emerged in the early 1970s sensationalized portrayals of urban African-Americans with films like Shaft.

Throughout the 1970s, experimentalism largely gave way to less embellished treatment of equally serious issues. Film-schooled directors like Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver), Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather), and Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) brought technical skill to their exploration of the darker side of humanity. An influx of foreign filmmakers, like Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and Roman Polański (Chinatown), rejuvenated creativity in American film.

Paying The Bills. Driven by the mass global distribution of American cinema and the development of high-tech special effects, the late 1970s and 80s witnessed the birth of the blockbuster. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws kicked off the trend in 1973 by piloting the now standard advertising methods of TV previews, movie merchandise, media stunts, and theme music publicity. Following this breakout success, Spielberg produced E.T. (1982) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). George Lucas followed the special effects trend with his Star Wars trilogy in the late 70s and early 80s. Though such films were criticized for a reliance on effects, they almost single-handedly restored Hollywood as America’s choice for entertainment.

Despite Hollywood’s increasing commercialism, quite a bit of highly imaginative work emerged during this period, including Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap (1984), a hilarious mockumentary of popular music, and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), a disturbing look at the primal terror beneath the tranquil surface of suburbia. Blockbuster productions swept through the 1990s, with high-budget money makers like the dinosaur thriller Jurassic Park (1993), and the decadent love story Titanic (1997) drawing the largest crowds. Recently, a revolution in digital film technology has spawned such hits as Shrek (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), and Ratatouille (2007) that cater to children and adult audiences with lush computer animation and layered jokes that combine pop culture with whimsical farce.

Independent(Ly) Awesome. The recognition of independent, or indie, films—films that are either produced independently of any major studio or at least do not follow standard studio conventions—marks cinema’s most interesting turn in the last several years. Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have created some of the most creative and original work of late, including the gruesome comedy Fargo (1996) and the hilarious, off-beat The Big Lebowski (1998). Quentin Tarantino’s cool action (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Paul Thomas Anderson’s emotionally charged and frequently sprawling storytelling style (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), and Wes Anderson’s dark, quirky humor (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) have all infused American cinema with fresh, new life. Recently, however, films have been tackling heavier issues. Michael Moore’s ultra-liberal documentaries Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko and Mel Gibson’s graphic and highly controversial film The Passion of the Christ are only a few examples. Small-budget documentaries including Moore’s queries into American culture and politics, Morgan Spurlock’s fast-food exposé Supersize Me (2004), Jeffrey Blitz’s Spellbound (2004), which chronicles the dark side of spelling bees, and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006), which illuminates the graveness of global warming, have also gained popularity recently.

Fine Arts

American art has often been dismissed as a poor reflection of European trends. Despite this stereotype, it has a rich history grounded in the country’s expansion. Its raw and uncontrolled nature is reflected not only in the grandiose 19th-century

landscape paintings that capture the beauty of the untamed West, but also in the unwieldy lines and shapes of American 20th-century abstract expressionism.

Painting. Portraiture flourished in colonial America. John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, and Gilbert Stuart rendered intimate likenesses of iconic revolutionary figures from Paul Revere to George Washington. In the first half of the 19th century, Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand produced ambitious landscapes with didactic overtones. Cole was one of the earliest artists in the Hudson River School, a group of painters who combined expressive depictions of nature with ideas about the divine. Later, Winslow Homer’s vibrant watercolors captured the wild side of nature in sweeping seascapes, while softer American Impressionists like Childe Hassam depicted the effects of light in New England city scenes. The turn of the 20th century saw an emphasis on Realism and the depiction of urban life. The group of painters known as the Ash Can School, led by Robert Henri, promoted “art for art’s sake.” By the 1940s, Abstract Expressionism was reborn in the US. Country-wide anxiety over international unrest and the threat of war bore heavily on the American psyche. In drip paintings and color field works, painters like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko reflected the ironic mix of swaggering confidence and frenetic insecurity that characterized Cold War America. Ushering in the age of Pop Art, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol used mass-produced, cartoonish images to satirize the icons of American popular culture. Art that enshrined the mundane blurred the boundaries between “high culture” and “mass culture,” and became symbolic of the growing postmodernist movement. The 1980s art boom, centered around private galleries in New York City and L.A., ushered in a decade of slick, idyllic paintings and the kitschy sculptures of Jeff Koons.

Photography. Beginning in the early 20th century, photography became the medium of choice for artists with a social conscience. Jakob Riis and Lewis Hine photographed the urban poor and child laborers, while Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange captured destitute farmers during the Great Depression. Ansel Adams used his photographs of rugged Western landscapes as tools in his quest for natural conservation in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Robert Frank’s snapshots caught the social transitions and tensions of 1960s America. In the 1970s, photography came into its own as back-to-basics 35mm photographs pushed the boundaries of defined art.

The Media

America is wired. Images, sounds, and stories from the television, radio, Internet, newspapers, and magazines infiltrate every aspect of the American lifestyle. Fads have been popularized and fortunes have been made thanks solely to the power of mass media, but because of its pervasive power, constant debate rages over who should be held responsible for the media’s content. Despite controversy about policing the industry, American consumption of new media continues to grow.

Television. TV sets are found in over 98% of US homes. Competition between the five national networks (ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC), cable television, and satellite TV has triggered exponential growth in TV culture. Network prime time (8-11 EST) often features America’s most popular shows like courtroom drama Law and Order (NBC), desert island drama, Lost (ABC), and hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy (ABC). Cable TV provides special-interest channels that cover every subject from cooking to sports to science fiction. Premium stations air recently released movies along with regular programming; one favorite is HBO, which boasts the fame-oriented Entourage and Showtime’s Weeds. Travelers will find that some hotel rooms come equipped with basic cable, while others offer premium stations and pay-per-view channels.

Although reality television began with MTV’s “The Real World” in 1992, it surged to what seemed to be its peak after Survivor’s (CBS) popularity in the early 21st century, and it has made a comeback with such ultra-popular shows American Idol (Fox) and Donald Trump’s The Apprentice (NBC). On Idol, contestants compete for a recording contract and instant fame, while Trump’s contestants compete for the chance to work for “The Donald” himself. The father of modern reality television, Survivor, has slipped considerably since its early days. Still, the cable station MTV seems to have gotten it right: teenagers still spend hours glued to reality programs The Real World and Road Rules.

Comedy programs also dominate much of TV-land. The long-running Saturday Night Live (NBC) is a perennial favorite and has helped launch the careers of comedians Will Ferrell and Al Franken, while late-night television is sustained by the comic stylings of talk-show hosts like David Letterman on The Late Show (CBS) and Conan O’Brien on Late Night (NBC). Recently, fake news correspondents who sensationalize political bloopers and provide social commentary like The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have generated an avid viewership. Daytime programming is less watched and tends to fill the hours with tawdry soap operas and talk shows.

Television is the point of entry to worldwide news for most Americans. Twenty-four hour news coverage is available on cable stations such as CNN, MSNBC, and the Fox News Channel. Each major network presents local and national nightly news (usually at 5 and/or 11pm EST), while prime-time “newsmagazines” like 60 Minutes (CBS), Dateline (NBC), and 20/20 (ABC) specialize in investigative reports and special-interest stories. ESPN, a cable channel, gives viewers “all sports, all the time” and has capitalized on America’s sporting obsession with the ever-popular SportsCenter, the definitive sports news show. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is commercial-free and funded by viewer contributions, the federal government, and corporate grants. Its repertoire includes educational children’s shows like Sesame Street—America’s seminal childhood TV-watching experience—as well as nature programs, mystery shows, and British comedies.

Print. Despite the onset of sophisticated technologies like TV and the Internet, Americans still cherish the feel of glossy pages and the smell of newsprint. Newsstands still crowd city corners and transportation terminals throughout the country. Publications cover all areas of society, culture, and politics; whether it’s for lounging away a Sunday afternoon at home or passing time in a doctor’s waiting room, print media is holding its ground against digital competitors.

Ranging from trashy tabloids like the National Enquirer to the most influential and respected news breakers, American print media is notably diverse. Often subject to criticism for being too liberal, or sensational, it remains generally accurate and accountable. Some of the nation’s most well-respected newspapers include The New York Times and The Washington Post, though every major city has at least one major paper. Women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan and men’s magazines like GQ center on sex and fashion. The New Yorker amuses subscribers with short stories, essays, and cartoons. Entertainment magazines like People and US Weekly chronicle celebrity gossip, while Rolling Stone focuses on music. Financial wizards swear by The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Sports buffs troll the pages of Sports Illustrated, the country’s preeminent sports magazine.

Radio. Before television transformed American culture, the radio was the country’s primary source of entertainment and news. Classic comedy programs like The Jack Benny Show and the crackly news coverage of Edward R. Murrow amused and informed Americans for decades. WDIA, an all black radio station in the late 1940s, expounded ideas about religion and politics and was instrumental in uniting the African-American community in the years leading up to the civil rights movement. Even though television’s moving images and crisper sounds have reduced radio’s earlier, widespread popularity, it remains a treasured medium in America’s car-dependent culture. Radio is generally divided into AM and FM; talk radio comprises most of the low-frequency AM slots, while the high-powered FM stations feature most of the music. Each broadcaster owns a four-letter call-name, with “W” as the first letter for those east of the Mississippi River (as in WJMN), and “K” to the west (as in KPFA).

The more intellectually-minded listen to National Public Radio (NPR). Full of classical music and social pundits, NPR disseminates information about everything from general news on Morning Edition to car repair on the irreverent but useful Car Talk. Supplying the country’s regional needs, local stations give up-to-the-minute news reports and air a wide range of music.

Internet. In the late 90s, the Internet—which got its humble start at the hands of the US government as a small networking device—exploded with the mass production of personal computers and software by Apple and Microsoft and the subsequent creation of user-friendly services like amazon.com and America Online (AOL). The rise of the Internet has firmly cemented email in the lives of most Americans, and such simple, free hosts as hotmail.com and gmail.com seem to be here to stay.

Since then, the Internet has been steadily increasing in importance. News-hungry intellectuals can find to-the-minute updates on all the stories fit to print on cnn.com and nytimes.com, making radio, television, and print seem less important. The rise of sophisticated search engines like google.com made the burgeoning digital world possible, along with the preeminence of flashy and lucrative Internet start-up companies.

The turn of the millennium brought with it the expansion of the Internet, revolutionizing the way Americans watch TV and listen to music. Napster, a slick program designed to let users “share” music for free, burst onto the web in the late 90s only to be quashed by music companies, who demanded legislation outlawing filesharing. The Internet, however, quickly created other options: iTunes, for instance, allows users to buy music, movies, and TV shows for immediate download.