Rock me on the water : 1974 : the year Los Angeles transformed movies, music, television, and politics /
Documents the kaleidoscopic year during which transformative talents from Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, and Beverly Hills heavily influenced pop culture, politics, and social movements.
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers,
[2021]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
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| Summary: | Documents the kaleidoscopic year during which transformative talents from Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, and Beverly Hills heavily influenced pop culture, politics, and social movements. In this lively and star-studded cultural history, Ronald Brownstein tells the panoramic story of one monumental year, 1974, that marked Los Angeles' creative peak, a glittering moment when popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what Americca would become. Los Angeles, California, 1974: the year that gave us Chinatown, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, and the filming of Shampoo, Nashville, and Jaws; classic albums by Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and the Eagles; and groundbreaking TV led by All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and M*A*S*H. This was LA's golden house, when it dominated popular culture more than it ever had before--or would again. Working in film, recording, and television studios around Sunset Boulevard; living in Brentwood and Beverly Hills or amid the flickering lights of the Hollywood Hills; a cluster of transformative talents produced an explosion in popular culture that finally reflected the demographic, social, and cultural realities of a changing America. Rock Me on the Water is a record of this moment in time, a behind-the-scenes look at the greatest artistic works of a generation. All told against the backdrop of a shifting political landscape: Jerry Brown moved into Ronald Reagan's office as California's governor just as these artists were coming to the fore. At a time when Richard Nixon won two presidential elections by resisting the social changes unleashed by the 1960s, the cultural landmarks produced in LA foreshadowed the inevitable triumph of those changing attitudes. From Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson to Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, and the Eagles; from Norman Lear and James L. Brooks to Steven Spielberg and Robert Altman; from David Geffen and Irving Azoff to Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden--Brownstein brings them all to life as they achieve career-making successes and build the bridge between the mass American audience and ideas about sex, authority, and relations between men and women that were consdiered insurrectionary during the 1960s. Los Angeles in 1974 represented a confrontation between an immense younger generation intent on change and a political order rooted in the status quo. Today, we are again witnessing a generational cultural divide. Rock Me on the WAter reminds us that while the voices resistant to change may prevail politically at times, they cannot hold back the future. -- |
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| Physical Description: | 439 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 397-428) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780062899217 006289921X |