“Today’s relativists could not have gotten away with their double standards in a culture that prized truth. But a gradual, sustained assault on truth has been carried out through the soft underbelly of Western culture: the arts. In film, music, and television, the themes of sensual pleasure and individual choice have drowned out the tried-and-true …
Art That Is Dangerous to Diabetics
“But among evangelicals, morality and spirituality are usually the primary determinants of the quality and acceptability of art, at the expense of aesthetic and cultural considerations. Pious themes, jejune lyrics, sweet-sounding music, didactic dialogue and Pollyannaish endings characterize much evangelical music, movies, fiction and television programming” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 327. Amen. But …
If the Bible Described a Red Wagon, This Means the Idea of Red Is Meaningful
“When the Bible says that Abigail was a beautiful and intelligent woman (1 Sam. 25:3), this means that there is such a thing as feminine loveliness. When the Bible calls us to sing a new song to God and to play skillfully with a shout of joy (Ps. 33:1), this means that there is such …
Oh Great
“According to a recent report, overseas film earnings are growing at twice the annual rate of the domestic market; Hollywood accounts for about half the movie market in Japan and two-thirds of all movie tickets sold in Germany, France and Italy. Generally about 70 percent of films shown around the world are U.S. productions” (William …
And Where Would We Be Without Music Videos?
“The ‘Fab Four’ first captured the serious attention of critics and intellectuals with their cinematic debut in A Hard Day’s Night (1964), considered a precursor of today’s music videos” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 218).
Black and Tan
“Rock was a derivative of two other popular music traditions in the rural South that existed alongside the Anglo-American one: the country or ‘hillbilly’ music of rural southern whites (country blues and gospel, honky-tonk and bluegrass) and the African-American tradition (blues, rhythm and blues, jazz and gospel music).” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 209).
Not A Parody. I Repeat . . .
This is what you get when you allow women preachers. Or, rather, this is what you don’t get. Or something.
When the Seers Are Blind
“In a series of cases beginning in 1957, the Court judged that obscenity and the representation of sexuality were not the same thing and that ‘material dealing with sex in a manner that advocates ideas . . . or has literary or scientific or artistic value or any other forms of social importance may not …
What Huxley Called “The Feelies”
“[T]he court delineated between the transmission of culture and the provision of entertainment, and relegate movies to the fulfillment of the latter. This is most ironic, because the film that led to this case, Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, had demonstrated the power and potential of film as an intellectual and artistic medium. Now, …
Gotta Be Authentic
“With the emergence of high and low cultural categories around the turn of the century, distinctions were created between ‘commercial’ art, or entertainment, and nineteenth century ‘high’ art, that which was considered creative and authentic” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 76).