Movie Analysis

Teens, TV and Tunes The Manufacturing of American Adolescent Culture DOYLE GREENE McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Greene, Doyle, 1962- Teens, TV and tunes : the manufacturing of American adolescent culture I Doyle Greene.

p. em.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7864-6642-9 softcover : acid free paper§ 1. Television and politics- United States. 2. Young consumers- United States. 3. Music and youth- Social aspects. 4. Mass media and culture- United States. 5. Branding (Marketing)- Social aspects. 6. United States­ Sociallife and customs-20th century. 7. United States­ Social life and customs-21st century. 8. Nickelodeon (Firm) 9. Walt Disney Company. I. Title.

PN1992.6.G735 2012 305.230973-dc23 2012002936 BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE © 2012 Doyle Greene. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Miranda Cosgrove, iCarly (Nickelodeon/Photo fest) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Acknowledgements Preface Table of Contents Introduction: Reading Teen Culture Part One: Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty 1: Teen Culture Industry (or, You Pays Your Money and You Takes Your Choice) 2. On the Importance of Being Hip Part Two: The Society of the Teen Sitcom 3. The Form and Function of the Sitcom 4. Free, White, and Teenage Male (or, How to Con Friends and Manipulate People): Saved by the Bell 5. Nickelodeon Nation Building:

From Clarissa Explains It All to Zoey 101 6. The Political Dilemmas of iCarly 7. I Have a Dream job: True Jackson, VP Part Three: Pop Goes Teen Culture 8. The Birth of the Pop Music Sitcom: The Monkees, vi I 3 15 23 39 48 55 72 90 the Archies, and the Partridge Family I 0 I 9. Teen Pop in Opposition: Britney Spears versus Madonna 119 10. My Generation: School of Rock and the Revival of Rock Ideology 133 II. Keeping It Real and Imaginary: The Ideological Contradictions of Hannah Montana 146 vii PART ONE DoN'T TRusT ANYONE OVER THIRTY The crisis consists precisely of the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.-Antonio Gramsci, "State and Civil Society" (1930) In the new millennium there is much less of a generation gap.-Bret Michaels, People magazine (12129/2009} 1 Teen Culture Industry (or, You Pays Your Money and You Takes Your Choice) Adult Production and Teen Consumption In the scope of this project, "teen culture" is defined as cultural production primarily marketed towards an audience of cultural consumers ages 17 and under; in this respect, it could be said the focus is as much on tween culture as it is increasingly differentiated from teen culture as far as critical and marketing discourses. Another way to define it is that "teen culture" is the stuff of the annual Kid's Choice and Teen Choice Awards, and here the word "Choice" becomes crucial. The core contradiction of teen culture is that it is, and always has been, primarily produced by adults in entertainment industries for adolescent consumers save for its occasional teenage stars like Michael Jackson and Donny Osmond in the early 1970s, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera in the late 1990s, or, most recently, Miranda Cosgrove and Miley Cyrus. Converse} y, David Cassidy was 20 when The Partridge Family debuted in 1970 and the Spice Girls were all in their early 20s when their breakthrough hit "Wannabe" was released in 1996. In this way, the term "teen idols" not only (pejoratively) refers to the adult performers but the adolescent fan base who, as far as the teen culture industry goes, might have rancid taste but not filthy lucre. Nevertheless, as much as teen culture is determined by a teen culture industry, teen culture is also determined by teens as far as what brands of teen culture they consume and for how long they consume them. To this extent, teen culture manifests the problematics of mass culture, and the extent the focus cannot be strictly placed on cultural production or cultural consumption. At several levels the production of teen culture epitomizes Theodor W. Adorno's analysis of the Culture Industry. Adorno decried the standardization of culture in modern capitalism into mass produced, easily consumed, and ide­ ologically affirmative ((mass culture'' that negates "true culture" as a challenge and critique of social conditions.' For Adorno, so-called ((true culture" in the twentieth century was a highly select body of avant-garde modernism (e.g., the 15 16 Part One: Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty music of Arnold Schoenberg or the literature of Samuel Beckett) whereas "mass culture" is "popular culture" as a whole: popular music, Hollywood films, tel­ evision, mainstream novels, etc. 2 Rather than resistance, mass culture manu­ factures pseudo-individuality at both the level of production and consumption; as Adorno defined it, "By pseudo-individualization we mean endowing cultural mass production with the halo of free choice or open market on the basis of standardization itself.'' 3 In Why TV Is Not Our Fault (2005), Eileen R. Meehan noted ownership and control of broadcast TV is dominated by the "Big Five" of Disney, General Electric, News Corporation, Time Warner, and Viacom. As well as Disney Chan­ nel, Disney owns ABC and ABC Family channels; Viacom is the parent company of Nickelodeon as well as CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Spike, and VH-1. Defin­ ing the TV industry as an "oligopoly," Meehan suggested: Each company in an oligopoly strives to be number one without destabilizing the oligopoly from which they all benefit, whether as the first or last firm .... True competition would destabilize the oligopoly, putting some of the oligopolists out of business and create a more fluid market structure. Eliminating competition and maintaining the oligopoly is in the interest of each oligopolist. Rivalry exists only to the degree that each oligopolist tries to be the first among equals. 4 As far as teen sitcoms and Second Wave Teen Pop, this largely boils down to the "Big Two" of Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.' The rivalry rather than competition between Disney Channel and Nickelodeon in the teen culture industry has become one of producing almost identical products. The success of Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh, a teen sitcom about two highly dissimilar step­ brothers (one carefree Hip and one uptight Square) was followed by Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, a teen sitcom about two highly dis­ similar twin brothers (one impetuous Hip and the other reserved Square, if not quite as pronounced as the Hip-Square binary of Drake and Josh). With the immense success of Disney's Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, Nick­ elodeon responded with teen sitcoms about a teenage rock band (The Naked Brothers Band), a boy band (Big Time Rush), and a teenage girl at a performing arts high school with the career goal of becoming a pop star (Victorious). The popularity of Disney's High School Musical films spawned the almost identical Nickelodeon made-for- TV film Spectacular! (The more "mature" brand of High School Musical is offered by FOX with Glee.) The success of Nickelodeon's iCarly, about a teenage girl who produces her own comedy webshow and allows for show-within-a-show skits, was followed by Disney Channel's Sonny with a Chance, a self-described "TV comedy about a TV comedy" wherein a teenage girl lands a role on a popular teen comedy-variety show which allows for show­ within-a-show skits. 6 Beyond the almost parasitic TV product and production, cross-marketing between teen sitcoms and teen pop is now standard operating procedureJ Most I. Tee11 Culture I11dustry 17 overtly, this entails the manufacture of teen pop performers out of pop music sitcoms including Hannah Montana, The Naked Brothers Band, and Big Time Rush. Moreover, a partial listing of current and former Disney Channel and Nickelodeon teen sitcom cast members who entered the pop music market includes Hilary Duff (Lizzie McGuire), Drake Bell (Drake and Josh), Emma Roberts (Unfabulous), Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), Emily Osment (Hannah Montana), Mitchel Musso (Hannah Montana), Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly), Jen­ nette McCurdy (iCarly), Selena Gomez (Wizards ofWaverly Place), Keke Palmer (True Jackson, VP), Demi Lovato (Sonny with a Chance), Victoria justice (Vic­ torious), and Leon Thomas III (Victorious). 8 Each popular teen sitcom is accom­ panied by a plethora of merchandise ranging from DVDs, CDs, books, video games, sundry fan collectables, toys, and fashion. True jackson, VP cross­ marketed a "Mad Style by True jackson" line of clothing in partnership with Wal-Mart; one commercial featured a multicultural group of tween girls danc­ ing to the True Jackson, VP theme song. Miley Cyrus also markets clothing through Wal-Mart, and Selena Gomez markets a "Dream Out Loud" fashion line through K-Mart.

Here two points need to be stressed. One is that the Culture Industry aspects of teen culture are hardly some recent and diabolical invention of Disney and Nickelodeon. Since Howdy Doody premiered in 1947, the close relationship between "kiddie TV, and advertising has been the ongoing subject of concerns and complaints; hence, the appeal of PBS as a site of educational TV is that the network is "commercial free" as well as politically liberal-to-moderate in mes­ sage. While a more "mature, brand of teen culture- meaning an adult isn't embarrassed to admit being a fan of the show- Glee similarly cross-markets between TV, pop music, and a plethora of related merchandise.' Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin were business enterprises as well as rock performers. The Rolling Stones are as much a corporation as a rock band, with cross-marketed products in 2010 including "Rolling Stones Special Editions" of the Trivia Pursuit and Monopoly board games. The most glaring contradiction becomes U2 as the saviors of rock progressive populism and global humanitarianism while U2 singer Bono shakes hands with George W. Bush, hugs Vladimir Putin, and promotes the ethical capitalism of his Product Red line in conjunction with multinationals like Apple, Gap, and Starbucks. 10 As Norma Coates noted, such practices are "conveniently ignored or denied by rock critics in their attempt to somehow blame teenybopper fans, artists, and television for such abominations."ll Indeed, the Monkees were reviled for their manufactured TV origins, their lack of ((authenticity," extensive and excessive marketing, and predominantly "teenybopper" assumed audience in the 1960s. Nonetheless, the Monkees under­ went a critical redemption as producers of well-crafted pop music and the inventors of music video in the 1980s (discussed further in Chapter 8). In the 1970s, Kiss was unmercifully flayed by rock critics not only for their hard 18 Part One: Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty rock/heavy metal music and monster movie/superhero imagery, but the accom­ panying flood of merchandise that ranged from a special edition Kiss comic book, Kiss make-up kits, and a horrendous made-for TV movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (NBC, 1978). Kiss is now considered an eminent 1970s classic rock band. To this extent, the revisionism is not only historical but polit­ ical, and owes to the fact that the Monkees and Kiss are now part of the middle­ age adult pop culture canon, and therefore elevated to a status of new respectability and superiority in comparison to current teen culture. 12 The other issue is the extent that popular culture allows any spaces for individual and collective resistance. Simon Frith suggested: Production and consumption were ... the focus of the mass culture debate .... Out of Adorno have come analysis of the economics of entertainment in which the ideological effects ... the transformation of a creative people into a passive mass­ are taken for granted .... From [Walter] Benjamin have come subcultural theories ... youth subcultures are said to make their own meanings, to create cultures in the act of consumption. 13 Again, "choice" becomes pivotal as far as teen culture consumption. At worst, teen culture criticism denies tweens and teens have any capacity to make informed consumer decisions and instead mindlessly race to the store to buy any and all products remotely connected to their favorite and unvaryingly "bad" assortment of TV shows, music, movies, etc. In effect, this argument takes an Adorno-Culture Industry view of teen culture as mass production and market deception. At best, teen culture criticism grants tweens and teens make con­ sumer choices although much of their taste is still deemed awful until they become more mature cultural consumers and appreciate the same cultural prod­ ucts as adults. This argument is a backhanded application of the Benjamin­ subculture argument in which teen consumption manufactures a counterfeit cultural identity until they "grow up." Both of these positions ultimately "devalue" teen culture and teen consumers and instead reflect an elitism that permeates adult attitudes around contemporary teen culture. Teen Culture and the New Generation Gap If the modern mass audience no longer understands Oedipus Rex, I would go so far as to say this is the fault of Oedipus Rex and not the fault of the audience. 14-Anton in Artaud While it appears to be stating the obvious, generational conflict permeates teen culture at the levels of text and context. Historically, primetime domestic sitcoms focus on precocious toddlers and pernicious teenagers being molded by effective parenting. This can be represented by content families (Leave It to I. Teen Culture Industry 19 Beaver, The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, or The Cosby Show), fathers besieged by insolent wives and children (Married ... With Children, Home Improvement, George Lopez, My Wife and Kids, According to Jim, or The War at Hon-ze), or beleaguered single moms coping with uncooperative ex-husbands and kids (One Day at a Time, Reba, or The New Adventures of Old Christine). Even teen-centered primetime sitcoms- the more notable recent examples being That 70's Show, Malcolm in the Middle, and Everybody Hates Chris- gave equal time to the problems of the teenagers (school, romance, parental control) and the adults (work, marriage, troublesome kids). 15 Dan Schneider's teen programming for Nickelodeon did not develop around gauging current teen consumer taste and trends, but TV he watched as a kid- the classical sitcoms and comedy-variety shows. As important, Schnei­ der was cognizant that teens and tweens demand shows that offer a sense of empowerment, a view quite compatible with Nickelodeon's programming agenda as a "kids only" TV network. As Schneider put it, When you're a kid, most of the time you're being told to shut up by adults. In school: be quiet. Your dad's watching a show: be quiet. Even the kids who seem to have a lot of freedom, their lives are pretty controlled. So what I try to do on my shows is have the kids come out on top. They're the smartest ones in the room. They're the ones in charge. 16 As discussed in Chapters 5 and 6, this also becomes the ideological tension in Schneider's teen sitcoms. Zoey 101 and iCarly can read as neoliberal updates of the hippie battle cry "Don't trust anyone over thirty!" (Hannah Montana, True jackson VP, and even Schneider's own Victorious are another matter)Y These sitcoms posit that "adults are best who govern least," and provide ethical and ideological lessons around self-governing teenagers and their self-regulating communities which run better on their own rather than the dictates of insti­ tutional adult power structures imposed on them (parents, teachers, business­ people, police, etc.). In terms ofneoliberalism, the metaphor is how to maintain a workable liberal democracy without "big government." If adults largely control the production of teen culture, Schneider's com­ ments suggest an additional contradiction. As a multiplicity of discourses, teen culture can overtly presents itself as ''speaking for the kids)) and offer represen­ tations of"teen empowerment" while it can also impose adult lessons and values as to what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable modes of social behavior, such as True Jackson, VP (see Chapter 7). Rock music quite loudly celebrates freedom, non-conformity, and rebellion, be it the hardcore punk of the Circle Jerks' "Wild in the Streets" and Black Flag's "Rise Above" or the teen pop of Hannah Montana's "We Got the Party" and Miley Cyrus's "Robot." Sitcoms often negate the agency of teenagers with lessons that reinforce obedience to a status quo where the adults are «the ones in charge." With the intersection of teen pop and teen sitcoms the tension becomes especially pronounced. As far 20 Part One: Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty Cross-marketing rock ideology: School of Rock promotional image modeled on a Rolling Stone magazine cover (Photofest). 1. Teen Culture Industry 21 as ideology marketing, Hannah Montana becomes ensnared in the contradiction between individuality and agency (the message of teen pop) versus community and conformity (the message of teen sitcoms) which ultimately reaches an untenable crisis in Hannah Montana: The Movie and cannot be rectified under­ neath the film's superficial sappiness; conversely, Big Time Rush champions individualism while community becomes the byproduct of domination (respec­ tively discussed in Chapters 11 and 12).

Specific political messages aside, teen culture is itself a form of identity pol­ itics. While teen culture is produced for teenagers by adults, teen culture is con­ sumed by teenagers and through their consumption they define their particular generation. Put differently, while teens may be forced to order from the menu of the teen culture industry, they also decide what "chiz" they won't eat. 18 Never­ theless, the demonization of teen culture is still rooted in critical positions that it is all derivative swill that preys on naiVe waifs. A more famous example was the 2001 documentary "The Merchants of Cool" aired on PBS Frontline, a blan­ ket attack on the Big Five and how they "exert unprecedented power in mar­ keting messages to young people, capitalizing on the lifestyle of 'cool' and incorporating what have historically been subversive and anti-establishment ideologies as the very center of marketing strategies. "19 Again, this is a valid but limited assessment of teen culture, and "The Merchants of Cool" need be qualified around its own political agenda. Increasingly a niche network for middle-aged, middle-class liberals who were teens or young adults in the 1960s and 1970s, PBS has become a bastion for perpetuating the myths of the 1960s as the apex of American progressivism and youth counterculture (in November 2010, PBS premiered documentaries on Hubert H. Humphrey as well as john Lennon). The 2010 American Masters documentary on the Doors was one par­ ticular example, with the closing statement asserting the Doors remain oppo­ sitional culture because they have never licensed their songs for car commercials.

In ~'The Merchants of Cool," contemporary teen culture is reduced to crass corporate profiteering. In the American Masters documentary on the Doors, authentic youth culture in all of its supposed subversive glory is found in the 1960s counterculture that always was, is, and will be ''anti-Establishment." Since World War II, each successive generation has grown up around the cultural discourses of cinema, comic books> TV, and rock music as increasingly legitimized forms of culture (for instance, the comic book that is now the "graphic novel"). When teen culture versus adult culture first emerged in the 1950s, it was a fairly clear binary between high culture versus low culture and unambiguously expressed in Chuck Berry's hit song "Roll Over, Beethoven" (1956). After 50-plus years, the debate is no longer high culture versus low cul­ ture and whether and why kids should be listening to Beethoven instead of Chuck Berry. The debate now is over "high popular culture" versus "low popular culture" and whether and why kids should be listening to the Beatles instead of Britney Spears. 22 Part One: Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty There is much to be critical of as far as the production and consumption of teen culture as there is the production and consumption of adult culture­ and each on its own terms. Teens in the 1960s and 1970s demanded their own counterculture and not the culture of their parents. As adults, they now insist on imposing their youth culture on teenagers in the twenty-first century, exem­ plified in cultural discourses ranging from PBS, Rolling Stone, and School of Rock. The contradiction of the Woodstock generation of the 1960s and the classic rock generation of the 1970s is that they have become the middle-aged Estab­ lishment as much as they wish to define themselves as the older and more sophisticated version of their rebellious anti-Establishment teen essence­ painfully signified by the remaining members of the Who, now in their sixties rather than being part of the 1960s, trotting out "My Generation" at the 2010 Super Bowl halftime show. Almost inevitably, each generation dismisses the teen culture of the subsequent generations while it nostalgically and more des­ perately clings to its own teenage cultural canon well into adulthood. Even though teen culture is a product of specific historical pressures, political ten­ sions, and social conditions, adults insist their particular era of teen culture has a timeless significance that not only defined their generation but should define all generations to come. Pity the poor teenager in the twenty-first century who doesn't appreciate the eternal quality and metaphysical wisdom of Star Wars or "Stairway to Heaven," and also pity the poor parent who failed as cultural mentor in the process. It is not that there is "much less of a generation gap" as cultural theorist Bret Michaels would have it. Rather, the generation gap has been obscured by the fact that since the 1950s the popular culture of movies, TV, and popular music- especially rock music- are not only "dominant culture" but main­ stream cultural discourses. The struggle between adolescent autonomy and adult authority remains the central aspect of generational politics. Indeed, the drive to canonize the ge'nerational signifiers of past decades as an authentic and superior culture to the inauthentic and inferior teen culture of the present is as much evidence of this ongoing struggle as any proof it has diminished in the twenty-first century. In this respect, the crisis in American popular culture, to paraphrase Antonio Gramsci, can be assessed as one where "the old refuses to die and the new cannot be born." 182 Notes- Chapter I out this project, the reader will note that there are no lyrics quoted; a general interpretation or summation of the lyrical message is provided. The concern is how music manufactures "message" rather than lyrics, and lyrics are frequently overemphasized in the discussions of popular music at the expense of textual analysis of music itself. 10. By "stadium rock" (sometimes termed "arena rock)," I am referring to rock bands em­ phasizing a commercial hybrid ofhard rock, heavy metal, and pop. Boston, Foreigner, Lover­ boy, REO Speedwagon, Styx, and especially Journey and Bon Jovi were among the most com­ mercially successful stadium-rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s, but my definition could include Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Van Hafen and the 1980s "hair bands," such as Poison or Warrant. In this respect, my usage of the term departs from Edward Macao's definition of "stadium rock" as a North American, commercialized merger of the English heavy metal and progressive rock genres, although stadium-rock bands like Rush, Kansas, and Styx were cer­ tainly influenced by both metal and progressive rock. See Edward Macao, Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 186. Chapter 1 1. Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed. J.M.

Bernstein (New York: Routledge, 1991), especially "Culture Industry Reconsidered," 98-106. 2. In this respect, Adorno's position has been reduced to high culture snobbery. What is often omitted from these criticisms is that Adorno applied his rigorous and frequently acerbic standards of critique to high culture as well as mass culture/popular culture. 3. Theodor W. Adorno, Essays on Music, ed. Richard Leppert, trans. Susan Gillespie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 445. 4. Eileen R. Meehan, Why TV Is Not Our Fault: Television Programming, Viewers, and Who's Really in Charge (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), 54-5. 5. Time Warner and News Corporation are involved in a share ofthe teen culture market.

TimeWarner utilizes the CW (originally the WB and later merged with UPN to form the CW) as a niche nenvork for teen dramas ranging from Dawson's Creek, One Tree Hill, Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, 90210, Hellcats, The Vampire Diaries, etc. News Corporation, owner of FOX, developed early FOX teen dramas like 21 jump Street (which starred the up-and-coming Johnny Depp), Beverly Hills 90210, The O.C. and, most recently, Glee. 6. On Sonny with a Chance, Sonny Monroe (played by Demi Lovato) is a cast member of "So Random!," which is a parody of Nickelodeon's now-extinct brand of comedy-variety shows (All That, The Amanda Show). Moreover, an ongoing subplot is that "So Random!" shares their studio with the cast and crew of "McKenzie Falls," a turgid teen drama. 7. Big Time Rush routinely features a music-video segment in each episode, which also serves as the "official" music video for the song. In the case of Victorious, Victoria Justice music videos are not a part of given episodes, but are very much connected as far as cross­ promotion. The videos are credited to the "Victorious cast, featuring Victoria Justice" and Justice's co-stars appear in the videos (except "Best Friend's Brother"). Victorious episodes frequently include musical performances by Tori Vega (played by Justice) and the other char­ acters written into plot lines. Miranda Cosgrove's pop-music career has largely been separate from iCarly, although the show's theme song, "Leave It All to Me," was sung by Cosgrove and released as her first single, and the iCarly episode "iDo" concluded with Carly Shea performing "Shakespeare" at a wedding reception (a song from Cosgrove' debut CD Sparks Fly). The iCarly-Victorious crossover movie, "iParty with Victorious," ended with a collective cast per­ formance of a mash-up of"Leave It All to Me" and the Victorious theme song "Make It Shine." 8. Disney Channel performers generally record for Disney's subsidiary, Hollywood Records; Nickelodeon partners with Sony Music and its subsidiary Columbia Records for many of its pop-music crossover projects. Exceptions are Jennette McCurdy, a "New Country" teen-pop performer on Capitol Nashville, and Keke Palmer, who is on Interscope Records.

The Jonas Brothers went the opposite route and had the teen sitcoms jONAS and its retooled Notes-Chapter 2 183 version JONAS L.A., built around their pop-music stardom (the shows ran on o· Ch 1 from 2008-10). lsney anne 9. Glee soundtrack CDs are produced in partnership between 20th Century-Fox and Co­ lumbia Records. 10. Dave Marsh has been extremely critical of Bono's political posturing. While this crit­ icism is well deserved, it need also be considered in terms of Marsh's own championing of Bruce Springsteen as the rock ideal of progressive populism. 11. Norma Coates, "Teenyboppers, Groupies, and Other Grotesques: Girls and Women and Rock Culture in the 1960s and Early 1970s," journal of Popular Music Studies, val. IS, no.l (2003): 76.

12. As of 2011, the Monkees and Kiss have yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The exclusion from a historic perspective alone is difficult to justify, and suggests more that they are still being "punished" for their dubious pasts.

13. Simon Frith, Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and tl1e Politics of Rock 'n' Roll (New York: Pantheon, 1981), 56-7. The underlying issue for Frith {the defense of popular music's potential to act as oppositional culture) necessarily allies him with the "consumption" side, even as aware as Frith is of capitalism's determinate role in cultural production. 14. Antonio Artaud, Selected Writings, ed. Susan Sontag, trans. Helen Weaver (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 252. 15. What Malcolm in the Middle and Everybody Hates Chn's also shared was a representation of the mother as a raging control-monger and the underlying cause of family's dysfunction.

16. As quoted in Jonathan Dee, "Tween on the Screen," New York Times {AprilS, 2007). 17. On Victorious, the Hip adult figure is Mr. Sikowitz, the decidedly weird-with-a-beard hippie drama teacher. In "The Bird Scene" (2010), Tori learned she cannot participate in any school play productions until she passes "the Bird Scene" test proctored by Mr. Sikowitz. After failing "the Bird Scene" on her third try, Tori lost her temper and told Mr. Sikowitz that, whether he liked it or not, her version of the Bird Scene was good. As the class burst into applause, Mr. Sikowitz proudly informed Tori she now passed the Bird Scene test. It was not any better or worse than the other versions, but Tori finally owned her performance and considered it a success, no matter what anyone else thought of it. As Mr. Sikowitz told her, "It was only wrong when you asked if it was right" and provided the message that individu­ alism as non-conformity and self-determination are mutually related.

18. The word "chiz" is the standard and frequently used euphemism for "shit" on iCarly and Victorious ("It's the chiz," "It's total chiz," "It's serious chiz," "That sack of chiz," etc.).

19. Banet- Weiser, 71. Chapter 2 1. Frith, Sound Effects, 24. Emphasis original. 2. Norman Mailer, "The White Negro," in Advertisements for Myself(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 339. Emphasis added. 3. Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London: Routledge, 1987), 46-7. 4. Timothy D. Taylor, Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), 169. In this respect, Frith raised a crucial issue in Sound Effects, 23- 32. During the 1960s, folk music effectively replaced country music as the primary white music component of rock and roll, the former considered politically progressive, and the latter politically conservative. What is less satisfactory in Frith's analysis is situating folk as inherently progressive and country as inherently conservative music, and the 1960s saw what amounted to a more natural synthesis between white and black music, formally and politi­ cally.

5. A remake of Footloose is set for 2011 release. Zac Efron was originally cast in the lead role, but withdrew from the project; he was eventually replaced by professional dancer-actor Kenny Wormald. 6. See also John Waters, "Ladies and Gentleman ... The Nicest Kids in Town!" in Crackpot: