Word: americana
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...offers an alternative to alternative rock: music that is conspicuously eclectic but plainly rooted in the familiar bedrock of Americana, the blues and jazz. By introducing acoustic guitars and shifting tempos punctuated by violins, penny whistles and other flourishes of world music and jazz, the band has forged a cerebral yet commercially appealing sound, surpassing competitors like Phish. Onstage, the five band members seem more like a jazz combo than a rock band, playing tightly coordinated phrases that suddenly veer off into flights of improvisation. Matthews sings, plays guitar and projects an uncomplicated, populist charisma that dispenses with rock-star...
...promised Americana in this piece, didn...
...savior: Canada has declared war on U.S. pop culture. And this is no solo quixotic tilt against the Golden Arches -- Ottawa got the culture ministers of Britain, Brazil, Croatia, Iceland, Mexico and Senegal, among others, on board for a conference on strategies to counter the global dominance of Americana. Needless to say, Washington was not invited, although the official explanation is that the U.S. has no culture minister. But there may be a commercial motive behind Canada's noble quest: "It's driven as much by the entertainment industry in those countries as by any genuine fear of being culturally...
...editing; the movie cops out on greatness with a few truckling reaction shots at the climax. And one can question Niccol's vision of the future of TV: not 500 channels nattering to niche markets but one big show binding the world in the bogus bliss of pink-cheeked Americana. And the idea of a program uninterrupted by commercials (Christof makes his money from product placement and ancillary markets) is nearly as naive as Truman. The show is also pretty tame. Unlike most daytime-drama characters, Truman is a faithful husband who has no evil twin and does not suffer...
...short, in the '70s America down-sized its expectations. Out with Pax Americana. In with the Vietnam Syndrome. Out with the Cadillac. In with the Toyota. But first, out with the President, via Watergate: nearly two years spent sifting through the rubble of Richard Nixon. Whatever hopes of a clean start were raised by Gerald Ford collapsed under the Nixon pardon and an economic crisis as impervious to Ford's WHIP INFLATION NOW buttons as it had been to Nixon's wage-and-price controls...